Chris Smiley goes fastest in second Oulton Park practice

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley lowered the benchmark around Oulton Park even further as four Hyundais occupied the top six in second British Touring Car Championship practice.

The Northern Irishman went fastest than Dan Rowbottom had this morning, with his 1:24.288 being just a tenth of a second shy of the existing qualifying lap record.

Prior to the session starting the circuit was hit with a heavy rain shower and despite a number of cars electing to start on wet tyres, the grid soon switched to slicks and times began to tumble.

Smiley punched in the fastest time of the day so far and finishing hot on his heels was the Speedworks Toyota Corolla of Aron Taylor-Smith, while championship contender Tom Ingram completed the top three.

James Dorlin backed up Taylor-Smith’s pace in the Corolla by finishing fourth whilst Adam Morgan and Daniel Lloyd were fifth and sixth respectively.

Completing the top ten was three-time champion Gordon Shedden, Snetterton race winner Mikey Doble, Dexter Patterson and the first of the Alliance Racing Ford Focus machines, Dan Cammish.

Qualifying for the fifth meeting of the season at Oulton Park is scheduled to begin at 15:00.