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Croft BTCC: Colin Turkington storms to pole for WSR BMW

Colin Turkington took pole for the British Touring Car Championship event at Croft after a dramatic qualifying session

Jason Plato's Triple Eight MG initially set the pace, being the first to dip below 1m24s with a 1m23.963s, but was almost immediately surpassed by Turkington and Andrew Jordan.

Jordan's Eurotech Honda Civic held pole for a few moments before another flyer by Turkington produced a 1m23.817s to move to the top of the timesheets.

After a brief red flag, Turkington recorded a 1m23.248s to move pole beyond the reach of everyone else.

"It was a really good lap," said Turkington, who was carrying 45kg of success ballast as the championship leader. "The chassis is working really well around here and we can carry the weight."

After being jumped by the works Honda Civic Tourers of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, a late effort from Plato secured second. He made a small error on his next lap but believes Turkington's mark was out of reach anyway.

Shedden and Neal locked out the second row, while Jordan ended up fifth. He clipped the tyres early in the session, damaging the front of his Eurotech Civic, and failed to improve on his initial effort.

Rob Collard underlined the strength of the rear-wheel-drive WSR BMW around Croft by qualifying sixth, just ahead of the second Triple Eight MG of Sam Tordoff.

Adam Morgan was the worst affected by the red flag, having just recorded an outright best in sector one and a personal best in sector two when the session was stopped.

The Ciceley Mercedes man nevertheless qualified eighth, while Rob Austin took 10th, thanks to his team managing to rebuild the Audi A4 after his crash in free practice.

Aron Smith had a time disallowed for a track limits infringement and ended up 11th, and Dave Newhsam's AmD Ford Focus failed the rideheight test during the session.

Motorbase struggled, late improvements from Mat Jackson and Fabrizio Giovanardi only being good enough for 15th and 18th respectively.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car           Time       Gap
 1.  Colin Turkington     WSR BMW            1m23.246s
 2.  Jason Plato          MG                 1m23.616s  +0.370s
 3.  Gordon Shedden       Honda              1m23.768s  +0.522s
 4.  Matt Neal            Honda              1m23.872s  +0.626s
 5.  Andrew Jordan        Eurotech Honda     1m23.881s  +0.635s
 6.  Rob Collard          WSR BMW            1m23.978s  +0.732s
 7.  Sam Tordoff          MG                 1m23.992s  +0.746s
 8.  Adam Morgan          Ciceley Mercedes   1m24.113s  +0.867s
 9.  Alain Menu           BMR VW             1m24.182s  +0.936s
10.  Rob Austin           RAR Audi           1m24.229s  +0.983s
11.  Aron Smith           BMR VW             1m24.253s  +1.007s
12.  Marc Hynes           MG                 1m24.430s  +1.184s
13.  Nick Foster          WSR BMW            1m24.443s  +1.197s
14.  Tom Ingram           Speedworks Toyota  1m24.527s  +1.281s
15.  Mat Jackson          Motorbase Ford     1m24.538s  +1.292s
16.  Dave Newsham         AmD Ford           1m24.696s  +1.450s
17.  Hunter Abbott        RAR Audi           1m24.724s  +1.478s
18.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Motorbase Ford     1m24.763s  +1.517s
19.  Jack Goff            BMR Vauxhall       1m24.911s  +1.665s
20.  Glynn Geddie         UA Toyota          1m24.919s  +1.673s
21.  James Cole           UA Toyota          1m24.932s  +1.686s
22.  Warren Scott         BMR Vauxhall       1m25.007s  +1.761s
23.  Jack Clarke          Motorbase Ford     1m25.164s  +1.918s
24.  Martin Depper        Eurotech Honda     1m25.218s  +1.972s
25.  Lea Wood             Houseman Toyota    1m25.706s  +2.460s
26.  Aiden Moffat         Moffat Chevrolet   1m26.160s  +2.914s
27.  Ollie Jackson        Welch Proton       1m26.697s  +3.451s
28.  Robb Holland         Rotek Audi         1m26.926s  +3.680s
29.  Daniel Welch         Welch Proton       1m26.966s  +3.720s
30.  Simon Belcher        Handy Toyota       1m27.298s  +4.052s
31.  Chris Stockton       BTC Chevrolet

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