Senna Proctor races into BTCC top 10

Rudston’s Senna Proctor continued his remarkable 2021 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season with the latest race meeting at the Thruxton race circuit in Hampshire.
Senna Proctor in BTCC action at Thruxton

Photo by @gavinprocphotographySenna Proctor in BTCC action at Thruxton

Photo by @gavinprocphotography
Senna Proctor in BTCC action at Thruxton Photo by @gavinprocphotography

The 2.36 mile track is the fastest in the UK with an average lap speed in excess of 110mph, with around 150mph being achieved on the Brooklands Straight.

Despite missing the first meeting of the season, then not scoring any points in his season debut at Snetterton, the East Yorkshireman now sits a well deserved 10th in the Drivers’ Championship.

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For the fourth race meeting in a row the consistent Proctor qualified well and then scored points in all three races.

Senna Proctor in BTCC action at Thruxton

Photo by @gavinprocphotographySenna Proctor in BTCC action at Thruxton

Photo by @gavinprocphotography
Senna Proctor in BTCC action at Thruxton Photo by @gavinprocphotography

In a close qualifying session 17 drivers were within 0.9 of a second of the pole position time. Proctor posted a best lap just 0.418 seconds behind the pole sitter and that secured him a fifth row starting slot alongside four-times champion Colin Turkington.

The opening race saw former Scarborough College student Proctor make his way up the field and then defend his position successfully from the vastly experienced Jason Plato in the Power Maxed Racing Astra.

In the second race of the day Proctor’s BTC Racing FK8 Honda Civic had to carry an additional 21kgs of success ballast.

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Despite the additional weight the East Yorkshireman again made impressive forward progress and finished 7th out of the 29 starters.

For the final race of the day Proctor then produced another fine racing display with a strong race from start to finish and a podium position, for third overall, in an exciting 19 lap race.

Speaking immediately after his podium celebrations Proctor said: “I thought I could win that one before the race, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“The rear-wheel drive cars pulled away from the line quite well and then the safety car coming out after one lap gave them chance to get temperature in their tyres.

“I was just playing follow the leader then.

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“I had a bit of pressure from Jake [Hill] behind, he was a little better than me coming out of the complex, so I was just managing that and then I was good through the fast stuff.

“So we played to the Honda’s strengths and my strengths and managed to hold on to third, which is a great result for everyone at BTC Racing.”

Next up in the 30 race season are rounds 19, 20 and 21 at one of Senna’s favourite circuits, which is Croft in North Yorkshire.

With a large local support expected tickets are still available for the meeting from www.croftcircuit.co.uk

The races will be shown live on ITV4 and the Saturday qualifying will be online at www.itv.com/btcc All of the season’s racing is available to watch again using the ITV Player service.

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