Sam Tordoff steals pole at the death at Thruxton

Sam Tordoff has taken his first pole position of the 2019 BTCC season after securing top spot in the dying moments of qualifying at Thruxton.

The Cobra Sport AmD driver broke the qualifying lap record shortly before the chequered flag dropped on to edge the newer Honda of Dan Cammish on the times, with the pair having benefitted from a late red flag period that led to the clock being reset to five minutes when there had been only 90 seconds to run.

That red flag had been caused by contact between the Audi of Mark Blundell and Tom Chilton’s Ford Focus at the final chicane, which resulted in Chilton going off heavily into the barriers on the outside of the circuit.

At that point, Andrew Jordan had looked well placed to secure his first pole for five years at the wheel of his Pirtek Racing-backed BMW 330i M Sport, but the WSR driver would instead see top spot taken from his grasp when the session became a five minute dash.

As Tordoff and Cammish moved ahead, Jordan found himself forced to deal with traffic that instead left him in third, although the former champion will head into race day hoping to make the most of the starting prowess of the BMW. Team-mate Colin Turkington shares the second row, having lapped just 0.006 slower in the first of the Team BMW cars.

Rory Butcher in the second of the AmD cars will start from fifth although the Scot was one of countless drivers to lose their best times to track limits during the session.

Had that best time stood, Butcher would have secured pole himself – having posted a 1:15.494 before it was removed.

Jason Plato was sixth best in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall, with points leader Ash Sutton, Matt Neal, Rob Collard and Tom Oliphant rounding out the top ten.

Elsewhere, there were spins for Neal, Josh Cook, Matt Simpson and Nic Hamilton whilst Blundell’s troubled session saw him complete just three laps after being delayed early on by a power steering issue on his Audi.