Smiley pips Ingram to fastest time in free practice

Chris Smiley pipped Tom Ingram to take fastest time in free practice for the fourth round of the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton.

The Hampshire speedbowl has been subjected to unpredictable weather, but the 70 minutes of running across the two sessions allowed enough dry running for the teams to get dialled in for what is forecast to be a largely sunny Sunday.

The first period was the worst affected, with a greasy track greeting the field and sprinkles of rain building into mid-session drizzle, before the sun’s valiant – if unsuccessful – attempt to break through allowed four-time champion and 2025 points leader Ash Sutton to get close to the qualifying lap record as he whisked his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST around over half a second faster than anyone else.

Twelve drivers ventured onto wet-weather rubber as opposed to the hard dry Goodyear mandated throughout the weekend for slicks use, although it was never wet enough for this to be anything other than a tyre-scrubbing exercise.

The spits and spots of rain remained for FP2, but it was slicks all the way, with Ingram establishing his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback at the top of the times as the session moved into its second half, comfortably under the qualifying record.

But in the final 10 minutes, it was Smiley setting the pace, and the hard-charging Northern Irishman eclipsed Ingram’s time by a mere 0.008 seconds at the wheel of an identical Hyundai, fielded by Independents team Restart Racing.

Rookie Charles Rainford looked strong and headed the times for a while before his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport slipped back to end the session third.

The last driver within a tenth of the pace was Dan Cammish, who got his Alliance Ford around in a time good enough for fourth.

Sutton was fifth in the quicker FP2, while series returnee Senna Proctor planted his Excelr8 Hyundai in sixth.

Because Proctor was a pre-season championship registration, he is not subjected to the discretionary restriction on TOCA Turbo Boost that is sometimes used for series latecomers, so will be on the full 15 seconds per lap for qualifying.

Two more Hyundais – Dan Lloyd (Restart) and Adam Morgan (Excelr8) – were seventh and eighth ahead of the lead Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport in the hands of Aron Taylor-Smith, with reigning champion Jake Hill (WSR BMW) completing the top 10.

With alternate positions from FP2 setting the qualifying groups, that means that of the championship top three Sutton will run in the first split, with Ingram and Hill in the second.

The field was down to 24 in FP2 after Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra driver Nick Halstead was taken to hospital with a rib injury – legacy of a shunt in the McLaren Trophy Europe at Monza last weekend.