BTCC Knockhill: Collard pips Hill to top times in practice

Collard, at the wheel of his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla, traded times for much of the session with Jake Hill in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport.

But Collard, who is celebrating his 26th birthday, landed the last punch to pip Hill by 0.010 seconds with three minutes to go.

All the leading times came in the second session, after early-morning drizzle meant the vast majority of competitors remained on wet-weather tyres throughout the opening period.

On a circuit that has long been regarded as favouring rear-wheel drive, all five of the BMWs finished up in the top eight.

Ciceley Motorsport was notable in going for longer runs with its pair of 330e M Sports, and on such a stint Adam Morgan stamped in a time good enough for third in the order.

After a tough couple of events before the mid-season break, current series runner-up Josh Cook experienced a welcome turnaround in form to put his BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R into fourth spot, although his speed-trap figures remained pretty unspectacular.

Josh Cook, Rich Energy BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Four-time champion Colin Turkington is still using his 2019 title-winning WSR BMW following the heavy damage sustained to his 2022 car at Oulton Park, and he edged out team-mate Stephen Jelley to take fifth.

Dan Rowbottom rose up the order in the closing stages to put the fastest of the Team Dynamics Hondas into seventh, with George Gamble’s Ciceley BMW next.

Dan Cammish was quickest of the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus quartet in ninth, while the top 10 was completed by the best of the Scottish quartet on their local circuit: Rory Butcher in his Speedworks Toyota.

Of the other championship leading lights, Gordon Shedden (Dynamics Honda) was 12th, one spot ahead of Ash Sutton (Motorbase Ford).

Series leader Tom Ingram, meanwhile, languished in 21st position in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, two places behind Croft-winning team-mate Dan Lloyd.

Ingram was black-flagged half an hour into the 40-minute session for repeated track-limits offences and sinbinned for a few minutes, quipping that the unfamiliar Scottish sun had hampered his vision.

Cook was the class act in the damp opening session – the BTC Honda driver was unbeatable on the wet-weather Goodyears and was 0.146s clear of Butcher.

Late in the session, Team Hard Cupra Leon duo Aron Taylor-Smith and Bobby Thompson had slicks bolted on and shot to the top of the times, with Michael Crees similarly putting his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into third ahead of Cook.

Crees had caused the second of two red-flag periods earlier in the session when he spun at Duffus Dip and got stuck in the gravel at Leslie’s. The first stoppage was to retrieve the Team Hard Cupra of Will Powell from the gravel at McIntyre’s.

BTCC Knockhill - Practice results

FP2

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Ricky Collard	31	51.283
2	Jake Hill	27	51.293	0.010	0.010
3	Adam Morgan	31	51.374	0.091	0.081
4	Josh Cook	25	51.377	0.094	0.003
5	Colin Turkington	31	51.491	0.208	0.114
6	Stephen Jelley	33	51.494	0.211	0.003
7	Daniel Rowbottom	26	51.500	0.217	0.006
8	George Gamble	31	51.591	0.308	0.091
9	Dan Cammish	31	51.612	0.329	0.021
10	Rory Butcher	24	51.619	0.336	0.007
11	Ash Hand	31	51.659	0.376	0.040
12	Gordon Shedden	25	51.679	0.396	0.020
13	Ashley Sutton	29	51.693	0.410	0.014
14	Jason Plato	27	51.700	0.417	0.007
15	Aiden Moffat	29	51.703	0.420	0.003
16	Bobby Thompson	24	51.726	0.443	0.023
17	Dexter Patterson	30	51.750	0.467	0.024
18	Michael Crees	25	51.787	0.504	0.037
19	Daniel Lloyd	31	51.800	0.517	0.013
20	Aron Taylor-Smith	24	51.820	0.537	0.020
21	Tom Ingram	24	51.853	0.570	0.033
22	Tom Chilton	30	51.979	0.696	0.126
23	Jack Butel	30	52.144	0.861	0.165
24	Jade Edwards	24	52.173	0.890	0.029
25	Sam Osborne	29	52.184	0.901	0.011
26	Ollie Jackson	28	52.200	0.917	0.016
27	Rick Parfitt Jr.	34	52.531	1.248	0.331
28	Will Powell	31	52.754	1.471	0.223
29	Nicolas Hamilton	26	52.780	1.497	0.026
View full results

FP1

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Aron Taylor-Smith	25	53.088
2	Bobby Thompson	21	53.531	0.443	0.443
3	Michael Crees	23	54.495	1.407	0.964
4	Josh Cook	18	55.393	2.305	0.898
5	Rory Butcher	22	55.539	2.451	0.146
6	Jake Hill	20	55.752	2.664	0.213
7	Gordon Shedden	20	55.821	2.733	0.069
8	Dan Cammish	19	55.920	2.832	0.099
9	George Gamble	21	55.965	2.877	0.045
10	Ashley Sutton	21	55.967	2.879	0.002
11	Tom Ingram	18	55.972	2.884	0.005
12	Ollie Jackson	23	55.974	2.886	0.002
13	Ricky Collard	25	56.004	2.916	0.030
14	Stephen Jelley	22	56.087	2.999	0.083
15	Daniel Rowbottom	17	56.103	3.015	0.016
16	Jason Plato	16	56.154	3.066	0.051
17	Colin Turkington	21	56.176	3.088	0.022
18	Tom Chilton	21	56.182	3.094	0.006
19	Sam Osborne	18	56.374	3.286	0.192
20	Adam Morgan	17	56.444	3.356	0.070
21	Jade Edwards	20	56.534	3.446	0.090
22	Aiden Moffat	23	56.543	3.455	0.009
23	Dexter Patterson	23	56.582	3.494	0.039
24	Daniel Lloyd	20	56.637	3.549	0.055
25	Jack Butel	22	56.723	3.635	0.086
26	Ash Hand	18	56.924	3.836	0.201
27	Rick Parfitt Jr.	22	57.320	4.232	0.396
28	Nicolas Hamilton	22	57.355	4.267	0.035
29	Will Powell	7	58.360	5.272	1.005
View full results