Colin Turkington scores Subaru’s first BTCC pole at Oulton Park

Colin Turkington took Team BMR’s first pole position of 2016, and the first pole position for Subaru in the British Touring Car Championship, with Eurotech Racing’s Daniel Lloyd joining him on the front row.

Turkington and Jason Plato were both flying the flag for Team BMR from the outset, both sitting within the top four for the first twenty minutes of the thirty minute session, before Plato slipped down the order after a flurry of late lap times.

After three meetings of development, Team BMR arrived at Oulton Park hopeful of improved results, and things were looking good in FP2 with both Turkington and Plato in the top ten. The work clearly paid off as Turkington stormed to the top of the time sheets early, posting a 1:26.264, a time which would not be beaten.

For a while it seemed like Tom Ingram, who had been stuck in the pits for the first ten minutes with a brake issue, would take second, just 0.051 behind the Subaru’s time, but the Toyota Avensis was demoted to third with a lightning fast time from Daniel Lloyd in the Honda Civic Type-R.

Sam Tordoff’s West Surrey Racing BMW took fourth ahead of reigning champion Gordon Shedden in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type-R.The top five were all separated by less than a tenth of a second.

Jason Plato had to settle for sixth at the end of the session, just beating MG’s Ashley Sutton, with championship leader Matt Neal in eighth. Aron Smith, who had enjoyed strong pace in practice, took ninth in the Team BKR Volkswagen CC, while Josh Cook rounded out the top ten in his Triple Eight Racing MG.

It was a session to forget for Motorbase Performance, with Andrew Jordan and Mat Jackson only able to get their Ford Focuses to 12th and 25th respectively, while Thruxton star Adam Morgan could only manage 27th in the Ciceley Racing Mercedes.