Max Coates was pleased with his first day of British Touring Car Championship action at Croft, after completing all three of the day’s sessions without incident.
The 21 year-old was announced as Support Our Paras Racing’s second driver for the remainder of the season earlier this week, and as such headed into the weekend with no prior experience of his Infiniti.
But Coates was able to turn in a respectable performance throughout the day, ending the day with the 28th fastest time in qualifying, ahead of fellow rookie Nicolas Hamilton and on the tail of team-mate Derek Palmer.
Speaking after the session, Coates insisted that he was pleased with how the day’s events had played out.
“It’s my first day in the car and I was still learning what the buttons did this morning,” he said to TouringCars.Net. “Each session I go out in I’m getting faster so that’s the main thing.”
Having enjoyed a trouble-free debut, the former Ginetta racer was also keen to make up places during tomorrow’s three races, as the team looks to move closer to its first points in the championship.
“We’ve qualified 28th so realistically if we can move up a couple of positions from there, that would be great. There’s always a bit of hoo-ha in the BTCC but if I get three finishes under my belt I’ll be happy.
“As a team we’d like to move forward from where we were at Oulton Park so that is the aim; we were 19th there in one of the races with Derek so that is the aim – constant improvement.
“I’m just thankful to the team for the opportunity and I’m delighted to be in British Touring Cars.”