Colin Turkington takes pole in extremely close Team BMR 1-2-3
Colin Turkington smashed the lap record to take pole position in an extremely close qualifying session at Snetterton.
The lap record went with the first true flying lap of the session set by Jason Plato, putting in a time of 1:56.118, closely followed by Andrew Jordan, who was just 0.122 behind the Team BMR driver.
Despite an issue with his VW CC’s bonnet in the opening stages of the 30 minute session, Turkington stormed to the top of the time sheets after around 20 minutes, setting a 1:56.047, just 0.027 ahead of team-mate Aron Smith.
The top nine cars all went faster than the previous qualifying record, while the top 17 cars were separated by less than a second.
The first three positions all saw times within a tenth of each other, with Team BMR showing consistent pace across their cars, scoring a 1-2-3 result, with Aron Smith and Jason Plato behind polesitter Turkington.
Andrew Jordan, who has shown strong pace all day, took the fourth fastest time, while Matt Neal rounded out the top five in the Honda Civic Type-R.
Andy Priaulx, who set the fastest time in FP1, took sixth fastest, with Jack Goff, Sam Tordoff, Tom Ingram and Rob Collard rounding out the top ten.
Championship leader Gordon Shedden could only put in the 16th fastest time while carrying the full 75kg of success ballast in his Honda, 0.852 seconds behind Turkington’s best time.
Motorbase Performance’s return to the BTCC did not go to plan, with Mat Jackson only able to take 14th fastest, while James Cole had to settle for 20th. BTCC returnee Robb Holland was 24th quickest, with debutante Barry Horne qualifying in 26th.
