A late lap from Jonny Adam helped TF Sport pace a red flag-interrupted second free practice session at Rockingham earlier today, while PMW Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport’s Mike Robinson was again fastest of the GT4 contingent.
Excursions for William Phillips and Marcus Hoggarth necessitated two red flag periods in quick succession, but when the action resumed with 17 minutes remaining it was TF Sport’s reigning champions who seized the initiative.
Derek Johnston was the first to provisionally top the times after Ryan Ratcliffe and then Liam Griffin lead the way. But Adam emerged from the pits with five minutes remaining to lower his co-driver’s benchmark to a 1m17.885s, which would remain unbeaten thereafter.
That time was a tenth quicker than the #1 V12 Vantage had managed in FP1 but still half a second shy of Phil Keen’s pace from the morning session. An engine change for the Lamborghini, which ground to a halt at the end of the first session, condemned Keen and co-driver Jon Minshaw to the garage throughout second practice.
Griffin and Sam Tordoff at least gave Barwell Motorsport something to smile about by setting the second fastest time, although their best was still 0.585s slower than Adam’s best and significantly down on their morning’s PB.
Jon Barnes lapped 0.034s slower to finish third in the second TF Sport Aston Martin, while Ryan Ratcliffe’s early time remained good enough to give the AMDTuning.com Mercedes-AMG fourth. Team Parker Racing’s two Bentleys completed the top-six ahead of Charlie Robertson’s Century Motorsport Ginetta G55 and Macmillan AMR’s V12 Vantage.
GT4 followed a similar pattern to the first session with Mike Robinson again leading by almost three tenths. His best of 1m23.827s was 0.4s down on his morning’s benchmark but, crucially, 0.283s faster than Lanan Racing’s Oulton Park race winners Alex Reed and David Pittard.
Tolman Motorsport’s Joe Osborne was once again the fastest McLaren driver on show in third courtesy of his 1m24.015s lap. That was almost half a second shy of Robinson and less than a tenth clear of Martin Plowman’s UltraTek Racing Team RJN Nissan 370Z, which enjoyed another positive session.
George Gamble finished fifth on his debut outing with Century ahead of Matty Graham and Marcus Hoggarth’s McLaren, which ended its FP1 in the Deene barrier with minor damage.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s two hour race gets underway at 15:35 this afternoon.
Click here for the complete FP2 classification.