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British Touring Car Championship
Thruxton - Free Practice - 9/5/15

By MJP Media | 9 May 2015

Team BMR sets the standard in the free practice sessions at Thruxton with Jason Plato and Aron Smith topping the time sheets at the fastest circuit on the BTCC calendar.

Jason Plato topped the time sheet in the first session

After the first two meetings of the season, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship arrives at Thruxton in Hampshire with Matt Neal at the top of the table and Colin Turkington just 2 points behind. Gordon Shedden, Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato are close behind the leaders, demonstrating just how close the 2015 BTCC season is turning out to be and with Thruxton being the fastest circuit on the BTCC calendar, the scene is set for fantastic weekend of racing.

The first cars on the track were the Team BMR Volkswagen CCs of Warren Scott, Colin Turkington, Aron Smith and Jason Plato closely followed by Gordon Shedden and the two Power Maxed Chevrolet Cruzes of Josh Cook and Dave Newsham. With most of the cars pitting to swap tyres it was Cook who set the first flying lap time. With 10 minutes of the session gone the drivers were putting in some serious laps and the times started to tumble with Sam Tordoff and Jack Goff the first drivers to break the 1:20 barrier.

A puncture caused Jason Plato to crash at the end of the first session

With 25 minutes of the session remaining, Adam Morgan went quickest with a 1:18.574 however his time was promptly shattered by Andy Priaulx's 1:17.643 before Jason Plato went fastest with a 1:17.575. With 16 minutes remaining, Colin Turkington joined the top 3 behind Plato and Priaulx, pushing Gordon Shedden down to 4th. Nobody could better Plato's time and he ended the first practice session at the top of the time sheet ahead of Priaulx, Turkington, Shedden and Morgan - the only drivers to go under 1 minute18 seconds. Plato's run ended abruptly when a puncture caused his Volkswagen CC to crash into the barriers at the chicane during the closing seconds of the session.

As the second session got underway it was Team BMR who once again led the cars out with Warren Scott, Colin Turkington and Aron Smith the first drivers on the track with Jason Plato following a few minutes later. Hunter Abbott, Rob Collard and Sam Tordoff made the early running with the first sub 1:20 lap times but it was not long before the lap times started to improve. With 10 minutes of the session gone, Matt Neal put in a 1:17.495 lap, beating Jason Plato's time from the first session and putting him top of the time sheet. Neal's Honda Yuasa Racing team-mate Gordon Shedden was running 2nd with a lap time of 1:17.741.

Aron Smith was fastest in the second session for Team BMR

The session was red flagged with just over half the session remaining when Dan Welch crashed his Welch Motorsport Proton Gen-2 at the chicane. Following a short delay whilst the marshals repaired the tyre walls and barriers, the session was re-started with 15 minutes left on the clock. There was now a frantic dash to make up for lost time and lost laps. Jason Plato and Aron Smith had yet to complete timed laps but it was not long before Smith went fastest with a time of 1:17.325 as Andy Priaulx then Jack Goff made it into the top 3.

As the session drew to an end, it was Aron Smith who topped the time sheet with Matt Neal 2nd, Jack Goff 3rd and Andrew Jordan 4th ahead of Andy Priaulx in 5th and Colin Turkington in 6th. Gordon Shedden ended the session 7th fastest with Adam Morgan 8th and Josh Cook 9th - the top 9 drivers all setting sub 1:18 lap times. Jason Plato failed to complete a timed lap as his Volkswagen CC was still not 'right' following his crash in the morning session. The next BTCC action from Thruxton is the qualifying session later this afternoon to determine the grid for the first race tomorrow.

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