Jason Plato breaks Honda pole position dominance

Jason Plato will start the opening BTCC race of the weekend from Croft on the front row, after taking his first pole position of 2011. The Chevrolet Cruze driver will start alongside championship rival Matt Neal, with free practice pace setters Rob Collard and Alex MacDowall occupying the second row.

Plato’s pole ensures he becomes the first non-Honda drive to occupy the lead grid slot for the opening race of a BTCC weekend this year, and comes after he failed to set a time in the second practice session, opting only to scrub in tyres before sitting out the remainder of the session. This policy, also adopted by Neal and MacDowall seems to have paid dividends, with the trio occupying three of the top four grid slots.

Collard was the interloper in this group, having entered qualifying on a high after topping the times in the second practice session. Despite a spin early in qualifying the West Surrey Racing driver was at the forefront throughout, eventually taking third, just over half a second back on Plato, and will be a threat to the two front row starters on Sunday thanks to his rear wheel drive BMW’s prowess at the start.

Neal relegated Collard from the top spot in qualifying with a couple of minutes remaining, posting a 1:25.211 that looked good enough for his third pole of the year, but Plato then usurped the Honda man with a 1:24.839 to take the top spot by 0.372.

Behind the front four come the Vauxhalls of Andrew Jordan and James Nash ahead of second place in the standings Gordon Shedden. Tom Chilton was the final driver within one second of Plato, with Mat Jackson in the older Ford Focus taking ninth and Paul O’Neill ensuring the top ten was bookended by Chevrolets.

Rob Austin was the top NGTC-spec runner in a season best eleventh, just 1.350 down on pole position, six places and almost a second ahead of Frank Wrathall’s Toyota Avensis.