Daryl De Leon put himself into the limelight with the fastest time in free practice for the British Touring Car Championship round at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.
The cheerful Anglo-Filipino scored his only BTCC race win to date at this event last season with the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport team, and enters the weekend with no restrictions on TOCA Turbo Boost after a tough opening round at Donington Park.
So too does reigning champion Tom Ingram, whose Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback languished seventh in the times but did very little running on the standard soft-compound Goodyear, which the drivers must use in all competitive running bar one race.
De Leon, normally renowned as one of the smoother drivers in the field, had swung around the BTCC’s shortest circuit in 47.365 seconds. He then emerged for a ‘rag it’ run, and suddenly started showing oversteer seldom seen since the days of Sierra RS500s on 20-lap-old tyres – and shaved a fraction off his previous effort with a 47.360s.
The Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon team continued its impressive form from Donington, with Dexter Patterson and Mikey Doble – both of whom have varying degrees of TTB restrictions – putting in late runs for second and third respectively.
Fourth and fifth were the leading pair of Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium saloons, with Dan Cammish leading Ash Sutton.
As championship leader, Sutton faces Saturday with a 19s-per-lap TTB deficit over those who are not handicapped such as Ingram and De Leon, deployed at a speed 35km/h higher.
If Sutton was running to his prescribed TTB limit, that bodes extremely well for his chances over the weekend.
Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST
Photo by: JEP
The top six was completed by the Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon of Dan Rowbottom.
Ingram’s seventh-fastest time was set with a 47.583s, but that was his only flying lap on the soft rubber and scarcely any quicker than his best on the medium Goodyears – a 47.688s, comfortably quicker than anyone else set on that compound.
Next up was Charles Rainford, whose WSR BMW is almost as badly hampered on TTB as Sutton due to his current championship runner-up position, while Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Hyundai and Adam Morgan’s Plato Mercedes completed the top 10.
The 40 minutes passed by with no stoppages, although Tom Chilton’s Excelr8 Hyundai peeled off the circuit into the back of the pits with 10 minutes remaining with mechanical woes.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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