Photo: PSP Images

Jack Goff claims Brands Hatch pole as title challenger Colin Turkington falters

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Eurotech Racing driver Jack Goff has taken his third pole position of the 2017 British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch, while championship contender Colin Turkington missed much of the session with a misfire and qualified down in 17th.

Just before the session started, it began to rain, which made the track slippery for a few minutes. The conditions caught out FP2 pace-setter Brett Smith, who ran off at Druids, bringing out the red flag.

The rain stopped as Smith’s car was recovered, with slicks the order as the session resumed, but it wasn’t long until there was drama for West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington, who was back in the pits with a misfire.

The team were afforded more time to work on the issue as Triple Eight Racing’s Josh Cook then crashed out at Clearways in his MG 6 soon after the session restarted, which took some time to recover, with Motorbase’s Mat Jackson at this point on provisional pole.

As the session resumed, Eurotech’s Jack Goff quickly jumped to the top of the time sheets and continued to improve his time, bringing it down to 1:30.801, just two-tenths off the lap record, and was only briefly deposed by the Team Dynamics Honda of Matt Simpson.

West Surrey Racing resolved Turkington’s issue with 15 minutes to go, but the Northern Irishman had little time left to cycle heat into his rear-wheel drive BMW 125i M Sport, and could qualify no higher than 17th.

Championship leader Ash Sutton had placed his Team BMR Subaru in second, but in the final moments dropped behind the Laser Tools Racing Mercedes-Benz of Aiden Moffat, who was three tenths away from Goff’s time, with Goff the only driver under the 1:31 barrier.

With Goff ensuring the pole position point will go to no one else, Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden and Speedworks driver Tom Ingram are now officially out of contention for the drivers’ title, with the battle now between just Sutton and Turkington tomorrow, with Race 1 due to start at 11:37 BST.