It was Déjà vu for Qualifying at the latest rounds of the BTCC at Croft in North Yorkshire as Colin Turkington put his Subaru on pole for the second meeting in a row with Eurotech’s Daniel Lloyd once again alongside in his Honda Civic.
The session had several incidents around the first few corners with the most significant, a clash between Rob Collard and Matt Neal, brought out the red flags.
Neal had been on a hot lap when he ran wide entering Hawthorns. As he gathered things up he came across Rob Collard who had just emerged from the pits. Neal was unable to stop his car drifting wide and the two made contact putting both drivers out of the session. Neal was given two points on his licence and an official reprimand for the incident.
“Matt misjudged the gap,” said Collard. “I was on cold tyres and left a gap. He’s apologised, he got it wrong, but it doesn’t bring qualifying back for me. I’d shown good pace and we were looking for a potential top five – it’s very frustrating.”
After that stoppage Turkington kept getting quicker and quicker and whenever another driver got close to his time, he’d set an even quicker lap. His final time of 1:23.608 was nearly four tenths of a second quicker than Lloyd in second and Turkington was the only driver to dip into the 1:23 times.
Turkington has always gone well at the Yorkshire circuit and he’ll be looking to produce another lights to flag victory as he completed at Oulton Park.
“I’ve always really enjoyed driving at Croft, no matter what the car. I usually go well here. Like at Oulton Park, we gradually improved the Subaru throughout the day, and qualifying was the first time we bolted on fresh rubber.” Turkington said after the session. “I need to say a big ‘thank you’ to the boys for giving me a great car again, and it’s fantastic to be able to reward them with another pole position.”
Matt Neal had initially been his nearest rival but once he had crashed out, he dropped down the field. Several other drivers had spins or trips through the gravel including Jeff Smith, Adam Morgan, Ashley Sutton and Jake Hill.
Andrew Jordan had a lucky escape as he spun in the entrance to Hawthorns. As he slid across the track, Aron Smith came round at High speed but fortunately, the Irish driver somehow avoided the spinning Pirtek Focus and both drivers could continue their session.
Ashley Sutton actually spun twice but it seemed to help him find the limits as he went on to take third place on the grid, it had actually been second before Lloyds late lap put him in second.
Sutton was still happy with third;
“I made a mistake on my first lap. We then put on another new set of tyres and went back out. I was on a really good lap, which was two tenths faster than the one that eventually put me third, but I lost the car again at turn 12. I had to make quite a big save, which hurt the tyres a little bit, and then the next lap was the one that got me the grid position. That said if someone would have told me before the weekend that I would qualify third at a predominantly rear-wheel drive track I would definitely have taken it. I’m over the moon.”
Lloyd is determined to make the front row start count this time;
“We took a bit of a risk at the end of the session and we only really had one lap to move up the order. It was great to really make that lap count. It’s mega to be on the front row for the second weekend on the bounce, particularly now that I’ve got a bit of experience of competing at the front in the BTCC. Racing is obviously another kettle of fish and I got caught out on a couple of occasions at Oulton, but I won’t be letting that happen again!”
Jason Plato took fourth despite the car having technical issues which shows just how good the Subaru now is.
Championship leader Sam Tordoff is fifth, less than half a second off pole and an incredible time for a car with maximum success ballast.
His team mate Jack Goff in the sister IHG Hotels BMW was sixth.
Power Maxed racing’s Hunter Abbott had his best ever qualifying since he joined the BTCC with seventh. It was also Power Maxed best result at Croft. Abbott seems to be adjusting well to front wheel drive so if he can race well on Sunday he could get a great result. Andrew Jordan was next up in the Pirtek sponsored Motorbase Ford Focus with Mat Jackson in the other Motorbase car in ninth.
Adam Morgan completed the top ten having lost an earlier time when he failed a ride height check. Jake Hill was eleventh in the RCIB Insurance Toyota. He may well have been much higher having run second early on but a huge off through the turn one gravel ended his chances of improving. Tom Ingram was a disappointed twelfth. Rob Collard took thirteenth despite getting knocked out the session by Matt Neal. Aron Smith put his BKR VW CC in fourteenth with Shedden in fifteenth. Rob Austin’s earlier promise wasn’t delivered on in this session and he was sixteenth just ahead of the the Honda of Matt Neal.
Lloyd’s team mates Martin Depper and Jeff Smith were left down the order after problems. Depper was twenty third and Smith twenty sixth when he lost his best time due to a track limits infringement.
2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Qualifying – Croft Circuit:
1 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing 1m23.608s (91.49mph)
2 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.397s
3 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.400s
4 Jason PLATO (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +0.412s
5 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +0.445s
6 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team IHG Rewards Club +0.460s
7 Hunter ABBOTT (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.463s
8 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) Motorbase Performance +0.576s
9 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance +0.621s
10 Adam MORGAN (GBR) WIX Racing +0.645s
11 Jake HILL (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +0.681s
12 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.703s
13 Robert COLLARD (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +0.724s
14 Aron SMITH (IRL) BKR +0.773s
15 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.825s
16 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +0.849s
17 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.915s
18 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +1.055s
19 Michael EPPS (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +1.061s
20 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +1.113s
21 Warren SCOTT (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +1.219s
22 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmD Tuning.com+1.251s
23 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Eurotech Racing +1.322s
24 Daniel WELCH (GBR) Goodstone Racing +1.442s
25 James COLE (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +1.452s
26 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +1.473s
27 Alex MARTIN (GBR) Dextra Racing +1.517s
28 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +1.742s
29 Kelvin FLETCHER (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +2.016s
30 Chris SMILEY (GBR) TLC/RCIB Insurance Racing +2.301s
31 Stewart LINES (GBR) Maximum Motorsport +3.146s
32 Mark HOWARD (GBR) BKR +3.327s
Full information can be found on TSL timing
Tickets are available on the gate for Sunday’s three races or you can watch as usual on ITV4 from 11am. By Marc Waller
