Mat Jackson blitzes lap record to take Brands Hatch pole
Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson blitzed the lap record by more than half a second to take pole position at Brands Hatch ahead of Aron Smith and Adam Morgan, with Gordon Shedden the best placed championship contender in fourth.
After a frantic session where the times changed regularly at the top of the standings, Jackson set two laps good enough for pole, his eventual best of 1.30.685 coming in 0.529 under Jason Plato’s lap record from 2013.
Behind Jackson’s Ford Focus ST, Team BMR’s Smith was the fastest Volkswagen CC in second, 0.126 behind, with Ciceley Racing’s Morgan continuing his strong form from the morning in third.
A ballast-laden Civic Type-R was again no barrier to Honda Yuasa Racing’s Shedden setting a competitive qualifying time, with Team BMR’s Turkington and Plato sharing the third row behind him. The Scotsman is now in a prime position to defend his 23-point lead in race one, and various permutations could see him take the title in the opening encounter.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram, Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal, West Surrey Racing’s Andy Priaulx and Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook rounded out the top 10 – the latter running RML’s new 2016-specification power steering and rear uprights.
Triple Eight Racing’s Andrew Jordan, the last of the championship contenders, saw his slim hopes all-but eliminated after qualifying 13th, two places behind team-mate Jack Goff.
The rate of progress among the field was such that all the first 12 cars all qualified inside the old lap record, and the top 17 cars down to Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith were all within a second of pole position.
Of the returning drivers, Team BMR’s Alain Menu set the 15th fastest time and AmD Tuning’s Jake Hill was 23rd in the Audi S3.
