Sam Tordoff heads Brands Hatch test
Sam Tordoff topped the times as the full BTCC field hit the track at Brands Hatch for a day of official testing.
The Cobra Sport AmD driver was fastest in both the morning and afternoon sessions at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type-R FK2 and was the only driver who was able to dip below the 48s mark.
His time of 47.927s was quicker than Jack Goff managed in securing pole in the same car during the season opener last season.
Tordoff headed Andrew Jordan’s BMW during the morning running, but it was the Ford Focus of Tom Chilton that would ultimately end the day second overall following the afternoon session.
The Motorbase driver would end the day a tenth of a second slower and just edged out the Honda of Dan Cammish, who was just 0.016s further back in third spot.
Despite improving his time during the afternoon, Jordan was fourth fastest in the quickest of the new BMW 330i M Sports, which were running in anger for the first time after a roll out at the same circuit the previous day.
Rory Butcher in the second of the AmD cars was fifth fastest ahead of the other all-new car on the grid; the Toyota Corolla of Tom Ingram.
Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley rounded out the top eight although neither driver was able to lap quicker in the afternoon than they had done in the morning.
Matt Neal – who only ran in the morning due to sponsor commitments elsewhere in the afternoon – and Jake Hill rounded out the top ten.
Elsewhere, former champion Ash Sutton was the quickest of the two Subarus in 19th overall – two places ahead of former team-mate Jason Plato in the quickest of the two Vauxhalls. Jack Goff was just ahead in 18th spot in his first run in Team HARD’s Volkswagen.
Best of the rookies was Dan Rowbottom in 22nd, just ahead of Nicolas Hamilton and former F1 driver Mark Blundell.
The top 27 drivers were able to lap within a second of the pace with all 30 drivers taking to the track, although Carl Boardley didn’t set a time due to a transponder issue.
