Andrew Jordan secured his first pole of the 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season following a dramatic qualifying session at Thruxton.
Jordan set a time of 1min 16.893secs to storm to top spot on a circuit that was dry by the finish after earlier rain, although he was helped by the fact that
Gordon Shedden lost his times for an overboost issue having gone ahead of the Pirtek Racing man.
“That was a proper pole position lap – to do it around
Thruxton which is an 'old school' circuit with no margin for error makes it extra satisfying,” Jordan said. “Even when I knew it was probably in the bag I still wanted to test the car and myself so pushed again and to get beneath the 1m17s mark here is a really big effort.”
Jason Plato qualified second despite a high-speed off that saw his MG end up in the trees on the outside of Church corner, an incident that led to a mid-session red flag period. Frank Wrathall equalled his best result to take third on the grid with Mat Jackson, Dave Newsham and
Rob Collard rounding out the top six.
Elsewhere, the session turned into a shocker for Honda, with Shedden only able to qualify 18th after a mistake on his final flying lap meant he was unable to replicate the kind of pace he had shown prior to being stripped of his times. That was still ahead of team-mate
Matt Neal however who suffered a spin into the barrier at Allard and damaged his suspension.
Andy Neate also went off in his MG in the closing stages of the race and hit the tyres at Goodwood, with Rob Austin going off at the same place in a separate incident that left his Audi nursing hefty damage ahead of race day.