Reid leads MG charge at Croft.

Anthony Reid led the MG qualifying charge under beautiful sunshine at Croft today in a busy qualifying session at the northern-most circuit in the BTCC calendar.

Anthony, despite the weight penalty carried by his MG ZS from its success at Rockingham last time out in the BTCC calendar, still managed to get to grips with the Croft circuit to set a time that places him right behind championship leader Yvan Muller on the grid for tomorrow's first race.

Things are looking good for tomorrow's races, as there was more speed in the car, reckons Reid. "I didn't manage to extract quite the best out of the car and there was the potential of a fourth or fifth on the grid," he explained. "I just locked my wheels on the last corner of my best lap but I'm reasonable pleased as we are carrying a huge amount of ballast."

Following his success at Rockingham last time out in the series, Anthony's MG does indeed carry some 30 kg of success ballast, making him the heaviest of the MGs at Croft. "I've basically done the same time as Yvan Muller, we're next to each other on the grid so it's pretty good," Reid said.

Also carrying success ballast, but only to the tune of 18 kg was Warren Hughes. Warren, however, had other issues weighing on his mind during the session. "It was frustrating really, but that's nothing to do with the MG or the track it's just slower traffic who don't really get out of the way when they see a quicker car coming," Warren explained. "I'm frustrated with Boardman, it happens time and time again with him..."

Warren was on a quick lap when the slower car baulked him. "The sector time was a tenth up on the lap," Warren continued, "he saw me coming and just didn't bother moving out of the way, I'm just particularly frustrated as a tenth would have moved me up the grid about four places, it's that close at the moment and I desperately needed that at the moment, that tenth, and I couldn't repeat it after that."

This year the touring car use a twenty-minute qualifying format, but today at Croft this worked against Warren. "It's partly the nature of the track and it's partly the speed differential of the cars here," he explained. "It can happen at other places, it has happened at other places, it just seemed that every run today I got caught in it. It's just particularly frustrating when it is so close, that's why I'm a bit angry, other places - it's only at Brands Hatch where it's so tight - that it's so difficult to pass cars but all season I haven't had the problem that I did in the session there today."

For Colin Turkington once again the luck, and the heat, was against him. Colin only managed to get in a single flying lap before the engine temperature of his car gave cause for concern and meant an early end to his session. Despite this his solitary flying lap was still good enough for Colin to line up in tenth place for tomorrow's first race.

"I'd just done my first flying lap and the car felt pretty good," Colin explained. "I had a pretty good balance, and just on the second run the engine basically overheated, the ambient temperature today is basically very warm,"

Motor racing is so much a game of luck, sometimes that luck can go against you. "It's starting to cheese me off a bit as there's potentially a good time in the car, it's frustrating that it happened," summed up Colin philosophically.

It's not the first time that Colin's engine has been too hot to handle, last time out under glorious sunshine at Rockingham Colin had to watch much of the race from the infield, so wary that it might happen again Colin's taking precautions. "I'm definitely putting the sunblock on before I go out," he quipped.

Race prospects for the MGs look good after a strong showing in race trim at Rockingham. There Anthony Reid was right in the thick of action battling for much of the time with championship leader Yvan Muller, who he lines up right behind tomorrow. "I'm expecting more of the same of what we experienced at Rockingham," predicted Anthony. "He seems to be suffering with his brakes a bit at the moment and he bangs into the back of my car, but apart from that I think we're going to have a lot of fun tomorrow I think the MG's going to go well."

Top ten

1 James Thompson
2 Matt Neal
3 Alan Morrison
4 Tom Chilton
5 Paul O'Neill
6 Yvan Muller7 Anthony Reid
8 Warren Hughes
9 Robert Collard10 Colin Turkington