BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor claimed the top time at the end of the first day of the British Touring Car Championship tyre test at Oulton Park, with the Honda driver making the most of drier conditions in the afternoon.
The morning session was affected by damp weather, which limited the pace the 24 drivers who took to the track could achieve.
Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram set the pace early in the morning, with only Jake Hill then also enjoying a brief spell at the top of the times before Ingram set the best time of the morning around 35 minutes into the session with a lap of 1 minute 33.638 seconds.
The Hyundai driver has never previously stood on the podium at the Cheshire circuit, making it his ‘bogey’ track, something which he will be keen to rectify when the championship visits for racing next month.
Hill ended up with the second best lap of the morning, less than a tenth back, although the lap times would ultimately be eight seconds slower than later in the day.
In the end, the first session was called off early due to the prospect of better weather, and more valuable data, being gleaned from a dry afternoon session.
Following lunch, the first competitive time of the afternoon was actually set by the hybrid Toyota being driven by Andrew Jordan, although times quickly tumbled.
Proctor first hit the top of the times after 12 minutes with a lap of 1:29.379, immediately bettered to a 1:29.028, before Josh Cook, Jake Hill, Daniel Rowbottom, Gordon Shedden and Jack Goff then took turns in topping the times over the next two hours.
Proctor went quicker three more times near the end of the session as track conditions continued to improve, ultimately ending up with a time of 1:25.656. Ingram, who had been fastest earlier in the day, brought the session to a halt just after the two-hour mark when his Hyundai stopped on track due to a mechanical failure and had to be recovered.
The afternoon times effectively became the best of the day, with Proctor heading Shedden by just 0.071 seconds.
“Today was a good day,” said Proctor. “We got a lot of testing with the car under our belts this afternoon in the dry, and it was nice for me to have a few proper runs in the car without being under the pressure of a race weekend.
“We got some good laps under our belt and then tried some dramatic setup changes. We found a lot of pace in the car and got it more towards my liking with a few little changes I wanted, so that was definitely a step forward.
“Hopefully, we get another dry day tomorrow and we can progress further, maybe do a few more race runs and go from there.”
The second Team Dynamics Honda of Rowbottom was third, four tenths further back, ahead of the Team HARD CUPRA of Goff in fourth.
Hill was the top MB Motorsport Ford Focus driver in fifth, ahead of the second Excelr8 Hyundai of Chris Smiley in sixth.
Championship leader Ash Sutton put his Infiniti in seventh, ahead of the fastest PMR Vauxhall of Dan Lloyd in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Toyota Gazoo Racing UK’s Sam Smelt and Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat, the Scot being the only other driver to be within a second of the pace.
Jordan, in the hybrid-powered Toyota, was 21st out of the 27 runners.
Testing continues on Wednesday, with the morning session running from 09:00 to 12:30 and the afternoon session from 13:30 to 16:55.
Morning session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 |  |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 26 | 1:33.638 | – |
| 2 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 31 | 1:33.726 | 0.088 |
| 3 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 33 | 1:34.005 | 0.367 |
| 4 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 32 | 1:34.134 | 0.496 |
| 5 | 22 | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 29 | 1:34.482 | 0.844 |
| 6 | 31 | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 23 | 1:34.524 | 0.886 |
| 7 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 1:34.692 | 1.054 |
| 8 | 2 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 31 | 1:34.767 | 1.129 |
| 9 | 4 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 33 | 1:34.892 | 1.254 |
| 10 | 23 | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 35 | 1:35.097 | 1.459 |
| 11 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 24 | 1:35.113 | 1.475 |
| 12 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 24 | 1:35.161 | 1.523 |
| 13 | 1 | |
Ash SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 8 | 1:35.174 | 1.536 |
| 14 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 48 | 1:35.201 | 1.563 |
| 15 | 15 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 22 | 1:35.229 | 1.591 |
| 16 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 40 | 1:35.295 | 1.657 |
| 17 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 34 | 1:35.303 | 1.665 |
| 18 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 1:35.813 | 2.175 |
| 19 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 11 | 1:35.838 | 2.200 |
| 20 | 44 | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 24 | 1:35.984 | 2.346 |
| 21 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 2 | 1:37.104 | 3.466 |
| 22 | 180 | |
James GORNALL | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 10 | 1:37.787 | 4.149 |
| 23 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 6 | 1:39.845 | 6.207 |
Afternoon session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 18 | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 27 | 1:25.656 | – |
| 2 | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 26 | 1:25.727 | 0.071 |
| 3 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 30 | 1:26.169 | 0.513 |
| 4 | 31 | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 29 | 1:26.333 | 0.677 |
| 5 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 55 | 1:26.351 | 0.695 |
| 6 | 22 | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 34 | 1:26.365 | 0.709 |
| 7 | 1 | |
Ash SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 22 | 1:26.419 | 0.763 |
| 8 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 39 | 1:26.436 | 0.780 |
| 9 | 23 | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 38 | 1:26.497 | 0.841 |
| 10 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 31 | 1:26.586 | 0.930 |
| 11 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 49 | 1:26.659 | 1.003 |
| 12 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 21 | 1:26.661 | 1.005 |
| 13 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 25 | 1:26.723 | 1.067 |
| 14 | 40 | |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 40 | 1:26.769 | 1.113 |
| 15 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 32 | 1:26.774 | 1.118 |
| 16 | 2 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 21 | 1:26.786 | 1.130 |
| 17 | 180 | |
James GORNALL | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 27 | 1:26.786 | 1.130 |
| 18 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 35 | 1:26.800 | 1.144 |
| 19 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 45 | 1:26.832 | 1.176 |
| 20 | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 30 | 1:26.978 | 1.322 |
| 21 | 2022 | |
Andrew JORDAN | Hybrid | 33 | 1:27.018 | 1.362 | |
| 22 | 4 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 29 | 1:27.085 | 1.429 |
| 23 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | PHSC with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 32 | 1:27.110 | 1.454 |
| 24 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 6 | 1:27.114 | 1.458 |
| 25 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 40 | 1:27.295 | 1.639 |
| 26 | 15 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 29 | 1:27.779 | 2.123 |
| 27 | 44 | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 1 | No time | N/A |