Sam Tordoff pleased with unexpected Thruxton pole

Sam Tordoff admitted he was delighted to secure an “unexpected” pole for the third round of the BTCC season at Thruxton.

The Cobra Sport AmD driver headed into the weekend outside the top 20 in the standings after a tough start to the campaign at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type R, with just six points from the opening six races of the season.

Outpaced by team-mate Rory Butcher through the two free practice sessions, Tordoff was able to benefit from the red flag late in qualifying that gave drivers an additional run and broke the qualifying lap record to snare top spot ahead of Team Dynamics driver Dan Cammish.

It marked a first pole for the AmD squad in its tenth season in the series.

“We have had a tricky day to be honest,” he said. “The car has been fast and Rory has been faster. In qualifying, I messed up the first run and then got pinged for track limits on second so my third run was going to be the final one. The red flag gave us an extra bite of the cherry and I’m really pleased to be P1. We’re in a good position although it was unexpected from the way the day had gone.

“We’ve had to tinker away with the car as I can’t drive it like Rory so have had to adapt to my style, and there were a few places where I needed to tighten the belts and take a brave pill.

“Tomorrow is a new day but we’re in a good place to fight for some strong points. If the BMWs behind get a good start, we could well be third by turn one, but I’m just going to worry about doing my own job and get my head down for a solid result.”