BTCC Thruxton: Ingram and Shedden fastest across practice

Ingram, who is second in the standings, finished the early-morning opening period a gargantuan 0.497 seconds to the good in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.

He ended up down in 11th during the lunchtime session, which was topped by the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of Gordon Shedden, but only because his final run was foiled.

Ingram was a fraction up on Shedden’s best after the first two sectors, but caught a yellow flag into the chicane at the end of the lap caused by a kerfuffle between Aiden Moffat and Nic Hamilton.

Shedden’s late improvement therefore allowed the Scottish three-time champion to lead the way in session two from Josh Cook by 0.122s, and which was 0.054s away from Ingram’s earlier effort.

Cook, who led the points earlier in the season in his BTC Racing Honda, has had a miserable time of late and has complained of a lack of straight-line speed. But he explained that Thruxton, where he is the all-time BTCC wins record holder, has just two acceleration zones, somewhat mitigating the problem.

Jake Hill, who lies third in the championship table, steered his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport into second place in the first session and third later on, giving him the fourth quickest time on combined bests.

Next up was Team Dynamics’ Dan Rowbottom, a pole-winner here in 2021, who made it three Hondas in the top five at a circuit where the car has always performed well.

Colin Turkington currently leads the BTCC points standings

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey

Championship leader Colin Turkington, still racing his 2019 title-winning WSR BMW while his 2022 car is tended to following its Oulton Park shunt, rounded out the top six.

Seventh was the second of the Excelr8 Hyundais in the hands of Tom Chilton, while Ash Hand continued his strong rookie BTCC season to plant his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into eighth spot overall.

Jason Plato needed BTC’s spare engine installing in his Honda for the second session, and ended up ninth across the two sessions.

Rounding out the top 10 overall was the other of the main championship contenders, Ash Sutton in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.

Dan Lloyd’s season has been saved by an injection of support from Bristol Street Motors, which backs the Excelr8 Hyundais of Ingram and Chilton, and he put his sister car into the top 10 in the opening session.

Making a return to the BTCC for this weekend only is former race winner Tom Oliphant, who has moved to Australia with his fiancee and, on a trip back to the UK, has been press-ganged into driving the Team Hard Cupra Leon left vacant by Will Powell, who has other commitments.

BTCC Thruxton FP1 result

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Tom Ingram	17	1'15.842
2	Jake Hill	17	1'16.339	0.497
3	Josh Cook	14	1'16.371	0.529
4	Ash Hand	18	1'16.393	0.551
5	Ashley Sutton	16	1'16.424	0.582
6	Stephen Jelley	22	1'16.503	0.661
7	Colin Turkington	19	1'16.579	0.737
8	Daniel Lloyd	18	1'16.690	0.848
9	Gordon Shedden	10	1'16.702	0.860
10	Dan Cammish	19	1'16.957	1.115
11	Rory Butcher	15	1'16.984	1.142
12	Ricky Collard	10	1'17.086	1.244
13	Adam Morgan	15	1'17.140	1.298
14	George Gamble	17	1'17.271	1.429
15	Daniel Rowbottom	14	1'17.404	1.562
16	Jason Plato	9	1'17.466	1.624
17	Dexter Patterson	21	1'17.536	1.694
18	Aron Taylor-Smith	21	1'17.658	1.816
19	Jack Butel	19	1'17.669	1.827
20	Bobby Thompson	15	1'17.738	1.896
21	Tom Chilton	11	1'17.772	1.930
22	Jade Edwards	18	1'17.907	2.065
23	Michael Crees	17	1'17.932	2.090
24	Aiden Moffat	15	1'18.006	2.164
25	Tom Oliphant	19	1'18.283	2.441
26	Ollie Jackson	19	1'18.313	2.471
27	Sam Osborne	22	1'18.618	2.776
28	Nicolas Hamilton	22	1'18.812	2.970
29	Rick Parfitt Jr.	16	1'18.929	3.087
View full results

BTCC Thruxton FP2 result

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Gordon Shedden	18	1'15.896
2	Josh Cook	13	1'16.018	0.122
3	Jake Hill	18	1'16.059	0.163
4	Daniel Rowbottom	17	1'16.181	0.285
5	Colin Turkington	21	1'16.213	0.317
6	Tom Chilton	17	1'16.356	0.460
7	Ash Hand	16	1'16.385	0.489
8	Jason Plato	16	1'16.389	0.493
9	Ashley Sutton	20	1'16.488	0.592
10	George Gamble	20	1'16.538	0.642
11	Tom Ingram	18	1'16.580	0.684
12	Bobby Thompson	18	1'16.605	0.709
13	Daniel Lloyd	18	1'16.621	0.725
14	Michael Crees	19	1'16.771	0.875
15	Ricky Collard	16	1'16.780	0.884
16	Dan Cammish	17	1'16.794	0.898
17	Stephen Jelley	20	1'16.812	0.916
18	Adam Morgan	17	1'16.850	0.954
19	Ollie Jackson	20	1'16.928	1.032
20	Rory Butcher	15	1'17.226	1.330
21	Aiden Moffat	20	1'17.259	1.363
22	Dexter Patterson	22	1'17.294	1.398
23	Aron Taylor-Smith	16	1'17.454	1.558
24	Jade Edwards	19	1'17.562	1.666
25	Jack Butel	21	1'17.641	1.745
26	Tom Oliphant	20	1'18.102	2.206
27	Sam Osborne	23	1'18.154	2.258
28	Rick Parfitt Jr.	23	1'19.432	3.536
29	Nicolas Hamilton	18	1'19.679	3.783
View full results