Gordon Shedden heads Team Dynamics 1-2 in final Croft practice

Gordon Shedden led Team Dynamics team-mate Daniel Rowbottom in the second British Touring Car Championship practice session at Croft, with the top times continuing to be comfortably below the qualifying lap record.

Team HARD’s bobby Thompson had been amongst the first drivers to post meaningful lap times, and the CUPRA driver improved his top time on three occasions, leading the way after 25 minutes with a time of 1 minute 21.922 seconds.

He held the top time for seven minutes, before Rowbottom and then Shedden went to the top, the latter lapping in 1:21.589 to go just under a tenth of a second faster than the top time in first practice set by Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram.

Rowbottom ended up in second, a tenth and a half behind his Honda team-mate, with Toyota’s Rory Butcher in third after the Scot put in a succession of quick laps in the final five minutes.

Excelr8’s Daniel Lloyd was consistently near the top of the times in the 40-minute session, ending up as the best of the Hyundai quartet with a time which was 0.294 seconds off the pace.

Thompson slipped to fifth by the end of the session, ahead of Ingram in sixth, the latter two tenths slower than he had been earlier in the day.

MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill was both the best of the BMW drivers and also the fastest of the rear-wheel drive contingent, seventh quickest and 0.353 seconds behind Shedden.

Ciceley Motorsport’s George Gamble was eighth, ahead of Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat – who bagged pole position and a victory at the circuit last year – in ninth.

The top ten was completed by an impressive effort by Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand, who lapped his Vauxhall Astra just under half a second off the pace.

The session had to be red-flagged after just five minutes when NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish went off into the gravel at the first corner, making slight contact with the barriers, and had to have his Ford Focus recovered. He did not return to the session thereafter as his team worked to repair the car.

It proved to also be a difficult session for his team-mate Ash Sutton, who was down in 17^th, almost nine tenths off the pace, having been outside the top ten in first practice as well.

Neither of the Team BMW duo of Colin Turkington or Stephen Jelley were in the top ten, Turkington (the most successful Croft racer) in 11^th and Jelley in 16^th.

Championship leader Josh Cook likewise lacked pace once again, down in 18^th, just ahead of BTC Racing team-mate Jason Plato in 19^th.

After engine troubles in FP1 which continued well into FP2, Árón Taylor-Smith took to the track late on in the session, ending up in 24^th and a second and a half off the pace.

Carl Boardley once again failed to post a time, meaning he has yet to complete a lap in Rick Parfitt Jr’s Infiniti this weekend.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:20 BST.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	16	1:21.589	–
2	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	18	1:21.732	0.143
3	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	1:21.810	0.221
4	123		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:21.883	0.294
5	19		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	15	1:21.922	0.333
6	80		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	1:21.939	0.350
7	24		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	19	1:21.942	0.353
8	42		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	20	1:21.960	0.371
9	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	19	1:21.979	0.390
10	97		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	14	1:22.038	0.449
11	50		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	17	1:22.050	0.461
12	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	1:22.066	0.477
13	3		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	1:22.237	0.648
14	21		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	1:22.265	0.676
15	777		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	1:22.323	0.734
16	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	18	1:22.343	0.754
17	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	16	1:22.466	0.877
18	66		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	14	1:22.469	0.880
19	11		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	1:22.481	0.892
20	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	18	1:22.574	0.985
21	48		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	17	1:22.639	1.050
22	18		James GORNALL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:22.650	1.061
23	77		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	17	1:22.685	1.096
24	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	5	1:23.056	1.467
25	99		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	16	1:23.231	1.642
26	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	20	1:23.683	2.094
27	20		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	17	1:24.260	2.671
28	9		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	2	No time	N/A
29	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	0	No time	N/A