Adam Shepherd claims last gasp pole position at Oulton Park

Capture Motorsport’s Adam Shepherd struck late to grab pole position for the opening TCR race at Oulton Park, beating Sam Laidlaw by just six hundredths of a second.

The Cupra León Competición TCR driver set a best time of 1m25.412 with his final lap of the session in a tightly fought qualifying, as points leader Callum Newsham was only fifth after losing a lap-time early on due to track limits.

Despite early morning rain around the Cheshire circuit, the track was dry for the session, which began with a slight delay due to a red flag in the support category.

Brad Hutchison was the first driver to set a representative time of 1m26.791 in his Bond it with MPH Racing Cupra, but was soon beaten by Newsham by just over three-tenths of a second.

Newsham subsequently lost that time due to a track limits infringement.

The Laidlaws were quick from the off and Sam set the third quickest time in the opening stages before heading to the top of the standings with a time half a second quicker than Newsham’s.

It appeared as though Sam would claim pole position as he improved once more in the final minutes, setting a time of 1m25.472 with an absolute best in the high-speed first sector.

That time remained the reference until the very last lap, with Shepherd pulling out a superb effort to edge Laidlaw by the smallest of margins.

Steve Laidlaw ended up third quickest thanks to a late improvement, beating Hutchison who abandonned his final attempt.

Newsham will line up fifth on the grid for race one, ahead of newcomer Finn Leslie in his Power Maxed Hyundai i30 N TCR.

Some way off the pace was Rod McGovern (Power Maxed Cupra) in seventh, just ahead of George Jaxon’s Audi RS 3 LMS.

Completing the top ten will be Gregory Saunders and Will Beech (both Capture Motorsport Cupra).

Race one at Oulton Park is scheduled to take place later on today at 12:50 BST.