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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (Indy) - Free Practice - 4/4/15

By MJP Media | 4 April 2015

After the free practice sessions at Brands Hatch, Team BMR look like the team to beat, getting three of their Volkswagen CCs in the top four in the 2nd session. Tom Ingram was fastest in the first session.

Colin Turkington was fastest in the free practice sessions

Finally the talking is over as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship roared into life today at Brands Hatch with the two 40 minute free practice sessions ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session. It has been all change at the top, with only the Honda Yuasa Racing pairing of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden staying as the same driver line-up in the title chasing teams.

The first session started in cloudy and damp conditions with a temperature of only 7 degrees - not a recipe for the fastest laps. In the early exchanges it was Andy Priaulx in the Team IHG Rewards Club BMW 125i M Sport with a 54.711 second lap ahead of Adam Morgan in the WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class with Aron Smith in the Team BMR Volkswagen CC third, however these times were bound to tumble as the track dried out.

Tom Ingram topped the time sheet in the first session

At the halfway stage in the first session, the top cars had completed around a dozen laps each and topping the time sheet by over a second was the ever competitive Jason Plato in his new Team BMR Volkswagen CC in a time of 52.682 seconds. Behind Plato was Adam Morgan with 53.809 seconds and third was Plato's team mate and defending champion Colin Turkington with a time of 53.835 seconds. With Sam Tordoff 4th and Aron Smith 5th, this gives Team BMR's Volkswagen CCs 3 of the top 5 places!

With 10 minutes of the session left we had the first surprise of the day as Kieran Gallagher in the RCIB Insurance Racing Toyota Avensis went into 3rd place with a time of 53.564 seconds and Power Maxed Racing's Josh Cook went 4th in the Chevrolet Cruze. With time running out, the experienced drivers started to put a charge in with Tom Ingram in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis going quickest with Matt Neal in the Honda Civic Type R second and Power Maxed Racing duo Cook and Newsham 3rd and 4th. Rob Collard put in a massive lap just before the session closed to go 4th, but the top 5 were Tom Ingram from Matt Neal, Josh Cook, Rob Collard and Dave Newsham.

Andy Priaulx was 2nd fastest in his Team IHG Rewards Club BMW

The second session started 15 minutes late and with several teams, including Power Maxed Racing promising some setup change testing rather than outright fast laps, it was going to be difficult to decide who was on what strategy. With the track having dried slightly and the temperature starting to pick up, the morning's times were under threat from the off as Jack Goff in his MG 888 Racing 6GT went fastest before being replaced at the top by Rob Austin. Then we had the first of the really quick laps with Tom Ingram posting 51.107 seconds to be half a second quicker than anyone else. Worryingly for the other teams, the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R of Gordon Shedden went top after Matt Neal's heroics in the first session. Considering they have had the car for only a couple of weeks, this is highly impressive. Ingram wasn't to be outdone though and re-took the fastest lap a couple of minutes later.

As the session continued there were a succession of sub 50 second laps, with Sam Tordoff the best with 49.367 seconds ahead of Gordon Shedden 2nd, Tom Ingram 3rd and Aron Smith 4th, all under 50 seconds. With time running out, the teams reverted to their quickest setups ahead of qualifying session and the times dropped again with no fewer than 17 cars posting sub 50 second laps with 2 minutes left and Aron Smith topping the times with 49.020. In the dying seconds, the lead changed again and at the end it was Colin Turkington in the Team BMR Volkswagen CC at the top of the time sheet ahead of Andy Priaulx in his BMW 125i M Sport and Aron Smith in his Volkswagen CC 3rd. Jason Plato put the 3rd BMR car in the top 4 with Sam Tordoff in 5th. Honda Yuasa Racing were happy with both of their new cars in the top 10, however it looks like Team BMR will be the team to beat in qualifying!

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