BTCC Oulton Park: Audi quickest after Fords take boost cut

Scottish tin-top veteran Aiden Moffat set the pace in practice for the British Touring Car Championship’s fourth round at Oulton Park.

Moffat whisked his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon around the picturesque Cheshire circuit 0.133 seconds quicker than his closest opposition in a session that started on a damp track but ended up dry.

Many of the drivers used the early stages of the 40 minutes of running to scrub in wet-weather tyres, which look likely to be required for use at some stage this weekend, but all times were set on the soft-compound slick Goodyears that are the standard rubber for the event.

Runaway championship leader Ash Sutton jumped up to fifth at the chequered flag in the quickest of the Alliance Racing-run Ford Focus Titaniums, which have been subject to a small boost cut prior to the Oulton round.

In line with standard procedure from the BTCC’s TOCA technical team, data from this season shows the Focuses to be a fraction outside the tolerance band, hence a cut of 20 millibars of boost from the circa 1900 at which they run, although the loss of power is understood to be below 3bhp.

Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK

Photo by: JEP

Moffat looked spectacular at the wheel of the Audi, the outside-rear wheel lifting noticeably higher than any other competitor at the fast Cascades left-hander in what was a good session for the PMR Audi squadron: team-mates Mikey Doble and Dexter Patterson were fourth and eighth fastest respectively. None of the trio feature in the top seven in the championship standings, meaning they will not have any restrictions of TOCA Turbo Boost usage in qualifying, the qualifying race and Sunday’s opening race.

Tom Chilton was the closest to Moffat at the wheel of his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, while the Restart Racing Hyundai of Chris Smiley leapt up to third on the final lap of the session.

Behind Doble and Sutton, James Dorlin made sure both Restart Hyundais were in the top six, the amiable Yorkshireman spending a substantial part of the session at the top of the times.

Dan Cammish put his Alliance Ford into seventh, with Tom Ingram ninth, behind Patterson, in his Excelr8 Hyundai. Rounding out the top 10 was the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Daryl De Leon, who was quickest for a period but did not improve on his final run.

Missing from action on Saturday is the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Max Buxton, who went down with a viral infection on Friday but hopes to be fit to tackle his home races on Sunday.

BTCC Oulton Park - Practice results

FiP

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	16		Audi A3 Saloon	19	1'24.213		95.159
2	T. Chilton Team Vertu	3		Hyundai i30N	13	+0.133 1'24.346	0.133	95.009
3	C. Smiley Restart Racing	22		Hyundai i30N	17	+0.230 1'24.443	0.097	94.900
4	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	88		Audi A3 Saloon	20	+0.341 1'24.554	0.111	94.775
5	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK	116		Ford Focus Titanium	19	+0.371 1'24.584	0.030	94.741
6	J. Dorlin Restart Racing	132		Hyundai i30N	19	+0.615 1'24.828	0.244	94.469
7	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK	27		Ford Focus Titanium	17	+0.633 1'24.846	0.018	94.449
8	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	17		Audi A3 Saloon	19	+0.635 1'24.848	0.002	94.447
9	T. Ingram Team Vertu	80		Hyundai i30N	18	+0.674 1'24.887	0.039	94.403
10	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing	2		BMW 330i M Sport	19	+0.685 1'24.898	0.011	94.391
11	R. Collard Team Vertu	11		Hyundai i30N	20	+0.736 1'24.949	0.051	94.334
12	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	50		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	+0.841 1'25.054	0.105	94.218
13	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing	66		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+0.842 1'25.055	0.001	94.217
14	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing	99		BMW 330i M Sport	20	+0.935 1'25.148	0.093	94.114
15	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	52		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	+0.953 1'25.166	0.018	94.094
16	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing	33		Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	+1.068 1'25.281	0.115	93.967
17	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing	32		Mercedes A35 Saloon	20	+1.224 1'25.437	0.156	93.795
18	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK	77		Ford Focus Titanium	18	+1.439 1'25.652	0.215	93.560
19	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK	15		Ford Focus Titanium	15	+1.591 1'25.804	0.152	93.394
20	N. Hamilton Team Vertu	28		Hyundai i30N	21	+2.278 1'26.491	0.687	92.652
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