Matt Neal has stormed to his first pole in five years at Thruxton, setting a new qualifying lap record on his flying lap.
Team mate Gordon Shedden made it a Honda one-two, all the more incredible as Shedden is running with maximum success ballast.
Neal spoke afterwards;
“I actually can’t remember the last time I was on pole! After the disappointment of Donington, we needed to bounce back and this is a great start – although ‘Flash’ certainly made me work hard for it. For Honda, this is like our home event with the cars manufactured up the road and it’s great to see so many guys from the factory here and to reward them with a one-two in qualifying. Now we just need to try to convert it tomorrow.”
Neal was the front runner from the start of the session although then went off after he set his first fast lap. Even his pole lap wasn’t perfect with a lock up into the chicane but that one was enough for pole.
Between Neal’s fast laps though, Goff and Ingram had overhauled him for fastest times, but after Neal and Shedden’s final runs they ended up third and fourth respectively.
Shedden was pleased with his run;
“To be on the front row with 75kg in the car definitely exceeded my expectations – it was a proper lap and a fair chunk quicker than we went in FP2. Realistically, I’d thought we would be doing well even to sneak into the top ten so I’m dead chuffed! Every lap was an adventure out there as I tried to keep my foot in for as long as possible through the faster corners out the back of the circuit – there wasn’t much left in the tank.”
The Eurotech team have been going well all day after also performing well in last month’s Thruxton test and in this session as well as third for Goff, team mate Smith made sixth place, despite crashing out of the session at Allard which caused a red flag interuption. Smith’s car isn’t badly damaged though and he will take the start tomorrow. Goff thought he could have got more out of his Eurotech machine;
“If I’m honest, I wanted a bit more there and pole position was definitely in the car, but I locked up and missed the chicane when I was three tenths-of-a-second up on my quickest lap.
Our race pace seems strong too – we showed that in both free practice sessions and did more than a full race run in FP1 – so it’s all about getting a clean start and clean first lap and with Gordon [Shedden] carrying maximum ballast, hopefully we can then pick him off and go from there.”
In fifth was Rob Austin for Handy Motorsport, just behind Tom Ingram who was another impresive driver laden with success ballast. Austin will be hoping for better luck this round after running into various problems during the season so far.
In seventh was Adam Morgan in his Cicely Motorsport Mercedes A Class, once again in the top ten. Ashley Sutton claimed eighth for Subaru with his other team mates, including multiple champion Plato struggling outside the top twenty. Although even with being this far back, Plato was still less than a second off pole, such is the competitiveness of this year’s field.
BMW also seemed to be struggling with ninth spot for Turkington their best. Jordan was sixteenth and Collard eighteenth for the manufacturer backed squad.
Completing the top ten was Mat Jackson in the Shredded Wheat backed Motorbase Ford Focus. It shows how difficult a season it’s been for them so far when you realise that this is their best 2017 qualifying position so far. It’s not turning out to be the title challenging season that the team hoped for so far but with seven meetings to go after Thruxton, they still have time to turn their season around.
Once again the field are incredibly evenly matched with the top twenty three cars being separated by a little over a second and the entire field is just over two seconds apart.
Tickets are available on the door at Thruxton on Sunday or watch it all live on ITV4.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Qualifying – Thruxton
1 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing 1m16.040s (111.54mph)
2 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.035s
3 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.160s
4 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.196s
5 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +0.337s
6 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.355s
7 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +0.454s
8 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.548s
9 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.582s
10 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +0.600s
11 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.608s
12 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +0.613s
13 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +0.616s
14 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.662s
15 Luke DAVENPORT (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +0.702s
16 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +0.824s
17 Josh COOK (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +0.894s
18 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +0.922s
19 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +0.926s
20 Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +0.934s
21 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.999s
22 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +1.020s
23 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +1.090s
24 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +1.208s
25 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +1.212s
26 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.215s
27 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +1.243s
28 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +1.411s
29 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +1.420s
30 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +1.531s
31 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +1.727s
32 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +2.132s By Marc Waller
