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British Touring Car Championship
Thruxton - Free Practice - 30/4/11

By MJP Media | 30 April 2011

Free practice at Thruxton throws up a few surprises.

Free practice at Thruxton in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship was an important event following the decision to limit the boost on the turbocharged cars to close the gap we had seen in the first two rounds between them and the normally aspirated cars.

There were a couple of unusually interested spectators in the form of Lewis Hamilton and his father (pictured) who were here with Lewis' younger brother. In the first free practice session it was all about tyre wear as several of the top teams ran a full race distance to judge what the degradation was likely to be at this, Britain's fastest race circuit. All seemed to go well and the special Dunlop tyres worked to perfection. Top of the standings in the first session was Tom Chilton in the Team Aon 2011 Ford Focus. Highest of the non-turbo teams was Jason Plato in the Silverline Chevrolet Cruze and Rob Collard in the WSR BMW 320si.

The second free practice session saw the teams really working on setup and for the first time this season the non-turbocharged cars looked more competitive in the form of Jason Plato in the Chevrolet with the 4th best time of 1 minute 18.395 seconds, whilst the quickest man on track was Matt Neal in the Honda Racing Team Civic with a time of 1 minute 18.154 seconds, ahead of Tom Chilton and Jeff Smith in his Pirtek Vauxhall Vectra.

Interestingly, we saw some real progress from Lancashire based Frank Wrathall in the new 2011 Dynojet Toyota Avensis, one of the "Next Generation Touring Cars" until a mechanical failure left him at the side of the track early in the second free practice. Qualifying is next when the real work begins!

 

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