Darren Turner has taken pole position for the penultimate rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship after storming to top spot in qualifying in Scotland.
Turner posted a best time of 53.007secs to take the position by a tenth of a second from
Colin Turkington, with the Team RAC man doing all he could to find a way past the SEAT Leon before settling for a place on the opening row of the grid. Gordon Shedden was third fastest for Team Halfords on his home circuit with the two drivers fighting for the title behind him on the grid.
On a circuit where overtaking is far from easy, current points leader
Jason Plato managed to get the edge of Fabrizio Giovanardi, making light of the maximum ballast on his Leon – and a spin at SEAT Curve - to post a time some three tenths of a second quicker than the Vauxhall man behind him. Mike Jordan took sixth in his Team Eurotech with John Guest Honda – the only BTC-spec car inside the top ten.
Tom Chilton was seventh in the second Vectra, despite only completing a limited number of laps before an off at the bottom of SEAT Curve. Coming across the slower Honda Integra of debutant Alan Taylor, Chilton made contact with the rear of the Honda and went off into the gravel on the outside of the circuit – with Taylor being forced off with a missing right rear wheel. That incident, coupled to a blown engine on the BTC Racing Lexus that forced Chris Stockton to pull off, led to a brief red flag period early in the session.
Behind Chilton,
Tom Onslow-Cole was eighth quickest, with the top ten completed by defending champion
Matt Neal and Gavin Smith in the GR Asia SEAT Leon. Adam Jones was eleventh in the Team Aircool Toledo, with Matt Jackson down in twelfth place in his
BMW 320si. Jason Hughes was 13th ahead of Stockton and Martyn Bell – who took to the gravel on a number of occasions at SEAT Curve and Scotsman – and Fiona Leggate.
John George, suffering from mechanical problems on his Honda Integra was 17th ahead of Taylor – with neither driver able to break the minute barrier.
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