Reid fastest in Thruxton test

"This circuit favours a good handling car - and the MG is pretty good round here," said Reid. "We spent time working on the chassis and making improvements today and when we put on the new set of rubber, the time was there. Of course we don't know what Vauxhall's performance will be like, but overall I'm pretty happy."

Tim Harvey was next up in the second VLM 406, with Warren Hughes fourth in another MG. It was a somewhat depleted field however, with many drivers forced to sit out the test while their cars are repaired after a bruising first round at Brands Hatch last week.

Only one of the Vauxhall Astras, which won both of the opening races, was present and former Superbike star Aaron Slight was sixth fastest, almost 1.5s down on Reid. He shared the year-old car with Simon Graves, who was just a couple of tenths slower than the Kiwi. The works cars were missing due to concerns over engines. Drivers are allowed only four units during the year and James Thompson suffered two failures at the Brands Hatch meet.

Robert Collard, winner of race two in the Production class at Brands, carried on where he left off and was the quickest of the six cars present. The Renault Clio driver was over half a second ahead of the BMW 320i of Norman Simon.

The next round of the series is at Oulton Park on April 21.


Anthony Reid MG ZS 1m18.813s
Dan Eaves Peugeot 406 Coupe 1m18.911s
Tim Harvey Peugeot 406 Coupe 1m18.991s
Warren Hughes MG ZS 1m19.683s
Phil Bennett Proton Impian 1m19.892s
Aaron Slight Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m20.278s
Simon Graves Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m20.560s
David Leslie Proton Impian 1m20.806s
Robert Collard Renault Clio (P) 1m23.433s
Norman Simon BMW 320i (P) 1m24.100s

P = Production class