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British Touring Car Championship
Knockhill - Free Practice - 22/8/15

By MJP Media | 22 August 2015

Local hero Gordon Shedden leads the pack in free practice in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship's annual trip north of the border.

Gordon Shedden leads Matt Neal in the first practice session

In a development that was sure to please the massive home crowd at Knockhill, young Scottish heart throb Aiden Moffat was cleared to race after his accident at the last round at Snetterton which saw the Dalkeith based driver airlifted to hospital.

Despite some weather worries earlier in the week, the first of the two free practice sessions started in dry, bright and warm conditions at the tight and twisty Scottish circuit. In the early exchanges it was Kieran Gallagher in the RCIB Insurance Racing Toyota Avensis who was the first driver to break the 1 minute barrier, but still some 9 seconds off the previous qualifying lap record time. As the times began to tumble it was Tom Ingram who was the quickest, dropping the lap time to a much more respectable level and for a period of time it was Speedworks Motorsport's Ingram and Motorbase Performance's James Cole who traded places at the top of the time sheet.

Jeff Smith was 2nd fastest in his Eurotech Racing Honda Civic

With nearly half of the session gone it appeared that normal order was being resumed as Jason Plato in his Team BMR RCIB Insurance Volkswagen CC went to the top of the times and was joined by Sam Tordoff, Aron Smith and Colin Turkington. As session progressed it soon became clear that the class of the field were the two Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type Rs as Gordon Shedden put in a blistering 52.267 second lap, closely followed by team-mate Matt Neal with 52.272, just 5/1000ths of a second behind. Also impressive was Mat Jackson who went 3rd fastest in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus with Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff rounding out the top 5. Strangely off the pace while doing development work were the Team BMR RCIB Insurance Volkswagen CCs with Aron Smith 12th, Jason Plato 13th, Colin Turkington 17th and Warren Scott 18th.

The clouds had rolled in and the temperature had dropped slightly as the cars took to the track for the second free practice session with the threat of rain intensified. In the early part of the second session both Mat Jackson and Sam Tordoff were again looking good at the top of the leader board until Rob Austin put in a 52.520 second lap to temporarily sit at the head of the field before Jackson went ahead again in the massively impressive Ford Focus. Whilst Motorbase Performance sat out the first half of the season they are certainly looking competitive this weekend, their second meeting back.

Gordon Shedden topped the time sheets in both sessions

After a red flag period caused by Jeff Smith's Honda Civic shortly after he had set the fastest lap of the day with a 52.051, the session resumed with 22 minutes to go. Despite his off, Smith's lap stayed at the top of the time sheet for most of the session until a brilliant lap by Gordon Shedden relegated Smith to second as Shedden posted a 51.898 with 8 minutes to go. As the session moved into the last 4 minutes, the battle seemed to be behind Shedden and Smith with Sam Tordoff, Mat Jackson and Andy Priaulx all within 1/10th of a second in 3rd, 4th and 5th. At the flag it was Gordon Shedden fastest from Jeff Smith with Sam Tordoff and Mat Jackson 3rd and 4th with Andy Priaulx and Andrew Jordan completing the top 6 places. Once again the Team BMR RCIB Insurance cars were struggling with Jason Plato in 9th, Turkington in 16th, Aron Smith in 19th and Warren Scott 22nd.

All eyes will now be on the skies as we approach the qualifying session to see if the threatened rain materialises, in which case the teams will be scurrying for their wet weather data - if they have any of course. We will bring you the qualifying report straight after the session.

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