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British Touring Car Championship
Rockingham - Free Practice - 6/9/14

By MJP Media | 6 September 2014

MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save lead the way in free practice at Rockingham as Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato top the time sheets.

Sam Tordoff topped the time sheet in the morning mist

The eighth weekend of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship takes a trip to Corby in Northamptonshire as Rockingham hosts rounds 22, 23 and 24 of Britain's premier motorsport series. Colin Turkington in the eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport leads the championship ahead of Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato with a truly phenomenal run of form coming into the closing stages of the championship. Rockingham is certainly a complete contrast from the short Knockhill circuit of the last rounds. Indeed, it requires nerves of steel off the line as Rockingham is the only circuit on the calendar with a 180 degree tight left hander for a first corner, called the Deene hairpin. With so many cars on track this year, race 1 is bound to be 'squeaky bum' time for the drivers as 31 cars arrive there at the same time at about 100 mph!

There is a lot to play for coming into Rockingham with the top three drivers having extended their lead in the championship over the seemingly luckless defending champion Andrew Jordan. The Pirtek Racing driver, who is currently 5th in the championship has endured a very difficult couple of months and will be out to prove that he is still a genuine title contender this year with 9 races to go. Even so, he will also be looking over his shoulder as Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Racing Ford Focus ST is catching him in the standings.

Jason Plato was fastest in the second session

The first free practice session started with a lot of mist around the circuit and visibility was severely impaired. Gordon Shedden was on the pace early in the session along with Colin Turkington, however the surprise of the first session was that Sam Tordoff in the MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save MG6 was top of the timesheet with Adam Morgan in the WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class in 3rd. Splitting the two young guns was Andrew Jordan for Pirtek Racing. These three were almost 2/10th of a second ahead of championship leader Colin Turkington in 4th and Gordon Shedden 5th. The other big title contender Jason Plato in the second MG was surprisingly low down in 9th, over 3/4 of a second behind team-mate Tordoff. There were two red flag periods in the session, the first for Martin Depper in his Honda Civic and the second at the end of the session for Warren Scott in the Volkswagen CC.

Andrew Jordan was 2nd fastest in both sessions

The early pace in the second free practice session was set by the 2 MGs of Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff who were consistently quicker than those around them. After 10 minutes of the session, Andrew Jordan split the two before a red flag period as Jack Goff lost a front wheel at the hairpin, temporarily halting proceedings. As the session ran down to its close, Jason Plato remained the only man to post a sub 1 minute 23 lap with a 1:22.803. Second was Andrew Jordan with a 1:23.212 and Sam Tordoff was third with 1:23.261. Tom Ingram and Aron Smith rounded out the top 5. Championship leader Colin Turkington was 6th in the second session, whilst his two team-mates Rob Collard and Nick Foster were languishing down in 21st and 22nd.

Going into the qualifying session this afternoon, it is clear that the MGs are the class of the field here at Rockingham, although it seems likely that former champions Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington may well have a big say in the final line up for tomorrow's first race.

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