In the first of today’s two Free Practice sessions, Mat Jackson held his own, securing an overall 3rd place finish with a time of 1.01.128. In one of the closest fort practices this season just 0.95 seconds separated the first seventeen drivers, with Steven Kane running a 1.01.636 to finish 13th. In usual fashion the session was led by Chilton’s awkwardly fast turbo charged Ford (1.01.084) followed swiftly by Jordan’s NGTC turbo specification Vauxhall Vectra (1.01.114).

FP2 was again a trouble-free affair, this time the Airwaves BMW drivers swapped places with Kane up amongst the front-runners with a 1.01.051 that left him in 7th. Once again this was enough to give the Airwaves BMW driver the fastest BMW on track, and with Jackson just 0.345 seconds behind without fresh rubber, his 12th placed Airwaves BMW had a solid foundation for qualifying. This time around the turbo charged Pirtek Vectra led the way, with Jordan echoing the success of his earlier performance with a time of 1.00.650. As ever the fascinatingly quick LPG turbo powered Focus, this time of Onslow-Cole was just .005 behind.

The serious business of qualifying however did not go to plan. After a terrific opening ten minutes, with Jackson immediately taking the top spot, a failed ride height test forced him out of the running – thanks to a damaged component hanging just a fraction too low the slate was wiped clean and all his previous efforts were in vein with just minutes of the session remaining.

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