Newsham to start on pole at Brands Hatch

Dave Newsham has claimed the first British Touring Car Championship pole position for 2012. The Team ES Racing driver took pole in spite of an off at Paddock Hill Bend which saw the car garaged before the end of the session.

Honda Yuasa Racing’s Matt Neal claimed second in the dying minutes of the session with a 48.615s lap, 0.132s behind Newsham. His team mate Gordon Shedden’s NGTC Civic only emerged from the garage in the second half of the session, finishing in ninth after his fastest time was disallowed.

West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard set the third fastest time of the session. As was the case in both practice sessions all three WSR BMWs finished in the top ten, with Tom Onslow-Cole qualifying fifth and Nick Foster tenth.

After topping the second practice session Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan will line up fourth on the grid for the first race. Jason Plato finished the session in sixth in the new Triple Eight Race Engineering NGTC MG.

After a strong showing in the opening practice sessions Rob Austin finished the qualifying session in seventh and will line up alongside Frank Wrathall on the grid in eighth.

Several drivers were warned for exceeding the track limits during the session, including Dave Newsham, Jason Plato, Aron Smith, Tony Hughes, Gordon Shedden and Andy Neate. Each of these drivers had their fastest times removed.

Newsham had the following to say about his pole position: “I can’t believe it. We had issues today so we really didn’t know what we could pull out. I just can’t believe it!”

The first race is due to take place at 11:47am on Sunday UK time.