EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Ronan Pearson ended the day with the best overall lap time, as inclement weather disrupted the second official British Touring Car Championship pre-season test at Croft.
The morning had seen dry conditions in North Yorkshire, with 16 of the 19 present drivers able to venture out onto the circuit to post a time.
Those laps would ultimately prove to be the quickest of the day for every respective driver, and it was Pearson who put his Hyundai on top of the times just over an hour into the session.
That turned out to be the quickest anyone could go around the circuit, Pearson’s time of 1 minute 22.243 seconds leaving him just under a tenth of a second ahead of Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill, who had posted his best just 17 minutes earlier.
A band of rain then moved into to wet the track, followed half an hour later by rain setting in and not stopping until just past 15:00.
Despite the conditions, drivers completed almost as many laps in the afternoon session, seemingly predicting that the UK’s apparently endless deluge isn’t going to end any time soon and this year’s races may feature more wet running than in recent years.
Team BMW’s Colin Turkington ended the day with the third best time, 0.367 seconds adrift of Pearson, ahead of NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish in fourth.
Ashley Sutton was just behind his team-mate in fifth, the reigning champion 0.467 seconds off Pearson in the dry, but topping the times overall in the wet afternoon session.
Daniel Rowbottom made it a NAPA 4-5-6, ahead of EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton in seventh.
The top ten was completed by a trio of Speedworks drivers, with the factory car of Rob Huff in eighth, the satellite entry of Josh Cook in ninth and the factory-backed Andrew Watson in tenth, the latter being the last driver within a second of the pace.
2022 champion Tom Ingram suffered from a fire in his Hyundai in the morning session, preventing him posting a meaningful time, but in the wet session he was fourth.
Having been second fastest in the morning, Jake Hill’s day ended in frustration as the Laser Tools Racing driver had a crash into the barrier on a fast lap at the Sunny In-Sunny Out sequence of corners.
The final pre-season test takes place at Donington Park next Tuesday.
Combined session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 14 |  |
Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 40 | 1:22.243 | – |
| 2 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 41 | 1:22.315 | 0.072 |
| 3 | 20 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 58 | 1:22.610 | 0.367 |
| 4 | 27 | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 41 | 1:22.667 | 0.424 |
| 5 | 1 | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 67 | 1:22.710 | 0.467 |
| 6 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 74 | 1:22.788 | 0.545 |
| 7 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 34 | 1:22.819 | 0.576 |
| 8 | 12 | |
Rob HUFF | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 64 | 1:22.894 | 0.651 |
| 9 | 66 | |
Josh COOK | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 19 | 1:22.897 | 0.654 |
| 10 | 11 | |
Andrew WATSON | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 52 | 1:23.098 | 0.855 |
| 11 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 58 | 1:23.290 | 1.047 |
| 12 | 88 | |
Mikey DOBLE | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 64 | 1:23.452 | 1.209 |
| 13 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 68 | 1:23.486 | 1.243 |
| 14 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 43 | 1:23.898 | 1.655 |
| 15 | 77 | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 82 | 1:24.257 | 2.014 |
| 16 | 22 | |
Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 39 | 1:26.582 | 4.339 |
| 17 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 20 | 1:29.334 | 7.091 |
| 18 | 222 | |
Chris SMILEY | Restart Racing | CUPRA Leon | 35 | 1:31.582 | 9.339 |
| 19 | 29 | |
Scott SUMPTON | Restart Racing | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 1:32.243 | 10.000 |