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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (Indy) - Free Practice - 29/3/14

By MJP Media | 29 March 2014

Jason Plato tops the time sheets in the free practice sessions at Brands Hatch. Colin Turkington and Jack Goff run 2nd with reigning champion Andrew Jordan 3rd in both sessions.

Jason Plato tops the time sheets in free practice

After months of waiting, the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship roared into action at Brands Hatch today for the first of two free practice sessions ahead of the qualifying session later today.

First to take to the track were the Pirtek Racing Honda Civics with reigning BTCC Andrew Jordan leading the way ahead of team-mate Martin Depper. Next out were the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Tourers of former BTCC champions Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, closely followed by the MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save MG6s of Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato.

Jack Goff is 2nd in the final session

The session was briefly halted when a member of the eBay Motors team dislocated a knee whilst leaving the pit wall. The session resumed shortly afterwards once the ambulance that attended the scene had left the pit lane. At the end of the session, it was Jason Plato who had posted the fastest time in his MG6 with Colin Turkington 2nd fastest in the eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport. Andrew Jordan was 3rd fastest with Matt Neal 4th, resulting in 4 champions at the top of the time sheet. 22 cars posted times within a second of the fastest time, suggesting that the 2014 BTCC will be closer than ever.

Early in the second session it was Jason Plato once again who topped the times sheets with Aron Smith getting to grips with his Volkswagen CC in 2nd. Colin Turkington, Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal completed the top 5 - the same 4 leaders as in the first session. Alain Menu was a big loser in the session after a 12 minute stop in the pits. Both United Autosports Toyotas were in the wars with Glynn Geddie suffering a terminal engine failure, shortly followed by his team-mate James Cole having an off on the oil Geddie had left!

Andrew Jordan was consistent with 3rd in both sessions

As the clock ticked down, Tom Ingram put in a blinding lap to move up to 3rd. Two minutes later Sam Tordoff took 2nd spot ahead of Aron Smith. Surprisingly, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu were down in 14th and 15th. With 8 minutes to go there was a short red flag period when Warren Scott spun at the bottom of Paddock Hill, shortening the session by 5 minutes.

As the session ended it was Jason Plato who topped the time sheets whilst Jack Goff put in a fantastic final lap to be 2nd in his RCIB Insurance Racing Vauxhall Insignia, 100th of a second behind. Andrew Jordan was 3rd, Sam Tordoff in the second MG 4th and Aron Smith 5th. Tom Ingram ended the session in 6th place with Colin Turkington 7th, showing how close things were with the top 7 cars within 1/10th of a second of each other. It will be a hugely exciting qualifying session with everyone so close and track space at a premium. Who will take that first poll of the year? We will bring you all of the news this afternoon.

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