Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington have been the pace setters in the two BTCC practice sessions held so far at Rockingham.
There are two driver changes this weekend at Rockingham, firstly Dave Newsham remains at Power Maxed for another weekend as Kelvin Fletcher’s wife hadn’t yet had her baby. Ironically she finally had it on Friday but Newsham remains as the stand in for the weekend.
The other change is at RCIB Insurance Racing (Team Hard) where Tony Gillham stands in for the injured Michael Caine. Caine aggravated at old back injury in race one at Knockhill and it’s still not healed so team boss Gillham returns to the driver’s seat.
The first session was hit by multiple red flags as various drivers threw their cars off the road including championship leader Sam Tordoff. Michael Epps and Jake Hill were the other two drivers causing the red flags to fly.
Tordoff’s off track excursion left him last of the drivers to set a time. Tony Gillham was the only driver to fail to set a time and with his two team mates causing two of the red flags it was a difficult session for the team.
So it was Jordan who set the fastest time but even he had problems with a mystery vibration causing him to pit for the team to investigate. Despite this, his two flying laps left him on top of the session one times. Jordan was pleased afterwards;
“We only did two flying laps and there’s a vibration on the car so we’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” said Jordan. “We limited running and just stuck to the two so we could solve the issue but the car felt good out there. It’s early days – you don’t know what others are doing with tyres so it doesn’t mean too much overall really, as ever.”
Second was Tom Ingram, a driver who seems to like Rockingham’s unusual layout but like Jordan he wasn’t reading too much into the session result;
“Most people up and down the grid will be saying things aren’t feeling fantastic just yet,” he said. “The circuit’s going to evolve over the next few hours. We’re towards the sharp end anyway so that’s a positive.”
Third was Adam Morgan in his Wix Racing Mercedes ahead of Josh Cook’s Triple eight run MG. Jordan’s team mate set fifth fastest time ahead of Gordon Shedden in the quickest of the Honda Civics. Ash Sutton was Seventh for MG just ahead of Colin Turkington in eighth and the best of the four Subarus.
Ninth was BKR’s Aron Smith once again out performing what the car was expected to be capable ff as it’s running the old GPRM made NGTC components.
Completing the first session top ten was Matt Neal was Newsham eleventh and Plato’s Subaru twelfth.
James Cole, Jeff Smith and Aiden Moffat completed the top half of the field. Jeff Smith had been an early pace setter but couldn’t improve as much as the others as the session went on.
Things were different in the second session was Turkington on top, but with Ingram still in second showing that the first session wasn’t just a one off.
Neal and Shedden were next up as they jumped up the field in their works Honda Civics. Rob Austin is another driver who always seems to go well at Rockingham and he showed his potential with fifth in this session driving the Handy Motorsport Toyota.
Andrew Jordan continued his strong pace with sixth for Motorbase ahead of Adam Morgan. Eighth was Aron Smith, dragging everything he could out of his VW CC once again. Hunter Abbott took ninth hoping this time he can have a good Saturday and Sunday as in pervious weekend’s this year he has taken a great grid slot only for things to fall apart on race day.
Tenth was Rob Collard, the quickest of the WSR BMW’s who seem to be slightly off the front running pace so far. Josh Cook was eleventh in his MG this time ahead of Mat Jackson with Ashley Sutton just behind in the second MG. Matt Simpson was going well compared to his usual pace in fourteenth with Jack Goff completing the front half of the field.
Jason Plato had a run in with a kerb during the session leaving him limping back to the pits with damage to the sump. This left him in twentieth.
Qualifying takes places at 15:30 with the possible weather still a mystery, the grid could be a lottery if the rain does come. Despite being forecast so far the rain has mostly stayed away with just a couple of light showers blowing through.
2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Free Practice 1 – Rockingham:
1 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) Motorbase Performance 1m23.045s (84.09 mph)
2 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.059s
3 Adam MORGAN (GBR) WIX Racing +0.128s
4 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.184s
5 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance +0.415s
6 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.484s
7 Ash SUTTON (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.487s
8 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +0.677s
9 Aron SMITH (IRL) BKR +0.817s
10 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.820s
11 Jason PLATO (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +0.893s
12 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.925s
13 James COLE (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +1.018s
14 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +1.229s
15 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +1.249s
16 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team IHG Rewards Club +1.259s
17 Hunter ABBOTT (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +1.262s
18 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +1.268s
19 Robert COLLARD (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +1.344s
20 Warren SCOTT (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +1.441s
21 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Eurotech Racing +1.445s
22 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmD Tuning.com +1.504s
23 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +1.567s
24 Jake HILL (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +1.644s
25 Dan WELCH (GBR) Goodestone Racing +1.671s
26 Michael EPPS (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +1.878s
27 Alex MARTIN (GBR) Dextra Racing +1.928s
28 Stewart LINES (GBR) Maximum Motorsport +2.525s
29 Mark HOWARD (GBR) BKR +2.637s
30 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +8.890s
31 Tony GILHAM (GBR) TLC/RCIB Insurance Racing NO TIME
2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Free Practice 2 – Rockingham:
1 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing 1m22.914s (84.23 mph)
2 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.148s
3 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.215s
4 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.349s
5 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +0.501s
6 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) Motorbase Performance +0.520s
7 Adam MORGAN (GBR) WIX Racing +0.579s
8 Aron SMITH (IRL) BKR +0.590s
9 Hunter ABBOTT (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.601s
10 Robert COLLARD (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +0.611s
11 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.697s
12 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance +0.722s
13 Ash SUTTON (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.749s
14 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.809s
15 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team IHG Rewards Club +0.811s
16 Michael EPPS (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +0.930s
17 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmD Tuning.com +1.058s
18 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +1.136s
19 Alex MARTIN (GBR) Dextra Racing +1.170s
20 Jason PLATO (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +1.181s
21 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +1.302s
22 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Eurotech Racing +1.339s
23 Warren SCOTT (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +1.654s
24 Dan WELCH (GBR) Goodestone Racing +1.739s
25 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +2.005s
26 Jake HILL (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +2.155s
27 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +2.294s
28 Stewart LINES (GBR) Maximum Motorsport +2.565s
29 Mark HOWARD (GBR) BKR +2.567s
30 Tony GILHAM (GBR) TLC/RCIB Insurance Racing +3.532s
31 James COLE (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing NO TIME By Marc Waller
