Pole for Jason Plato in Scotland

Jason Plato took pole position for race one at Knockhill, heading Scottish drivers Gordon Shedden and Jonathan Adam who took second and third on the grid. Plato continued his second practice pace to take the top spot as he seeks victory on Sunday to keep himself in the championship fight.

Series leader Colin Turkington qualified fourth, while the trio of VX Racing Vectras has a miserable afternoon, with Matt Neal ending up seventh, one place ahead of teammate Andrew Jordan, while Fabrizio Giovanardi failed to make it into the top ten, and will start race one from eleventh.

Plato’s lap of 53.570 was good enough to claim pole, beating Shedden by 0.073 with Adam and Turkington both within two tenths of the Chevrolet. Shedden had topped the times mid-way through the session, but there was to be no emotional home pole position, as just as in the earlier practice session, Plato denied the Cartridge World driver.

Rob Collard, who had been the first driver to dip into the 53s during the session, rounded out fifth, with Mat Jackson taking sixth ahead of the first two Vauxhalls.

Stephen Jelley recovered from his problems in practice to take ninth, with Paul O’Neill rounding out the top ten, despite only managing seven laps in the session after spinning off while second fastest.

Another driver who will be disappointed with his qualifying performance will be James Thompson, who like Giovanardi finished outside the top ten, and was out qualified by the resurgent Ford Focus of Tom Chilton. With conditions warmer and drier than in the day’s first practice session, there was no chance for Chilton to get his machine higher up the standings, and so will start his 200th BTCC race from thirteenth position.

With a trio of fast starting BMWs right behind them, Plato and Shedden will have to be at their very best on Sunday, if they want to convert first and second on the grid, in to first and second coming out of the first corner.