Ballast-laden Colin Turkington takes mighty Oulton Park pole
Ballast-laden series leader Colin Turkington took a mighty second British Touring Car Championship pole of the season at Oulton Park, pipping Cobra Sport AmD’s Sam Tordoff to top spot.
Despite carrying the full 54kg of ballast in his BMW 330i M Sport, West Surrey Racing’s Turkington was able to set a time of 1.25.825 to wind up just 0.027 faster than Tordoff’s Honda Civic Type-R FK2.
Team Dynamics’ Dan Cammish continued his strong form in third in his newer FK8 Type R – but both he and Cobra AmD’s Rory Butcher, who finished fifth, set purple first sector times in pursuit of Turkington without being able to carry their speed through the whole lap.
It had looked like a straight fight between Turkington and Cammish in the early stages, as they twice traded top spot, but it was the older Honda of Tordoff who eventually posed the toughest test to the reigning champion, setting his best time with 10 minutes to go.
Sandwiched between Cammish and Butcher was a happy Andrew Jordan in the second of the West Surrey Racing BMWs, recovering strongly from missing the majority of second practice after his collision with Matt Simpson, with Cammish’s team-mate Matt Neal in sixth.
Tom Oliphant was seventh – meaning each of the top seven positions were filled by BMWs and Hondas – ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Jason Plato in his Vauxhall Astra, with Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram and AmD’s Jake Hill rounding out the top 10.
It was a much tougher session for Turkington’s closest title challenger, Josh Cook, who could do no better than 22nd in his BTC Racing Honda Civic.
A brief flurry of rain at the start of the session quickly burned off on the hottest day of the year, leaving conditions as hot and humid as in practice.
It was a largely clean session, save for a brief off for Cook’s team-mate Chris Smiley at Deer Leap, while Ingram ran wide at Cascades on one of his fast laps and filled the front splitter with grass, necessitating a pitstop to clear it out.
The first of Sunday’s three races gets under way at 12.20 BST.
