Late effort gives Rory Butcher top time in first Croft practice

Rory Butcher gave Toyota Gazoo Racing UK the top time in the first British Touring Car Championship practice session at Croft, as a late effort denied Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden the early bragging rights.

Shedden had posted the fastest lap of the 40-minute session with just under 14 minutes remaining, the Scot putting in a lap of 1 minute 22.403 seconds.

However, in the final seconds, after the chequered flag was waved, it was Butcher who claimed the top spot, going 0.128 seconds faster than his fellow Scot.

Butcher, 34, had earlier in the week revealed he was in a confident mood for Croft, as he seeks to close in on the title fight.

BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor put his Honda in third, two tenths off the pace, ahead of MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill in fourth. Hill had earlier hit the top of the times just after the halfway stage of the session with his effort of 1:22.511, which the Ford driver didn’t improve on thereafter.

Sam Smelt made it two Toyotas in the top five with his best practice performance of the season, just 0.255 seconds slower than his more experienced team-mate.

Championship contender Josh Cook was sixth in his BTC Racing Honda, ahead of the leading BMW of Tom Oliphant in seventh.

A late improvement from Laser Tools Racing’s Ash Sutton put him in eighth, with the top ten being completed by Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom and Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram, who was the leading Hyundai driver.

Colin Turkington was just 12^th in his BMW, almost four tenths off the pace at a circuit which was traditionally been strong for the rear-wheel drive cars.

The top 24 drivers were covered by exactly one second.

Second practice is scheduled to get underway at 12:05 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	1:22.275	–
2	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	19	1:22.403	0.128
3	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	17	1:22.494	0.219
4	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	19	1:22.511	0.236
5	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	20	1:22.530	0.255
6	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	18	1:22.539	0.264
7	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	18	1:22.598	0.323
8	1		Ashley SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	20	1:22.603	0.328
9	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	18	1:22.614	0.339
10	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	1:22.654	0.379
11	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	18	1:22.665	0.390
12	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	20	1:22.673	0.398
13	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	21	1:22.675	0.400
14	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	1:22.821	0.546
15	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:22.872	0.597
16	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	19	1:22.959	0.684
17	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	19	1:22.966	0.691
18	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	19	1:23.027	0.752
19	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	16	1:23.064	0.789
20	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	1:23.066	0.791
21	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	1:23.121	0.846
22	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	17	1:23.195	0.920
23	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	18	1:23.201	0.926
24	19		Jack MITCHELL	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	21	1:23.275	1.000
25	44		Andy NEATE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	19	1:23.703	1.428
26	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	1:24.065	1.790
27	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	16	1:24.164	1.889
28	99		Jade EDWARDS	PHSC with BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	7	1:25.666	3.391
29	42		Nick HALSTEAD	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	19	1:26.166	3.891