Shedden 'untouchable' again
Gordon Shedden again looked unstoppable as he headed the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s second free practice session at Thruxton.
Conditions remained wet but this time it wasn’t raining – this, in turn, meant a trickier, greasier track surface which led to slightly slower times than in this morning’s first session.
But just like this morning, Shedden was more than a second clear of the rest. The flying Scotsman set a best lap of 1m22.080s in his Honda Yuasa Racing Team Civic. Jason Plato was this time able to get between the two Hondas, setting the second fastest time of 1m23.143s in his MG KX Momentum Racing MG6.
Shedden appeared visibly quicker than his rivals through the chicane in particular, but even he had to miss out the corner on his final lap when he carried a tad too much speed into the apex. He commented: “The feeling from the car keeps changing every lap and, when it’s greasy like that, it’s more difficult to gauge than when it’s fully wet. Holding on to the rear end is a struggle in some parts but so far, so good.”
Third-fastest and even trying a run on slick tyres towards the end of the session was Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal. Fourth, a mere 0.047s behind, was fellow Civic runner, Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan.
The following four drivers were also within a second of Neal, namely Dave Newsham (Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra), Jordan’s team-mate Jeff Smith, Mat Jackson (Redstone Racing Ford Focus) and Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota Avensis). Smith needed a pit stop to have grass removed from the front of his car following an off-track excursion. For Wrathall, ninth spot represented a marked improvement on his first session time as he and his team got to grips with a car which has not previously run in the wet…
Two Hampshire locals, Robert Collard (eBay Motors BMW) and Daniel Welch (Welch Motorsport Proton Persona) completed the top ten. Collard was another to fit slick tyres towards the end of the session and reported: “It was just a bit too damp still – they were just about starting to ‘come in’ but it was taking some time. Very treacherous…”
Meanwhile, having just set his best time, Welch was forced to park his car at the end of the pits straight after a heavy landing over one of the chicane’s kerbs broke one of its driveshaft.
Mention should also go to Ollie Jackson who kept fans in the chicane grandstand entertained throughout with his gung-ho approach at the wheel of AmD Tuning.com's VW Golf...
Having effectively missed the opening session with a wiring loom problem on his car, Plato’s team-mate Andy Neate was able to circulate, wisely choosing to build up speed gradually as opposed to going all out for a quick time.
Redstone’s Aron Smith missed the session as his team fixed a clutch problem on his Ford Focus. The session also required a brief red flag stoppage to retrieve the Speedworks Toyota Avensis of Adam Morgan which had stopped at Church Corner with suspected fuel pressure problems. Also missing was Rob Austin whose RAR team mechanics were fitting a new engine to his Audi A4.
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