Sam Tordoff has come out on top of the second practice session at Brands Hatch.
The driver at the top of the times kept changing throughout the session as the times kept tumbling. Tordoff’s lap in his Team JCT600 with Gardx BMW (48.132) was under the qualifying record set by Matt Neal in 2011 suggesting we could see a new qualifying lap record later today.
Aron Smith produced a stunning lap on his final attempt to take second for new to the BTCC team BKR. His time was just 0.164 of a second off Tordoff’s quickest. Session one pace setter Tom Ingram was third this time in his Speedworks Toyota ahead of Gordon Shedden in the first of the Halfords Yuasa Hondas. Adam Morgan improved on tenth in first practice with fifth in this session for his Wix Racing Mercedes splitting the two front running Hondas with Neal just behind with a 48.539.
Seventh was Ashley Sutton in his MG6, again the fastest of the works duo with team mate Josh Cook in ninth, split by Andrew Jordan, again the fastest of the two Motorbase Ford Focus although Mat Jackson edged into the top ten this time. Jack Goff narrowly missed out on the top ten in the IHG Rewards Club BMW, his time just half a second off the front. Hunter Abbott was one of the most improved drivers of the session taking his Power Maxed Chevrolet to twelfth, comfortably ahead of his celebrity team mate Kelvin Fletcher. Fletcher appeared to have some car issues during the session and he is still earning the 
car after having very little winter testing. He was down in thirty first place. Martin Depper was the best Eurotech Honda this time in thirteenth. Jeff Smith was just behind in fourteenth. Why the disappointing slump down the order for Jeff. One of his front brakes locked on and he then missed the rest of the session while the team repaired the car so he only completed ten laps. Only Kelvin Fletcher and Rob Collard completed less. Collard did just three laps before running into trouble leaving him an uncharacteristic last of the 32 car field. Andy Neate in the third Halfords Yuasa Honda was fifteenth, the newst member of the team is still learning the car. Jake Hill was the final car in the front half of the field, easily the fastest of the trio of Toyota Avensis run by Team Hard.
The Subaru’s continued their “bedding in” as they continued to show good reliability and improved laptimes although the improvements by the entire field meant that the best of them was Colin Turkington in nineteenth. (Plato, Scott and Cole were 23rd, 27th and 28th respectively.)
The first eighteen cars are separated by less than a second and the first five cars were all different teams and makes. We look set for an exciting qualifying later today.
Full times are available from TSL timing, the BTCC’s official timing service By Marc Waller
