Dubliner Taylor-Smith stamped in a late effort within the cooler circumstances of the primary session to prime the occasions on the wheel of his Energy Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra on a 47.905s.
Mikey Doble left it even later – the ultimate lap of the session – to finish a 1-2 for the Midlands PMR squad with a lap simply 0.007s adrift of his veteran team-mate.
Within the lunchtime session, it was the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback of Tom Chilton to the fore, by a substantial margin by the requirements of the minuscule Manufacturers Indy circuit – the Surrey man’s 48.047s left him 0.171s away from the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST of Dan Rowbottom.
Rowbottom triggered the one crimson flag of the 70 minutes of working with 9 minutes remaining when he went off at Paddock Hill Bend and “we kissed the barrier”.
The clock was set to permit 5 extra minutes of working, throughout which the quickest time was set by the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla of Josh Cook, who remained fourth within the session however moved nearer to the third-placed Alliance Ford of Dan Cammish.
The general 5 quickest occasions throughout free observe all got here from FP1. Behind the Vauxhalls, Colin Turkington was third in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport, which sat atop the occasions till the closing minutes.
The four-time champion was simply forward of Prepare dinner, with reigning title holder Ash Sutton additionally inside 0.1s of Taylor-Smith’s finest in his Alliance Ford.
Tom Chilton, Bristol Road Motors Hyundai i30 N Fastback
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Taylor-Smith obtained a black-and-white warning flag for observe limits throughout that session, and did seem like working wider at Paddock than a lot of the opposition.
Chilton’s FP2 topper put him sixth general forward of the FP1 bests of Jake Hill (WSR BMW) and Rowbottom, whereas Cammish was ninth on mixed occasions and Andrew Watson (Speedworks Toyota) was tenth.
Rowbottom’s off was the second of the weekend at Paddock for the NAPA group – 1992 champion Tim Harvey had a whizz in Sam Osborne’s Concentrate on Friday for the ITV protection of the sequence, and dropped it at Paddock.
However the bearded Midlander stays one of many favourites for pole place as sequence organiser TOCA’s new sporting rules kick on this weekend.
The push-button enhance allowance has been doubled for 2024, and Rowbottom, since he’s sitting exterior the highest seven within the championship, has the total 15 seconds per lap allowance, which may have a larger impact at Manufacturers Indy than another circuit, as a result of it has the shortest lap time.
Staff-mate Cammish additionally seems to be sitting fairly on this regard, on 13s of enhance.
Daniel Rowbottom, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The opposite new sporting regulation to affect qualifying is the splitting of the sphere into two teams, primarily based on alternate FP2 occasions, for the primary section.
Because of this Chilton, Cammish, Taylor-Smith, Sutton and Turkington might be amongst these combating to make the highest six cut-off within the first group to progress to Q2, with Rowbottom, Prepare dinner, Hill and championship chief Tom Ingram within the second group.
Ingram, twice a winner within the opening spherical at Donington Park, was exterior the highest 10 in each classes in his Excelr8 Hyundai.
BTCC Manufacturers Hatch – Observe outcomes
FP2
FP1