The penultimate weekend of the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone got underway with the first free practise session,
which saw Jason Plato top the time sheets with a 58.498 time – breaking last year’s lap record by 0.219 seconds.
Reigning champion Gordon Shedden finished in third place, with Dave Newsham impressing in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota to end the session second. Frank Wrathall was the second Toyota to make it into the top four, with Airwaves Racing’s Tom Onslow-Cole taking fifth in the final minutes of the session.
Current leader of the championship Andrew Jordan got his Pirtek Racing Honda Civic into the top six, despite carrying maximum ballast. Matt Neal – racing this weekend albeit with a broken middle finger – managed seventh.
Sam Tordoff, Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan rounded out the top ten at the end of the session.
In the Jack Sears category, Lea Wood led the way from Liam Griffin in twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth respectively, whilst Aiden Moffat – returning this weekend in the Team HARD. Volkswagen Passat rounded out the grid.
During the session Gordon Shedden, Aron Smith and Adam Morgan were all shown the black flag for exceeding track limits however were all allowed to continue.
The second free practise session starts at approximately 12:15 with the penultimate qualifying session of the year getting underway at around 15:40.
Full coverage continues all weekend here at www.girlracer.co.uk with updates and commentary coming from @nikki_btcc on Twitter. By Nikki Thompson – Photos by Marc Waller
