Jordan tops crowded media day test
Posted: March 27, 2011 Filed under: British Touring Cars | Tags: Andrew Jordan, BTCC, Jason Plato, Matt Neal, NGTC, Paul O'Neill, Tom Chilton, Tom Onslow-Cole Leave a comment
Andrew Jordan set the pace at Silverstone in the pre-season media day test which revealed a healthy entry list for the new season.
The 21-year-old set the quickest time of the session with a lap of 59.982s in his Eurotech Vauxhall Vectra as he completed 39 laps around Silverstone’s national circuit.
Jordan’s time proved to be an impressive quarter of a second faster than his nearest rival James Nash, sharing Tony Gilham’s Triple 8 Vauxhall Vectra in what proved to be a promising session for the NGTC turbo-engined Vauxhalls.
Third quickest was Honda’s Matt Neal who again showed strong pace in the turbo-engined Civic, finishing 0.1 seconds ahead of the man who beat him to the title last year, Jason Plato, despite suffering a puncture during the session.
2005-2006 champion Neal completed 43 laps with a car carrying ballast to simulate the weight penalties of the championship, while Plato did the same in his RML Chevrolet Cruze running the 2010 S2000-spec engine which, although lacking the straight-line power of the turbo-engined cars, was solid through the twisty second sector of the lap.
Mat Jackson’s strong pre-season continued with fifth place in the Motorbase Ford, while Tom Chilton was sixth in team AON’s all-new ‘Global’ Ford Focus.
Chevrolet’s Alex MacDowall and Honda’s Gordon Shedden made up the top eight, although Shedden’s day was limited to 25 laps when a turbo problem blighted his afternoon.
Paul O’Neill attracted a lot of attention from the hundreds of fans who attended at Silverstone, and he ended the day in ninth position on the timesheets with a solid showing in one of Techspeed’s brand-new GoMobileUK.com sponsored Chevrolet Cruzes.
Andy Neate rounded out the top ten in the second AON Ford, ahead of Jordan’s Eurotech team mate Jeff Smith, who completed the most laps of the day with a total of 99.
Rob Collard and Nick Foster also continued to rack up solid miles in their BMW’s run by West Surrey Racing and ended the test down in 13th and 14th respectively, although Collard was only 0.7 seconds off Jordan’s time.
Tom Onslow-Cole’s first showing in AMD-Miltek’s Volkswagen Golf was a one to forget as he did not even make it onto the track for the session after his car suffered terminal overboost mechanical problems during low-speed photography runs around the track during the morning.
It was also a tough day for the new NGTC-spec Toyotas as Tony Hughes had his session come to an abrupt halt early on when the power steering failed on his Speedworks Avensis, while Frank Wrathall faired even less better as his similar Dynojet entry suffered gearbox problems that prevented him from even setting a lap.
The session was red-flagged for 10 minutes midway through the session when another one of the season newcomers, Chris James, spun on oil from his own car after the engine blew in his Chevrolet Lacetti.
Times from the media day:
1. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Vauxhall 59.982s
2. James Nash/Tony Gilham* Triple 8 Vauxhall + 0.246s
3. Matt Neal Honda + 0.269s
4. Jason Plato Chevrolet + 0.385s
5. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford + 0.403s
6. Tom Chilton Arena Ford + 0.412s
7. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet + 0.466s
8. Gordon Shedden Honda + 0.527s
9. Paul O’Neill Tech-Speed Chevrolet + 0.611s
10. Andy Neate Arena Ford + 0.623s
11. Jeff Smith Eurotech Vauxhall + 0.736s
12. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford + 0.777s
13. Rob Collard WSR BMW + 0.784s
14. Nick Foster WSR BMW + 1.024s
15. Dave Newsham Geoff Steel BMW + 1.148s
16. John George Tech-Speed Chevrolet + 1.396s
17. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT + 4.409s
*Nash set the time in Gilham’s car
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