The 28-year-old Thompson, who is regarded by many series insiders as a champion of the future in the right circumstances, is now working flat-out with the Sunbury squad on trying to put a deal together to start the 2024 season at Donington Park at the end of this month.
Thompson, who has always struggled to raise a budget to compete in the BTCC, did not register on the timing at Brands because his BMW 330e M Sport was not fitted with a transponder.
That was because he was not running with the Cosworth-supplied hybrid boost system, meaning he was approximately 30bhp down on the other WSR BMWs of Jake Hill, Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan.
Despite this, Thompson was clocked in the 48.3s bracket on two separate WSR stopwatches and his onboard data logging, which would have put him in the top 10 in the times on his first day in a rear-wheel-drive BTCC car.
In the early running in the wet morning session, WSR recorded Thompson at a 53.50s on his very first run during the opening hour, at a time when the pace was set by reigning champion Ash Sutton’s Alliance Racing Ford on 53.350s, with Hill the fastest BMW on 53.363s.
“With the hybrid being a bigger jump this year [due to the new BTCC regulations doubling the boost gain], I’m fairly happy with that,” Thompson told Autosport.
“In the wet, I got out of the car in the morning saying I’d be ready to go into a qualifying session – I was over the moon with it.
“We made some changes for the dry, and I was happy to feel those changes.
“Of course, I’ve got my head around front-wheel drive and what things do, but rear-wheel drive is obviously different, so it was nice to have a little play and go in a direction I like, which is stiffer.”
