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Furthermore, despite cold temperatures, the leading two drivers were (unofficially) not just under last year’s pole position time but also the pole time set by Yvan Muller in April 2001 – the longest-standing record currently in the BTCC.

BMW Dealer Team UK driver Jackson completed more than 100 laps during the day around Brands’ short 1.2-mile Indy circuit. His best lap time of 48.873s came 25 minutes before the end of the day. Reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra VXR) - who suffered a second minor off this afternoon - was next up but fractionally slower than his morning session-topping time which left him second fastest overall. A fine eighth was Matt Allison in Robertshaw Racing's new Chevrolet Lacetti.

The day ended with an onslaught of action, with the majority of teams sending out their drivers for simulated qualifying runs, many on new sets of Dunlop tyres. One driver who deliberately missed the final running was Team RAC’s Colin Turkington in his BMW 320si whose best lap - set on used tyres - was still enough to put him third outright. As team principal Dick Bennetts pointed out: “We don’t need to get sucked into a qualifying game at this stage.”

To some degree, his comments were echoed by pace-setter Jackson. The 26-year-old told BTCC.net: “Even I was surprised by that time. It’s a great boost for everyone in the team, but you still don’t know what everyone else has got up their sleeves and in some ways today actually doesn’t mean that much. It’s in 13 days' time that it will really matter. Hopefully we can repeat our performance. I’m pleased with my driving, I keep learning that bit more about the car each time out.”

Significantly, SEAT – using diesel engines for the first time – stayed on track so drivers Darren Turner and Jason Plato (ninth and tenth fastest overall) could practice their starts in their Leon TDis.