Senna Proctor secures maiden BTCC pole

Senna Proctor built on the pace he showed in testing at Oulton Park to secure pole for the first time in qualifying for the fourth meeting of the BTCC season.

The BTC Racing driver had led the way during the two-day Goodyear tyre test earlier in the month and would emerge on top of a huge battle for pole in what would prove to be the quickest session of the day by far.

Colin Turkington’s first flying lap in the session immediately saw the WSR driver go quicker than the fastest time seen in practice, but his 1:25.928 would quickly be eclipsed by the Honda of Gordon Shedden.

Turkington then took his turn back at the front before Proctor hit the front on a 1:25.721, which would prove to the the quickest lap as drivers returned to the pits.

Moving into the final ten minutes, Rory Butcher’s Speedworks Toyota vaulted up into provisional pole but his hope of a first pole for the team would come to nothing as Shedden and then Proctor moved ahead.

Proctor would emerge with pole for the first time on a 1:25.485s with Shedden just 0.076s behind and Butcher 0.087s down in third, whilst Dan Rowbottom was able to take fourth having also lapped with a tenth of a second of pole.

Jack Goff was fifth as he maintained the strong form of the Team HARD Cupra, with Adam Morgan rounding out the top six in his BMW.

Jake Hill, Stephen Jelley, Turkington and Ash Sutton rounded out the top ten.

Missing from the sharp end of the grid would be Tom Ingram however, with a wastegate issue in his car leaving him unable to set a time and at the back of the grid for the opening race of the weekend.