Photo: PSP Images

Andrew Jordan takes pole at Thruxton

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Andrew Jordan has claimed the pole position for tomorrow’s first BTCC race at Thruxton, with a provisional pole lap of 1.16.983.

Most drivers were out early in the session to set a time for a fear of the rain returning. The dry line on track saw a mixture of tyre strategies in the early stages of the session with some opting for full wets, full slicks or a combination of the both. Matt Neal was the first to set the fastest time, running on full wets but changing to slicks shortly after as the times began to come down. Neal’s qualifying session came to an early end after breaking a wheel in the middle of the session. The reigning champion finished the session in 20th as a result.

A number of drivers saw provisional pole position times taken away from them during the session after exceeding track limits including Mat Jackson, Rob Collard, Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato. Championship leader Plato caused the only red flag of the session after spearing off track at high speed at Church. Gordon Shedden, who dominated FP1 and FP2, was on the provisional pole position at the time the flag came out with a lap of 1:16.894 but had his times stripped for a turbo boost infringement. This saw Andrew Jordan take position at the top of the timesheets for Eurotech Racing.

Many of the cars were quick to make their way back out onto the circuit when the session was restarted with 11 minutes on the clock. Jordan was able to better his time while the time that Jason Plato set prior to his off saw him finish the session in second. Frank Wrathall claimed his best qualifying position of the year, finishing the session in third in his NGTC Toyota Avensis. The Motorbase Performance Ford Focus of Matt Jackson finished behind him in fourth. Rounding out the top five was ES Racing’s Dave Newsham in fifth.

Dan Welch failed to set a time in qualifying after his lap time set early in the session was taken away after the Proton failed to meet ride height.

The first race is due to take place at 11:37am on Sunday UK time.