BTC Racing man Senna Proctor drove his Honda Civic Type R to the top today (6 July) at Oulton Park, as the 22-year-old recorded the fastest lap time of the opening day of the two-day Goodyear tyre test.
“Today was a good day,” said Proctor. “We got a lot of testing with the car under our belts this afternoon in the dry, and it was nice for me to have a few proper runs in the car without being under the pressure of a race weekend. We got some good laps under our belt and then tried some dramatic setup changes. We found a lot of pace in the car and got it more towards my liking with a few little changes I wanted, so that was definitely a step forward. Hopefully, we get another dry day tomorrow and we can progress further, maybe do a few more race runs and go from there.
“Tomorrow is really about fine-tuning what we’ve learnt today. We threw some quite drastic setup changes on the car, so now it’s a case of picking the bones out of it tonight and fine-tuning the little bits that we found. Hopefully get a little bit of wet testing as well to make sure I’m used to the car in the wet and then we can progress the wet setup up to my liking as well.”
Halfords Racing with Cataclean pair Gordon Shedden and Daniel Rowbottom went second and third-fastest, the duo having recently bagged the same finishing positions during Brands Hatch's opening race just under two weeks ago.
Jack Goff (Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct) and Jake Hill (MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square) completed the top five, while the Hyundai of Chris Smiley (Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com) went the sixth-fastest.
Hill went to the summit of the timings initially although, as the track continued to dry out, lap times began to decrease and all of the top five drivers graced the spot before Proctor sealed the deal with just over 20 minutes left on the clock.
Proceedings came to a short halt just before the two-hour mark as the Hyundai of Tom Ingram (Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com) was recovered following a mechanical failure.
Ingram, who had topped the times during the wet morning stint, ended his session with only six laps on the board and consequently went 24th-fastest overall due to the afternoon’s drier, quicker track.
Tomorrow’s second day of running kicks off once again from 0900-1230, while the afternoon session between 1330-1655 will draw this year’s official Goodyear tyre test to a close.
Click here for the final classification from the opening day of testing at Oulton Park.
