Moffat airlifted after BTCC crashposted in BTCC08 | 08 | 2015

SCOT AIDEN MOFFAT was airlifted to hospital after crashing his Mercedes heavily during the second free practice ahead of tomorrow's British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton.

The 18-year-old from Dalkeith's Mercedes A Class spun wildly at Montreal, the tight right-hander, and eventually made heavy contact with the barrier.

There was also a small fire in the car, but initially Moffat was able to walk away from the incident.

The talented young Scot though did show signs of concussion and after being assessed by the TOCA Medical Team at the circuit’s Medical Centre, he was flown to a local hospital for a precautionary scan.

In addition to Moffat (picture) being ruled out of this weekend's triple-header at Snetterton, it's now unlikely he will be passed fit to race at the annual BTCC outing at Knockhill in a fortnight.

There was frustration for fellow Scot, championship leader Gordon Shedden in qualifying. The 36-year-old from Dalgety Bay could only manage 16th-fastest after his Honda Civic suffered power steering failure.

"Not what I wanted this weekend at all," the 36-year-old former champ, who leads the title race by 10 points from Jason Plato, admitted. "We've set ourselves big challenge for the opening race, but there's a lot of points available throughout the weekend."

Former Knockhill race instructor and BTCC champ, Colin Turkington, starts tomorrow's opening race from pole position after clocking a fastest lap of 1min 56.047secs in his Volkswagen.

Scot, Lesmahagow's Derek Palmer, qualified his Support Our Paras Racing Infiniti 23rd in the 29-car field, on his first outing at the Norfolk circuit, while Fifer Barry Horne qualified his Ford Focus 25th.

Related: Knockhill gets earlier 2016 BTCC date

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Jim McGill