Shedden Sets The Pace In FP1 At Knockhill
Home favourite Gordon Shedden set the fastest time in the first free practice session of the day at Knockhill.
The Scot lapped the circuit in a best time of 57.120s to head Team AON’s Tom Chilton by the best part of four tenths of a second. Ominously for the rest of the field, Chilton was the only man able to get within a second of Shedden’s time.
Matt Neal was third in the second of the Honda Racing Civics with a lap set in the last five minutes of the session.
Early pace setter Tom Onslow-Cole finished fourth fastest as the AON team began to show speed reminiscent of last season’s campaign.
The undoubted star of the session though, was Dan Welch who clocked the fifth fastest time in his Welch Automotive Proton Gen-2. The team are competing in only their second race weekend of the season, having made their debut last time out at Snetterton, so the pace they were able to run at was incredibly impressive. Welch ran consistently in the top ten for most of the session but left it late to force his way into the top five.
James Nash was sixth for Triple Eight ahead of championship leader Mat Jackson in seventh.
Defending champion Jason Plato failed to break the one minute barrier in his Silverline Chevrolet and had to settle for 19th fastest.
For the full classification, see here: http://www.tsl-timing.com/toca/2011/113503trg.pdf
FP2 begins at 12:10.
Photo Credit: Jonathan Hobley
Thomas Surgay
