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British Touring Car Championship
Oulton Park - Free Practice - 7/6/14

By MJP Media | 7 June 2014

BMW and MG top the time sheets in the free practice sessions at a very wet Oulton Park with Colin Turkington and Jason Plato leading the way.

Colin Turkington exploring the wet conditions at Oulton Park

Torrential rain greeted the teams and fans at Cheshire's Oulton Park circuit as the drivers prepared for the first of two free practice sessions before the qualifying session later in the day. By the time the cars took to the track the rain had stopped, however the circuit was still extremely wet with areas of standing water.

This year, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is racing on Oulton Park's 'International' circuit, the first time this longer layout has been used since the 'Supertouring' era. Interestingly, Honda Yuasa Racing's Matt Neal and Chrome Edition Restart Racing's Alain Menu are the only current BTCC drivers to have raced on this version of the Oulton Park circuit.

Jason Plato topped the time sheet in the second session

In the first session it was the eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sports of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard that topped the time sheet with former BTCC champion Turkington almost a second faster than his team-mate. Jason Plato's MG6 was 3rd fastest for MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save with fellow MG6 driver Marc Hynes 4th for Quantel Bifold Racing. Rob Austin ended the session in 5th place with Gordon Shedden completing the top 6.

For the start of the second session the rain had returned, making track conditions very difficult indeed. In the early laps, many drivers were caught out by the lack of grip at Old Hall corner with several taking muddy excursions across the grass. As the teams strived to obtain an optimal wet weather setup, regular returns to the pits for changes were the order of the day. The session was stopped early when Jack Clarke buried his Crabbie's Racing Ford Focus ST into the barrier at Lodge corner.

Jack Clarke caused the second session to be stopped early

BWM drivers Colin Turkington and Rob Collard were once again in the top three however Jason Plato managed to improve on his 3rd place in the first session by topping the time sheet in the second. Alain Menu also improved in the second session, to climb from 9th to 4th ahead of Sam Tordoff in the second MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save MG6. Marc Hynes completed the top 6 places.

Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan struggled, finishing the sessions in 7th and 8th. Fellow Honda drivers and former BTCC champions Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal also found the wet conditions difficult in their Civic Tourers, ending the second session 10th and 11th respectively. The next BTCC action from Oulton Park is the qualifying session to determine the grid for the first race tomorrow. With the constantly variable weather conditions, anything could happen and probably will!

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