Championship’s qualifying session at Oulton Park.

Driver Tony Hughes, behind the wheel of the Northwich team’s Toyota Avensis, shaved close to a second off his best time in practice.

He starts the first of tomorrow’s three races from row 12 on the grid after posting a 1:31.605.

The 53-year-old completed more laps - 14 – than anybody else in the 30-minutes session, finishing 24th fastest with a half second gap to next quickest Chris James (Team ES Racing).

He was one of several drivers to find the oil slick left by the Ford Focus of Liam Griffin (Airwaves Racing), which led to the Knutsford man to take evasive action.

A red flag followed with three minutes of the session left.

Further up the field Gordon Shedden (Honda Racing Team) was ahead of everybody else, including points leader Matt Neal.

The Scot clocked a 1:27.355, more than four seconds faster than Hughes.

Andy Neate (Team Aon) surprised everybody to put his Ford Focus on the grid’s second row alongside champion Jason Plato (Silverline Chevrolet).

Sunday’s first race starts at 12.15pm.

ITV will broadcast the action live from the Little Budworth circuit.