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BTC Racing's Smiley tops BTCC Donington Park free practice running

BTC Racing driver Chris Smiley topped the British Touring Car Championship free practice running at Donington Park as drying conditions favoured the front-wheel drive cars

Heavy wind helped to clear the track entering the final 10 minutes of the second session and meant lap times fell by seven seconds, with Smiley coming out on top with a 1min12.622sec - three tenths clear of Adam Morgan.

After completing a wet weather test at Donington Park, Dan Cammish was out of the blocks fastest and on only his second lap set a 1m19.106s in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.

But from there drivers constantly swapped at the top, as Tom Ingram, Jason Plato and Ashley Sutton all improved.

That was until Cammish became the first driver to drop into the 1m16s - albeit only by 0.012s - when improved grip levels brought the front-wheel drive runners into play.

With a dry line emerging Rory Butcher pitted for slicks and took his AmD Tuning Civic top, almost two seconds clear as he set a 1m14.137s.

He was caught with five minutes to go, as Smiley moved top and was followed by a recovering Morgan - the Mercedes A-Class runners having previously struggled for pace on the slippery surface.

Butcher held onto a top three spot from Team Hard duo Jack Goff and Bobby Thompson.

Power Maxed Racing's Rob Collard impressed in sixth ahead of Smiley's team-mate and championship leader Josh Cook.

The Subaru Levorg of Ashley Sutton was ninth and the top rear-wheel driver runner. He separated the Volkswagen CCs of Michel Crees and Carl Boardley to round out a successful session for the four-car Team Hard attack - although Boardley did cause a red flag in the final few seconds having beached his car in the gravel.

Cammish ended up 13th ahead of team-mate Neal, while Jason Plato was 17th from Tom Chilton and Sam Tordoff.

After winning on only its second outing at Brands Hatch, the new BMW 330i M Sport was just 23rd with Andrew Jordan as defending champion Colin Turkington was 25th, two spots ahead of third WSR driver Tom Oliphant.

But the team chose not to push in the drier conditions at the end of the session and so slipped down in the positions.

Jordan had ended the first practice session fastest, however, narrowly edging out Sutton by just 0.05s from Dan Cammish and Tom Ingram.

In free practice one, the red flag came out after only 30 seconds as wind blew two tyre stacks across the chicane.

Nicholas Hamilton then stopped running again when he put his Motorbase Ford Focus RS into the gravel at Redgate.

Practice one times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 1m18.892s -
2 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 1m18.942s 0.050s
3 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 1m19.074s 0.182s
4 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m19.101s 0.209s
5 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 1m19.250s 0.358s
6 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m19.417s 0.525s
7 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 1m19.556s 0.664s
8 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 1m19.632s 0.740s
9 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 1m19.658s 0.766s
10 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 1m19.757s 0.865s
11 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 1m19.765s 0.873s
12 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 1m19.815s 0.923s
13 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 1m19.889s 0.997s
14 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 1m19.899s 1.007s
15 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 1m19.949s 1.057s
16 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1m20.014s 1.122s
17 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 1m20.082s 1.190s
18 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 1m20.084s 1.192s
19 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m20.103s 1.211s
20 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 1m20.137s 1.245s
21 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1m20.149s 1.257s
22 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1m20.308s 1.416s
23 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 1m20.328s 1.436s
24 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1m20.690s 1.798s
25 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 1m20.945s 2.053s
26 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1m21.247s 2.355s
27 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 1m21.276s 2.384s
28 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1m21.949s 3.057s
29 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1m22.316s 3.424s
30 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1m22.602s 3.710s

Practice two times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 1m12.622s -
2 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1m12.923s 0.301s
3 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 1m13.100s 0.478s
4 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 1m13.334s 0.712s
5 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 1m13.441s 0.819s
6 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m13.782s 1.160s
7 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 1m14.848s 2.226s
8 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 1m15.143s 2.521s
9 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 1m15.429s 2.807s
10 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 1m16.038s 3.416s
11 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 1m16.174s 3.552s
12 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 1m16.195s 3.573s
13 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 1m16.988s 4.366s
14 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 1m17.068s 4.446s
15 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 1m17.210s 4.588s
16 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1m17.690s 5.068s
17 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m18.012s 5.390s
18 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1m18.606s 5.984s
19 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 1m18.655s 6.033s
20 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 1m18.709s 6.087s
21 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 1m18.854s 6.232s
22 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m19.037s 6.415s
23 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 1m19.126s 6.504s
24 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 1m19.185s 6.563s
25 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 1m19.204s 6.582s
26 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1m19.443s 6.821s
27 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 1m19.667s 7.045s
28 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1m19.981s 7.359s
29 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 1m19.984s 7.362s
30 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 1m20.169s 7.547s

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