BTC Racing’s Chris Smiley says the feeling of his FK8 Honda Civic Type R is “really good” in dry conditions, after he went quickest in the second British Touring Car Championship session at Donington Park.
The Northern Irishman was three tenths clear of Adam Morgan in second practice by virtue of a late effort, running slicks on a drying circuit.
Despite this, Smiley acknowledged that the pace is not representative of outright speed because of the mixed weather conditions.
He told TouringCars.Net he found the limit on his final run, and feels confident of his pace in the dry, but is working with his team-mate to figure out a wet setup.
“That session was one of those ones where you just go out and find your limits, and if you get anywhere near it then you’ll end up at the front,” said Smiley.
“It’s not really anything to go on. But the dry feeling in the car is really good, but a little bit to work on in the rain.
“Josh [Cook] has changed a few things on his car and we’re going to try and put the two of them together and see what the best thing is for qualifying.”
Smiley also admitted qualifying will be a rather hit-and-miss affair because of the “messy” weather which has made choosing the correct tyre and setup a tricky decision.
“At the minute we really don’t know what the weather is going to do. You look at three different apps and it gives you three different outcomes,” he said.
“It’s going to be one of the ones where you could be on the right tyre or the wrong tyre, or you could have the wrong setup on the right tyre.
“It’s just one of those messy, messy days. But we want to be somewhere near the front, and I think if it’s dry we will be on the front row somewhere.”
Qualifying is set to get underway at 15:15 BST for a half hour session at Donington, which is currently dry but with rain in the air.