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Marcus Simmons

BTCC Thruxton: Ingram and Shedden fastest across practice

Ingram, who is second in the standings, finished the early-morning opening period a gargantuan 0.497 seconds to the good in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.

He ended up down in 11th during the lunchtime session, which was topped by the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of Gordon Shedden, but only because his final run was foiled.

Ingram was a fraction up on Shedden’s best after the first two sectors, but caught a yellow flag into the chicane at the end of the lap caused by a kerfuffle between Aiden Moffat and Nic Hamilton.

Shedden’s late improvement therefore allowed the Scottish three-time champion to lead the way in session two from Josh Cook by 0.122s, and which was 0.054s away from Ingram’s earlier effort.

Cook, who led the points earlier in the season in his BTC Racing Honda, has had a miserable time of late and has complained of a lack of straight-line speed. But he explained that Thruxton, where he is the all-time BTCC wins record holder, has just two acceleration zones, somewhat mitigating the problem.

Jake Hill, who lies third in the championship table, steered his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport into second place in the first session and third later on, giving him the fourth quickest time on combined bests.

Next up was Team Dynamics’ Dan Rowbottom, a pole-winner here in 2021, who made it three Hondas in the top five at a circuit where the car has always performed well.

Colin Turkington currently leads the BTCC points standings (Photo by: Jakob Ebrey)

Championship leader Colin Turkington, still racing his 2019 title-winning WSR BMW while his 2022 car is tended to following its Oulton Park shunt, rounded out the top six.

Seventh was the second of the Excelr8 Hyundais in the hands of Tom Chilton, while Ash Hand continued his strong rookie BTCC season to plant his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into eighth spot overall.

Jason Plato needed BTC’s spare engine installing in his Honda for the second session, and ended up ninth across the two sessions.

Rounding out the top 10 overall was the other of the main championship contenders, Ash Sutton in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.

Dan Lloyd’s season has been saved by an injection of support from Bristol Street Motors, which backs the Excelr8 Hyundais of Ingram and Chilton, and he put his sister car into the top 10 in the opening session.

Making a return to the BTCC for this weekend only is former race winner Tom Oliphant, who has moved to Australia with his fiancee and, on a trip back to the UK, has been press-ganged into driving the Team Hard Cupra Leon left vacant by Will Powell, who has other commitments.

BTCC Thruxton FP1 result

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Tom Ingram 17 1'15.842  
2 United Kingdom Jake Hill 17 1'16.339 0.497
3 United Kingdom Josh Cook 14 1'16.371 0.529
4 United Kingdom Ash Hand 18 1'16.393 0.551
5 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton 16 1'16.424 0.582
6 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley 22 1'16.503 0.661
7 United Kingdom Colin Turkington 19 1'16.579 0.737
8 United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd 18 1'16.690 0.848
9 United Kingdom Gordon Shedden 10 1'16.702 0.860
10 United Kingdom Dan Cammish 19 1'16.957 1.115
11 United Kingdom Rory Butcher 15 1'16.984 1.142
12 United Kingdom Ricky Collard 10 1'17.086 1.244
13 United Kingdom Adam Morgan 15 1'17.140 1.298
14 George Gamble 17 1'17.271 1.429
15 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom 14 1'17.404 1.562
16 United Kingdom Jason Plato 9 1'17.466 1.624
17 Dexter Patterson 21 1'17.536 1.694
18 Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith 21 1'17.658 1.816
19 Jersey Jack Butel 19 1'17.669 1.827
20 Bobby Thompson 15 1'17.738 1.896
21 United Kingdom Tom Chilton 11 1'17.772 1.930
22 Jade Edwards 18 1'17.907 2.065
23 Michael Crees 17 1'17.932 2.090
24 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat 15 1'18.006 2.164
25 United Kingdom Tom Oliphant 19 1'18.283 2.441
26 United Kingdom Ollie Jackson 19 1'18.313 2.471
27 United Kingdom Sam Osborne 22 1'18.618 2.776
28 Nicolas Hamilton 22 1'18.812 2.970
29 Rick Parfitt Jr. 16 1'18.929 3.087

BTCC Thruxton FP2 result

Cla Driver Laps Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Gordon Shedden 18 1'15.896  
2 United Kingdom Josh Cook 13 1'16.018 0.122
3 United Kingdom Jake Hill 18 1'16.059 0.163
4 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom 17 1'16.181 0.285
5 United Kingdom Colin Turkington 21 1'16.213 0.317
6 United Kingdom Tom Chilton 17 1'16.356 0.460
7 United Kingdom Ash Hand 16 1'16.385 0.489
8 United Kingdom Jason Plato 16 1'16.389 0.493
9 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton 20 1'16.488 0.592
10 George Gamble 20 1'16.538 0.642
11 United Kingdom Tom Ingram 18 1'16.580 0.684
12 Bobby Thompson 18 1'16.605 0.709
13 United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd 18 1'16.621 0.725
14 Michael Crees 19 1'16.771 0.875
15 United Kingdom Ricky Collard 16 1'16.780 0.884
16 United Kingdom Dan Cammish 17 1'16.794 0.898
17 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley 20 1'16.812 0.916
18 United Kingdom Adam Morgan 17 1'16.850 0.954
19 United Kingdom Ollie Jackson 20 1'16.928 1.032
20 United Kingdom Rory Butcher 15 1'17.226 1.330
21 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat 20 1'17.259 1.363
22 Dexter Patterson 22 1'17.294 1.398
23 Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith 16 1'17.454 1.558
24 Jade Edwards 19 1'17.562 1.666
25 Jersey Jack Butel 21 1'17.641 1.745
26 United Kingdom Tom Oliphant 20 1'18.102 2.206
27 United Kingdom Sam Osborne 23 1'18.154 2.258
28 Rick Parfitt Jr. 23 1'19.432 3.536
29 Nicolas Hamilton 18 1'19.679 3.783
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