Tom Chilton has set the fastest time in this morning’s first practice session at Oulton Park, just beating Gordon Shedden by 0.025 seconds. Despite the Team Aon driver now having a restrictor fitted to his turbo LPG engine he was still able to lap consistently fast. Following Shedden with the third fastest time was Rob Collard.
Click here for the full times from first practice.
In a close session at a hot and sunny Oulton Park the top 11 cars were covered by less than a second. Fourth fastest was Mat Jackson, whilst Matt Neal set the fifth fastest time as he carries 36 kg of success ballast for sharing the lead of the championship with Jason Plato.
The second Team Aon Ford Focus of Tom Onslow-Cole was sixth fastest, whilst Alex MacDowall was the top Chevrolet driver in seventh. Plato set eighth fastest time and ended the morning feeling happy with his car after the recent Rockingham test session.
Andy Neate had one of his best sessions of the year so far as he crept into the top 10 with the ninth fastest time, whilst James Nash completed the ten quickest cars in this morning’s first session. Nash is still running in an all-black Vauxhall Vectra for Triple Eight as the team continue to seek sponsorship for the remainder of the season.
Recent Rockingham test pace-setter Andrew Jordan could only manage 12th fastest around the Cheshire circuit. ‘Local’ racer Paul O’Neill also had a few troubles during the session after a wheel came off his car. He soon had the crucial component replaced and continued in the session in his Honda Integra.
Steven Kane, on his 30th birthday, was only 14th fastest – a whole second down on his team-mate Jackson. David Pinkney, who was fifteenth in the session, is racing this weekend on painkillers after he dislocated his shoulder earlier in the week.
Martin Johnson, who suffered the loss of his father and team boss last week, completed only one lap due to a brake problem on his Boulevard Team Racing Vauxhall Astra Coupe. It was announced by Alan Gow today that a one-off trophy will be presented in honour of Cliff Johnson to the driver who scores the most points this weekend.