HUGHES TOPS THE TIMES FOR MG SPORT AND RACING AT COMPETITIVE SNETTERTON TEST

Warren Hughes set the fastest ever time for the current specification British Touring Cars this afternoon as he topped the fourth official Green Flag BTCC test.

Hughes, who currently lies fifth in the championship, ran strongly in the top six all day – finally putting his competitors in the shade on his very last timed lap.

Said Hughes:

“This is the first opportunity the team has had to run both new race cars back-to-back on a full test day and it’s been a really useful exercise for us. We’ve made very good progress and visited a lot of new stuff that we’ve been scared to try over a race weekend. It’s filled us with optimism.”

With a very wet spell around lunchtime, the day was firmly split into two, with Paul O’Neill for Egg Sport setting the pace in the first dry session. However, as the other teams worked through their test programme, O’Neill found himself bumped down the order – but he still finished the day rounding out the top six.

The closest challenger to Hughes’ MG ZS was the revelation of the day – former World Superbike star Aaron Slight for Barwell Motorsport. An oil leak in the morning had prevented the New Zealander from posting any representative lap times, however when the track fully dried in the afternoon, Slight found the limits of his Astra Coupé and recorded a time just 3/100ths of a second shy of Hughes.

Also just 3/100ths of a second off the quickest time of the day was Andy Priaulx – who marginally eclipsed his team mate Alan Morrison in their identical Honda Civic Type-Rs. The Honda Racing pairing had been on the pace all day, with both drivers featuring at the top of the time sheets towards the end of the session. The fact that the team was disappointed to end up third and fourth quickest overall shows the impressive pace of development for this new team to the championship.

MG Sport and Racing’s Anthony Reid ended up a satisfied fifth quickest, from O’Neill in sixth and the lead Team Petronas Syntium Proton of David Leslie in seventh. Hounding Leslie for position were young guns Colin Turkington and Gareth Howell for Team Atomic Kitten, from Tim Harvey in the Team Halfords Peugeot 406 Coupé. Newcomer Carl Breeze, the reigning Formula Renault Sport Champion from Kings Lynn in Norfolk, jumped into Harvey’s car for a few laps this afternoon, in preparation for his Green Flag BTCC debut at Silverstone in three weeks time.

In the Production category, German Norman Simon set the pace for Edenbridge Racing and looked to hold a small, but significant, advantage over his rivals. Crucially, Tech-speed Motorsport’s Mark Fullalove, whose car was badly damaged last time out at Thruxton, was only able to run a few laps in team mate Annie Templeton’s Peugeot 306 in the morning. However, a longer stint in the afternoon saw Fullalove take the fight to Simon – and pip him by less than 1/100th of a second at the flag. Both drivers were almost one second clear of Beacon Motorsport’s Spencer Marsh in third.

Whilst it was a fiercely competitive session today, not all Green Flag BTCC competitors were in a position to participate in this penultimate test of the season.

With both its drivers close to the limit of four permitted engines during the season, Vauxhall Motorsport elected to run neither James Thompson nor Yvan Muller. On the same basis, Egg Sport left Matt Neal’s Vauxhall Astra Coupé back at base. These three drivers, currently tied on points at the head of the table, therefore head to the next meeting at Silverstone without the valuable testing mileage gained by their competitors today.

Also missing from the Snetterton time sheets were Production category combatants Team B&Q Jet York City, GA Motorsport and Collard Racing – all of whom incurred accident damage at the preceding Thruxton race meeting. Another casualty from Thruxton was teenager Tom Chilton who competes in the Touring class for Barwell Motorsport. Chilton, the youngest ever BTCC competitor, will be hoping for a return to form at Silverstone.

The next time the Green Flag BTCC drivers go head-to-head will be for Rounds Seven and Eight of the Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship, which take place at Silverstone Circuit, Northants, on 1/2/3 June.