Neal quickest at Snetterton test
Matt Neal set the pace as several British Touring Car Championship teams took part in an unofficial test session at Snetterton on Tuesday
Many of the teams were running on the new '300' layout that will be used for August's BTCC round for the first time, and they had to wait longer than anticipated to take to the track as dense fog caused the morning session to be delayed for an hour.
Once the on-track action did commence, it was Mat Jackson who set the pace in his Motorbase Ford, although his 1m59.233s lap that was the best of the morning, was not good enough to keep him on top during the afternoon as times reduced by around half a second.
Honda driver Neal, who completed over 60 laps during the day, went to the top of the timesheets during the early afternoon with a lap of 1m58.761s, with Jackson also improving to leave himself just 0.257 seconds off the pace by the end of the day.
Tom Chilton featured near the bottom of the times during the morning, but made significant gains later on to wind up third quickest in Arena's new-spec Ford Focus while Paul O'Neill continued testing of Tech-Speed's ex-works Chevrolet Cruze in fourth place.
Andrew Jordan's Eurotech Vauxhall, the WSR BMWs of Rob Collard and Nick Foster and Liam Griffin's Motorbase Ford were next up while Jeff Smith, who only ran in the afternoon, was the slowest of the runners in his Eurotech machine.
A number of teams were not present at Snetterton, including Chevrolet, which ran Jason Plato to last year's drivers' title.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Matt Neal Honda 1m58.761s 2. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 1m59.018s + 0.257s 3. Tom Chilton Arena Ford 1m59.082s + 0.321s 4. Paul O'Neill Tech-Speed Chevrolet 1m59.391s + 0.630s 5. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Vauxhall 1m59.402s + 0.641s 6. Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m59.532s + 0.771s 7. Nick Foster WSR BMW 1m59.880s + 1.119s 8. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford 2m01.186s + 2.425s 9. Jeff Smith Eurotech Vauxhall 2m01.739s + 2.978s
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