Michael Crees scorched to the top seven in the combined classification during the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship’s annual Goodyear tyre test yesterday (13 July) with the CarStore Power Maxed Racing man’s lap time marking the fastest of the Independent runners.

Joining the vast majority of the BTCC grid at Snetterton’s 300 Circuit for a two-day outing in sweltering weather, the Broadstairs racer embarked on various testing programmes in the #777 Vauxhall Astra.

After ending the opening day seventh in the Independents and 19th overall, the 38-year-old made marked improvements on day two. 

Punching in a best time of 1:55.849s on the marginally cooler second morning, Crees ended the four-hour run an excellent seventh overall as well as the Independents’ pace-setter. 

Although sitting out the final afternoon, Crees had done enough to conclude the two days of testing as the lead Independents’ Trophy runner and now goes into the second half of the season – which gets underway at Knockhill in Scotland in just over two weeks (30/31 July) – with majorly boosted confidence.

“We really needed an opportunity to try some different things with the car,” said Crees. “You just can’t do that anywhere near the same level on a race weekend, and so these last two days at Snetterton have been vital for us to understand the car more and make some good progress. We conducted a lot of productive work and I’m obviously very happy to end the test as the quickest Independents’ driver.

“The conditions were far from easy out there, it’s been boiling hot in the car each day, but the whole team pushed forward and I really do think we can be confident we’ve unlocked some important stuff. We won’t know for sure until we get to Knockhill if we’ve made the steps forward, we think we have, but I’m definitely feeling as positive as I have all season. It’s been two really good days.”

The 2022 campaign resumes with Rounds 16, 17 and 18 at Knockhill Circuit in Fife (30/31 July) as the championship makes its annual visit north of the border to Scotland.