Tom Chilton was more than half a second clear of the rest in this morning’s opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship practice session around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
Chilton’s LPG-turbo Team Aon Ford Focus was beneath the qualifying record as he set a best lap time of 1m32.361s – 0.569s ahead of next fastest Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) who headed a trio of Vauxhall Vectra drivers as James Nash (Uniq Racing with 888) and David Pinkney (Pinkney Motorsport) set the third and fourth best times. Notably, Jordan's and Pinkney's cars are both using TOCA's new-for-2010 NGTC turbocharged engine.
Pinkney's performance in particular was noteworthy as his team has been working round the clock to repair damage to his car sustained less than a week ago at Rockingham. He also admitted that new front suspension tweaks have "transformed" his car's poise and handling.
Matt Neal, twice a race-winner at Rockingham last weekend and currently second in the standings, was fifth in his heavily ballasted Honda Racing Team Honda Civic. Sixth, the last driver to get within a second of pace-setter Chilton, was Neal’s team-mate Gordon Shedden.
The BMWs of WSR’s Robert Collard and Airwaves BMW’s Mat Jackson were next up as Chilton’s team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole and Alex MacDowall (Silverline Chevrolet Cruze) completed the top ten.
But there were problems for MacDowall’s team-mate Jason Plato, the championship leader. He could manage only five full laps before parking his Cruze in the pit lane after an oil warning light came on. At one stage he needed to 'do a James Hunt' and take a short cut back to the pit lane and his mechanics, as a matter of precaution, are now busy changing its engine ahead of the second practice session at 12.35pm.
Steven Kane, third in the championship, was also in a spot of bother. He managed just four laps before handing his car over to his Airwaves BMW crew so they could look into a steering problem on his car and so was classified at the tail of the times, in 22nd.
Meanwhile, newcomers Lea Wood (Central Racing Group Honda Integra) and Martin Depper (Forster Motorsport BMW) appeared to settle in nicely in 19th and 20th spots.
Rockingham giant killer Martin Johnson was 21st, choosing to stop early so as to allow his Boulevard Vauxhall Astra’s gearbox to cool down.
