Andrew Jordan heads opening practice at Brands Hatch
Andrew Jordan topped the times for West Surrey Racing in the opening practice of the new BTCC season at Brands Hatch.
The Pirtek Racing-backed man emerged as the man to beat at the wheel of the new BMW 330i M Sport, lapping slightly quicker than the Honda of Sam Tordoff – which has been fastest in testing the same circuit last week.
Jordan’s best time of 48.034s came despite him admitting he wasn’t totally comfortable at the wheel of the car, which goes into the season with only limited track running.
Tordoff had topped the times at the midway point of the session for Cobra Sport AmD, but eventually had to settle for second place with his best time being just 0.057s down on Jordan’s benchmark.
It meant the older FK2 Honda finished ahead of the newer FK8, with Dan Cammish third for Team Dynamics. Chris Smiley in the first of the BTC Racing cars and Matt Neal in the second of the Dynamics car slotted in behind, with the top five covered by under two tenths of a second.
Former champion Ash Sutton was sixth in the best of the two Subaru Levorgs, with two more Hondas behind in the hands of Josh Cook and Rory Butcher, with Tom Ingram’s new Toyota Corolla and the older BMW 125i M Sport of Stephen Jelley rounding out the top ten.
Defending champion Colin Turkington was 13th quickest in his BMW, just behind new team-mate Tom Oliphant, with Jason Plato 19th on his return to Vauxhall.
Dan Rowbottom was best of the rookies in 22nd place, with the top 26 drivers covered by less than a second.
