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Vauxhall driver Jason Plato on top in Thruxton BTCC practice

Double British Touring Car Championship champion and Vauxhall driver Jason Plato topped the free practice times as the series makes its second visit of the season to Thruxton

The Power Maxed Racing driver was the first runner to drop below the 1m17s barrier, and then in the final 10 minutes of second practice he posted an unmatched time of 1m16.414s to the head the order.

Points' leader Colin Turkington set the early benchmark in the final practice session, with the rear-wheel-drive BMW 330i M Sport not requiring a visit to the pits in order to swap the warm front tyres with cold rears, unlike his front-driven competition.

Matt Neal's first representative lap left him some 0.585s adrift in second place, before he was then relegated by the similar FK8 Honda Civic Type R of BTC Racing's Josh Cook.

With 12 minutes to go Plato posted the fastest final sector of the session but, despite the good run across the line, dropped 0.3s in the first half of his next flying lap and so failed to improve.

Then at his next attempt the Vauxhall Astra driver set a 1m16.414s time, strong enough to end the session fastest.

WSR BMW driver Tom Oliphant was a late improver up to second, but was 0.135s shy of Plato in a session that was 0.8s slower than Dan Cammish's practice time of 1m15.589s earlier in the season.

Adam Morgan showed a strong flash of pace to improve his Mercedes A-Class up to third ahead of Tom Chilton - the Ford Focus RS driver taking the risk to scrub a set a new tyres on the abrasive track surface ahead of qualifying.

After early setbacks due to an electrical issue, Andrew Jordan climbed to fifth in his BMW, ahead of Sam Tordoff.

The AmD Tuning driver set a new qualifying lap record with his pole effort earlier in the year, but had his running truncated this time around when the FK2 Civic's front-right wishbone sheered at the high-speed left-hander of Noble.

Tom Ingram was seventh in the revised Toyota Corolla ahead of Turkington and Jack Goff, with the Team Hard Volkswagen CC's having been developed to provide more rear stiffness.

Ollie Jackson rounded out the top 10 ahead of Cook, third-in-the-points Rory Butcher and Matt Neal.

Cammish, fastest in practice acorss the previous four meetings, was only 10th ahead of 2017 champion Ashley Sutton, who was black flagged for a track limits violation with five minutes remaining, but was allowed back out again.

FP1 result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps
1 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 1m16.888s 12
2 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 0.174s 9
3 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 0.195s 13
4 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 0.318s 17
5 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.379s 16
6 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 0.452s 13
7 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 0.483s 16
8 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 0.549s 20
9 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.584s 22
10 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 0.668s 18
11 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 0.687s 18
12 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 0.696s 20
13 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.707s 14
14 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.747s 15
15 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 0.930s 18
16 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 0.939s 13
17 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 1.040s 20
18 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 1.060s 9
19 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 1.166s 20
20 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 1.212s 11
21 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1.267s 17
22 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 1.290s 13
23 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 1.381s 20
24 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 1.847s 21
25 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Infiniti 2.000s 18
26 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 2.021s 15
27 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 2.237s 20
28 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 2.625s 19
29 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 3.252s 17
30 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 3.946s 18

FP2 result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps
1 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m16.414s 15
2 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 0.135s 17
3 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.241s 15
4 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 0.319s 15
5 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 0.406s 15
6 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 0.449s 19
7 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 0.466s 16
8 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 0.532s 18
9 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 0.559s 14
10 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 0.667s 19
11 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 0.680s 16
12 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 0.696s 17
13 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 0.772s 17
14 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 0.871s 18
15 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 0.888s 17
16 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 0.890s 14
17 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 0.901s 21
18 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 0.930s 20
19 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 0.942s 12
20 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 0.982s 16
21 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 0.982s 19
22 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 1.214s 19
23 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 1.380s 15
24 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Infiniti 1.589s 17
25 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 1.818s 15
26 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 1.933s 16
27 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 2.153s 18
28 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 2.248s 20
29 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 2.350s 19
30 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 2.548s 21

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