British Touring Car Championship
Snetterton - Free Practice - 11/8/12
By MJP Media / Pictures: Andrew Hartley | 11 August 2012
Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan top the time sheets in free practice at Snetterton whilst Gordon Shedden is 'on fire' in more ways than one!
Andrew Jordan was fastest in the first free practice session
Following its annual summer break, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship roared back into action at the fabulous Snetterton 300 circuit in Norfolk for the first of the two free practice sessions for the 6th meeting on the 2012 calendar.
The early pace was set by Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic, Jason Plato in the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 and Rob Austin in the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 with Plato being the first to put in a lap time under 2 minutes, shortly followed by Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan.
A fire in the first session put Gordon Shedden out of action for the second session
Gordon Shedden had a dramatic moment when his Honda Yuasa Racing Team Civic burst into flames in the pit lane as he was returning to his garage. Shedden, nicknamed 'Flash', was shaken but thankfully unharmed in the incident. The extent of the damage caused to Shedden's car is not yet known.
The session ended with Andrew Jordan fastest followed by Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato. Tom Onslow-Cole, Matt Neal and Adam Morgan were the only other drivers to post lap times of less than 2 minutes.
Jason Plato put in a fantastic lap to end the second session on top
As the second session got under way it was former BTCC champion Jason Plato and reigning BTCC champion Matt Neal who led the way with Dave Newsham, Frank Wrathall and Daniel Welch also in the mix. As the session settled down, Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic and Dave Newsham in the Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra were also up with the front-runners.
At the end of the 2nd session, it was Jason Plato who topped the time sheet in a blistering 1 minute 57.569 seconds, followed by Dave Newsham and Andrew Jordan. Adam Morgan finished an impressive 4th fastest in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis ahead of Matt Neal and Tom Onslow-Cole. The next BTCC action from Snetterton is the all-important qualifying session to decide the grid for the first race tomorrow.
Pictures courtesy of Andrew Hartley
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