Maximum Motorsport’s Stewart Lines says he is expecting to improve his pace on new tyres in TCR UK qualifying at Castle Combe.
Lines posted a time of 1:08.328 in the final practice session, putting him fourth behind Dan Lloyd, Oliver Taylor and Andreas Backman.
He told TouringCars.Net he feels he can extract much more pace from the car in qualifying when he uses new tyres.
“Considering we had the tyres we used at Brands Hatch on, it was pretty good,” said Lines. “The car feels a lot better. I’ve got my head around the track – I haven’t raced here you see.
“I sussed the track out, and the main thing that should improve the car now is just the tyres because we’re just on scrap tyres. We can’t use any new ones until qualifying.
“It could have been a bit better, I was up, I was three or four tenths quicker but I lost it in the last corner. I made a bit of an error and it just killed the speed.
“I think if I can get with Lloyd and Taylor, I think we’ll stick with them. It’s a long race.”
In the dying moments of final practice, Lines had a half-spin at Camp Corner, and managed to keep it out of the barriers.
He said the tyres were giving him no grip at that stage of the session, as he believes he had completed two hours of running on that set.
“It was just the tyres – they’re just completely shot,” he explained. “Genuinely I reckon those tyres have done two hours, they’ve gone. I was just getting the last out of them.
“We had no choice but to go out on them in that session. Some of the other teams seem to have more tyres, but I don’t know, we’re going to the rules, because you can only use six new ones.
“The carry-overs that we’ve got are all shot. I think it’s because we weren’t around at the beginning of the year at Knockhill and that.
“I think there were some tyres that got scrubbed in but we will improve depending on what tyres we use.”