Photo: TCR UK

Title favourite Adam Shepherd takes TCR UK pole at Brands Hatch

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Capture Motorsport’s Adam Shepherd takes a 34-point lead into the penultimate race of the TCR UK Series season after claiming pole position for race one at Brands Hatch.

The Cupra León VZ TCR driver out-paced nearest title challenger Callum Newsham in the 15-minute session, setting a best time of 47.982s to end up just over a quarter of a second clear at the top.

Max Hall will start third on the grid in his Lynk & Co alongside Sam Laidlaw’s Cupra with George Jaxon and Brad Hutchison making it four Cupras inside the top six.

Shepherd bossed the session from the start and rarely looked like being beaten to pole. Luke Sargeant and Sam Laidlaw exchanged fastest times early on before Shepherd posted a time of 49.203 with his first attempt.

Several drivers improved their times to reduce the deficit to Shepherd but the latter responded again to dip into the 48-second bracket for the first time.

Newsham got close approaching the halfway stage of the session, setting the second-fastest time albeit more than two-tenths of a second adrift of his championship rival.

Shepherd then improved twice more, eventually becoming the only driver to go into the 47-second bracket with his last lap, cementing his two-tenth margin over Newsham who put in a late effort to secure his place on the front-row of the grid.

Hall edged out Laidlaw for third fastest, while Jaxon improved on his last attempt to line up fifth ahead of Hutchison.

Will Beech set the seventh-quickest time ahead of Sargeant and Harry Bloor, while Jordan Kerridge rounded out the top 10.

Teenager debutant Jenson O’Neill-Going impressed on his TCR UK bow, setting the 12th quickest time and second among the Gen1 cars – behind polesitter Rick Kerry – in his Subaru WRX STI TCR.

Race one at Brands Hatch is scheduled to take place later today at 14:40 GMT.