Onslow-Cole claims 2nd consecutive pole

Tom Onslow-Cole has taken his second consecutive pole position. The Vauxhall driver took the first pole of his career during the last round at Donington, and now he has repeated this effort to take the front spot on the grid for tomorrow’s first race at Thruxton. Championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi will start alongside his teammate on the first row of the grid.

The Vauxhall’s felt at home on the fast sweeping curves of the Thruxton track, as Matt Neal almost made it a 1-2-3 for the VXR squad in qualifying. He was however just outpaced by his former team mate Gordon Shedden, who pushed Neal back to fourth in his Honda Civic with a gap of just nine thousents of a second.

The SEAT Léon TDI’s, which were expected to perform strong on the long straights of Thruxton, were not yet on the pace. Jason Plato qualified in 6th, as Darren Turner put down seventh fastest time. Plato was lucky to set a time at all, after all his times were disallowed just three minutes before the end of the session, for failing a ride height check. Plato was just able to set another quick lap before the end of the session. Gordon Shedden’s car failed the ride height check as well, but his times were not disallowed, as officials agreed damage to the floor of Gordon Shedden’s car was the cause of the lower ride height. The Civic’s floor was damaged after a minor excursion with the kerbs.

For Onslow-Cole, who’s celebrating his 21st birthday this weekend, pole position was a nice birthday present. “It was a pretty hairy lap – I really couldn’t have wrung much more from it,” Onslow-Cole said afterwards. “I’ve definitely hit on a great set-up with the car. I’ve come into the team, learnt from my team-mates and then added a few tweaks to suit my style.”

“I had pole at Donington Park a few weeks ago but couldn’t get the win. If I do get a win tomorrow then that’s a bonus – the most important thing is scoring well in all three races. The wins will come…”

“We may have to wind off some of the set-up a bit to preserve the tyres over a race distance but probably not too much – we feel confident we’ve got a good handle on how the car will behave over a race distance.”