BTCC 2012 - Brands Hatch
Practice
Matt Neal headed a Honda 1-2-3 in a damp opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship practice session on Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix circuit.
Neal set the pace with a best lap of 1m44.510s in his Honda Yuasa Racing Team Civic with a late-session burst. Impressively, all of his final three laps would have put him at the top.
Next up were his team-mate Gordon Shedden and fellow Honda driver, Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan, respective leaders of the outright and Independent drivers’ championships going into this weekend’s title-deciding round.
Jason Plato, Shedden’s biggest threat, was fourth in his new-look KX Momentum Racing MG, some 1.2s off Neal’s pace. But he declared: “There’s no point pushing for a time in these conditions. All we’ve done is scrub in dry and wet weather tyres.”
Indeed, the leading times were some 13 seconds off the qualifying and race laps records, but there were still several surprises of note.
Will Bratt was a fine fifth in his wixracing.co.uk Audi A4 and Ollie Jackson tenth in AmD Tuning.com’s VW Golf, just ahead of Chris James’s ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra. Making his debut this weekend, Aaron Williamson was 18th fastest of the 24 runners in Team HARD’s Honda Civic.
James's car was the fastest of all through the first of three speed traps, with Shedden's Honda and Mat Jackson's fifth-placed Redstone Racing Ford Focus ahead in the next two. Of the three sectors, Neal was untouchable in the first two but it was Daniel Welch, eighth fastest overall, who was quickest in the third in his Welch Motorsport Proton Persona.
Meanwhile Frank Wrathall’s session was a brief affair, his Dynojet Toyota Avensis stopping in the pit lane with smoke, caused by an oil leak, pouring from its engine bay.
Andrew Jordan headed Brands Hatch’s second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship practice session that witnessed a bizarre incident involving Daniel Welch and Tony Gilham.
On an almost fully dry track Jordan set the pace with a stunning lap of 1m31.765s in his Pirtek Racing Honda Civic. This is just outside the qualifying lap record and hugely impressive considering that parts of the GP section of the circuit remained greasy after overnight rain.
Jordan was also a staggering 0.652s ahead of the next fastest driver Tom Onslow-Cole whose eBay Motors team-mate Robert Collard – chasing Jordan for the Independent drivers’ crown this weekend – was third.
Jason Plato was fourth in his KX Momentum Racing MG6 as Jeff Smith and Nick Foster further underlined the Pirtek and eBay teams’ form in fifth and sixth.
Honda Yuasa Racing Team duo Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden were seventh and eighth ahead of another pair of team-mates, Mat Jackson and Aron Smith in their Redstone Racing Ford Focus STs. Jackson's car was the swiftest of all through the first and third speed traps, Jordan's through the second. Jordan was also fastest of all in the first and second sectors, Onslow-Cole the third...
Shortly into the session, however, there was a peculiar incident on the start-finish straight when Gilham’s Team HARD. Vauxhall Insignia and Welch’s Welch Motorsport Proton Persona clashed and spun, the latter’s car becoming stranded side-on to traffic. He quickly rejoined but then, with obvious damage, spun at Paddock Hill Bend and stopped on the infield.
Gilham said: “I don’t know whether Dan lost it on a damp patch, but he spun into me and that sent me spinning into the pit wall. It wasn’t a hard hit but there’s no need for this… it’s a practice session.”
Welch responded: “I don’t know where Tony thought I was going to fit on the circuit. He was warming up tyres and I ended up becoming pinned between his car and the pit wall which I bounced off and spun.”
There was later a brief red flag delay to enable marshals to recover the stranded Speedworks Toyota Avensis of Tony Hughes which had spun lightly into the barriers heading up Hailwood Hill.
"I don't want to be treated as special because I'm not. I just drive a racing car round in circles a bit faster than everyone else." Michael Schumacher
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Originally Posted by Rob
Go Sheds! 
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