Ollie Taylor went quickest behind the wheel of a Honda Civic Type-R at the new-for-2018 TCR UK’s test day at Silverstone today [6th March].
Taylor, who set a best time of 1:05.751s in mixed conditions on the National configuration of the world-famous venue in the morning, edging out Sean Walkinshaw in identical machinery by 0.015s.
Stewart Lines, whose Maximum Motorsport outfit ended a three-year stay in the British Touring Car Championship ahead of the new campaign, went third in a CUPRA TCR.
Lewis Kent’s Hyundai i30 TCR topped the second session with a marginally faster effort, before Walkinshaw made it three different pace-setters in as many sessions.
In driving conditions Taylor went quicker still, improving to a 59.300s, three and nine tenths respectively faster than Walkinshaw and Lines.
“Today was a good day,” summarised Taylor.
“It was great to be on track with the other TCR cars who were all running competitively.
“I was quickest in the damp this morning, played around with the settings in the middle two sessions and quickest again at the end, so we started on a good note and ended on a good note and so it has been a very good day.
“I’m very much looking forward to the season now – it’ll be an exciting new chapter in my racing and I can’t wait.”
Walkinshaw highlighted the benefit of running at Silverstone, which hosts the inaugural two rounds of the series over Easter weekend later this month.
“It’s been very, very productive today,” he said.
“This was our first time out this year, so it was a case of getting everyone back into the swing of things.
“It was also our first time using Yokohama tyres, so we’ve been able to get some really useful data which should help us enormously for the first round.”
Seven cars in total took part in the test, with another ex-BTCC racer Josh Price also sidelined early on with an engine problem.