Exciting rookie Max Hall shaded the big guns by topping the first of two days of official British Touring Car Championship testing at Croft on Tuesday.
The effervescent West Country youngster, who only turned 18 at the end of February, stamped in a 1m20.532s best midway through the afternoon session at the wheel of his Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra Leon.
Hall remained comfortably clear of the field until, with 10 minutes remaining, Dan Cammish got within touching distance with his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, finishing up just 0.029 seconds adrift.
Then, on a very late run, reigning champion Jake Hill leapt up the order to third with a 1m20.730s, and his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport improved further to 1m20.571s the next time around to leave the leading trio separated by just 0.039s.
Newcomer Hall, last year’s Mini Challenge runner-up, was a force to be reckoned with all day, and was part of the leading trio in the morning session along with pacesetting four-time champion Ash Sutton and Josh Cook.
“We started off the morning really well and ended up with third,” said Hall. “We changed a few things at lunchtime, the set-up was really good, so we put some softs on and went for it. The pace was there so I'm really happy with that.”
Fourth fastest was 2022 champion and last year’s runner-up Tom Ingram in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, while reigning Jack Sears Trophy champion Mikey Doble was the last man under the 1m21s barrier at the wheel of Power Maxed Racing’s Vauxhall Astra.
It is understood that the top five all set their best times on soft Goodyear tyres, although unclear who other than Hall may have been on new or little-used rubber.
Sutton’s Alliance Ford ended up outside the top 10 in the generally quicker afternoon session, but his morning best was enough to put him sixth on the day.
With the BTCC cars now running 55kg lighter without hybrid, and getting the equivalent power boost solely from the turbo, the leading six were all under the qualifying lap record for NGTC cars set by Tom Chilton last year, with Hall’s best over half a second quicker.
Sixth in the afternoon session, and seventh overall, was returning three-time champion Gordon Shedden, the Scot making a sparkling return to the BTCC with the lead Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla.
Cook was another of the quick runners not to improve in the afternoon, but his morning best with the Honda Civic Type R run by One Motorsport – returning to the BTCC after a year out – was good for eighth overall. Cook sat out a chunk of the afternoon session when he was sin-binned for track-limits offences.
Completing the top 10 on the day were two more familiar faces in new places: Adam Morgan with the Excelr8 Hyundai, and Speedworks Toyota newcomer Ronan Pearson who, like Cook, was on his first day this year of running on track in a BTCC car.
The other two Excelr8 drivers, Tom Chilton and Michael Crees, are both skipping the test due to holidays that were already booked – Crees was the last of the 24 drivers to be confirmed for the season late last week.
Meanwhile, multiple BTCC race winner Rory Butcher returned to the wheel of a BTCC car when he took over the Alliance Ford of Sam Osborne, who he has coached last summer, for the first half of the afternoon session.
It was the first time in a Focus for Butcher since his 2020 season with the team in its former incarnation of Motorbase.
BTCC Croft test - Day 1
1. Max Hall Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra 1m20.532s
2. Dan Cammish Alliance Racing Ford 1m20.561s
3. Jake Hill West Surrey Racing BMW 1m20.571s
4. Tom Ingram Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai 1m20.781s
5. Mikey Doble Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m20.994s
6. Ash Sutton Alliance Racing Ford 1m21.047s
7. Gordon Shedden Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m21.175s
8. Josh Cook One Motorsport Honda 1m21.316s
9. Adam Morgan Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai 1m21.356s
10. Ronan Pearson Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m21.422s
11. Dan Rowbottom Alliance Racing Ford 1m21.426s
12. Aron Taylor-Smith Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m21.496s
13. Daryl DeLeon West Surrey Racing BMW 1m21.569s
14. Dexter Patterson Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra 1m21.665s
15. Sam Osborne Alliance Racing Ford 1m21.736s
16. Charles Rainford West Surrey Racing BMW 1m21.796s
17. Aiden Moffat West Surrey Racing BMW 1m22.026s
18. Stephen Jelley One Motorsport Honda 1m22.048s
19. Dan Lloyd Restart Racing Hyundai 1m22.263s
20. Rory Butcher Alliance Racing Ford 1m22.461s
21. Chris Smiley Restart Racing Hyundai 1m22.662s
22. James Dorlin Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m23.066s
23. Nic Hamilton Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra 1m23.817s
