Jason Plato smashes lap record en route to Oulton Park pole

Jason Plato smashed the qualifying record at Oulton Park as he narrowly beat his rivals to pole position.

The Team BMR driver set a time of 1:25.484 around the Island circuit, beating the previous record of 1:26.130 by almost seven tenths of a second. The time was just enough to beat long time rival Matt Neal to the top spot, with Neal sitting only 0.011 seconds behind the Volkswagen, with Andy Priaulx just 0.071 behind the pole sitter.

The session began with Plato swapping fastest times with Andrew Jordan, before the two-time champion put in his first lap record breaking time of 1:25.525 and never went lower than first for the rest of the session.

Matt Neal and Andy Priaulx were the next two drivers to dip in to the 1 minute 25 second bracket before a wave of fast times came from behind. The session was so tight that the top thirteen drivers were separated by less than a second.

With the session drawing to a close Plato was putting in lap record after lap record, shaving hundredths of a second off his lap at a time. The pace was clearly too much for Plato’s brakes, however, as he pulled in to the pits in a plume of smoke coming from his left front brake disk. There was no major issue for the Volkswagen, however, and Plato went out for one final run.

Elsewhere, Jack Goff also found himself in trouble in the pits, having failed the ride height test halfway through the session. As a result, the Triple Eight Racing team having to alter the car, go out for a lap and have the car rechecked before being able to set some times. Despite only getting two flying laps in at the end of the session, Goff managed to put himself in eighth on the grid.

Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden set the exact same time, with the MG getting fourth on the grid having set the time first. Colin Turkington took sixth, ahead of Aron Smith, who had his fastest time removed for a track limits violation. Goff, Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan rounded out the top ten.