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Adam Morgan clinches second successive Qualifying Race win

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Adam Morgan made it back-to-back pole positions in the British Touring Car Championship after clinching a second successive Qualifying Race victory of the season.

Having topped the times in qualifying at Donington Park, the CPRL driver led every lap of a safety car truncated contest to triumph ahead of his Mercedes-AMG A35 Saloon team-mate Dan Rowbottom and Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook.

Issues for both Mikey Doble and Daryl De Leon saw the safety car twice make an appearance, although that didn’t trouble Morgan and Rowbottom as they quickly worked to build a gap over the chasing pack.

Working in unison out front, Morgan ultimately stretched his advantage in the closing laps to take the chequered flag by more than two seconds ahead of Rowbottom; guaranteeing themselves a front-row lockout for race one tomorrow.

Cook had started on the front row but after losing the place to Rowbottom at the start, the Toyota Corolla driver got his head down and despite coming under late pressure from championship leader Ash Sutton, held firm to clinch third.

Sutton had been one of the races’ big movers as he muscled his way from eighth on the grid to finish in fourth, narrowly ahead of his Ford Focus Titanium team-mate Dan Cammish.

The battle for sixth place went down to the wire with three-time champion Gordon Shedden fending off a swarm of cars to secure a spot on the third row of the grid for Sunday’s opening encounter.

Finishing hot on the heels of Shedden was his MB Motorsport team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith and reigning champion Tom Ingram, who bounced back from a frustrating qualifying to fight his way from 17th up to eighth.

Completing the top ten was Alliance Racing’s Sam Osborne and the lead Power Maxed Racing Audi of Dexter Patterson.