MacDowall fastest in wet practice

Date published : 18 Jun 2011 - 09:23:00

Alex MacDowall topped the first British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Croft on Saturday morning in his works Chevrolet. The Hondas of championship leaders Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden set the pace initially, before MacDowall topped the times just before the halfway mark in the wet session. His 1m33.644s lap came despite a spin just beforehand at Sunny In. Rob Collard's rear-wheel-drive WSR BMW did a lap just over a tenth slower shortly afterwards to make it a one-two for normally-aspirated machines. A late effort brought Tom Chilton (Arena Motorsport Ford Focus) into third as top turbo, 0.2 seconds behind MacDowall's RML-run machine. Neal's early effort was good enough for fourth, just ahead of Jason Plato's Chevrolet and the Eurotech Vauxhall Vectra of Andrew Jordan. Rob Austin's Audi was the top NGTC car in 12th, three quarters of a second ahead of the Dynojet Toyota of Frank Wrathall. In his first session since rejoining the Arena team, Tom Onslow-Cole was 13th, 1.8s away from team-mate Chilton. Shaun Hollamby, returning to the driving seat of the AmD Milltek Racing VW Golf after Onslow-Cole's switch, was 20th. Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet 1m33.644s 2. Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m33.789s + 0.145s 3. Tom Chilton Arena Ford 1m33.853s + 0.209s 4. Matt Neal Honda 1m33.924s + 0.280s 5. Jason Plato Chevrolet 1m34.277s + 0.633s 6. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Vauxhall 1m34.403s + 0.759s 7. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT 1m34.573s + 0.929s 8. Gordon Shedden Honda 1m34.585s + 0.941s 9. Nick Foster WSR BMW 1m34.776s + 1.132s10. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 1m34.845s + 1.201s11. Paul O'Neill Tech-Speed Chevrolet 1m35.588s + 1.944s12. Rob Austin Austin Audi 1m35.709s + 2.065s13. Tom Onslow-Cole Arena Ford 1m35.714s + 2.070s14. James Nash Triple 8 Vauxhall 1m35.974s + 2.330s15. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota 1m36.463s + 2.819s16. Andy Neate Arena Ford 1m36.614s + 2.970s17. Jeff Smith Eurotech Vauxhall 1m36.730s + 3.086s18. Dave Newsham Special Tuning SEAT 1m37.226s + 3.582s19. Tony Gilham Triple 8 Vauxhall 1m37.334s + 3.690s20. Shaun Hollamby AmD Volkswagen 1m37.583s + 3.939s21. Lea Wood Central Honda 1m37.784s + 4.140s22. Chris James ES Chevrolet 1m38.156s + 4.512s23. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford 1m38.936s + 5.292s24. John George Tech-Speed Chevrolet 1m39.848s + 6.204s