James Cole claims his first BTCC pole position at Rockingham

Subaru Team BMR’s James Cole has claimed his first pole position in the British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham, outqualifying Eurotech Honda driver Jack Goff by five-hundredths of a second in a close qualifying session.

Cole’s pole is Subaru’s third of the season, and came during the final minutes of the session, as the 29-year-old put together a quick lap in his Levorg GT to take the spot away from Goff, depriving the Honda Civic driver of his second pole of the season.

In the early part of the session, the front-wheel drive cars were swapping the position, with Team Dynamics Honda driver Matt Neal and Speedworks Toyota’s Tom Ingram vying for pole until Goff jumped ahead just before ten minutes were up.

Team BMR’s pole position is the first for a rear-wheel drive car at the part-oval circuit, which typically favours front-wheel drive cars over one-lap.

Tom Ingram would qualify third in his Toyota, with championship challenger Ash Sutton fourth quickest in the second-best placed of the Subarus, recovering from an early mistake at Deene in the session.

Championship leader Colin Turkington was fifth fastest, despite carrying 75kg of success ballast on his BMW 125i M Sport, with Adam Morgan sixth in the Ciceley Mercedes-Benz.

Matt Neal eventually ended up seventh in his Honda, with Triple Eight’s Josh Cook, Power Maxed’s Tom Chilton and the Subaru of Jason Plato completing the top ten.

Other championship contenders Gordon Shedden and Rob Collard were mired down in 16th and 20th in the classification.

The first race of the weekend is scheduled for 11:37 BST on Sunday.