Frank Wrathall takes pole position at Snetterton

Frank Wrathall took the first pole position for Dynojet Racing in the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, qualifying ahead of Jason Plato’s Triple Eight MG.

In a topsy-turvy session, pole position swapped eight times, with Jason Plato and Frank Wrathall exchanging the top spot in the final half of the session.

Wrathall initially set a time of 1:58.039, which was then beaten by Jason Plato with a time of 1:57.610 with which he seemed to set to claim him his third pole of the season. But with five minutes to go, Frank Wrathall found more time from his Dynojet Racing Toyota Avensis to go 0.015 seconds faster than Plato’s MG6 GT.

Jason Plato went out for a final run to try to reclaim pole, but first went wide on his sighting lap, and then again on his flying lap and was unable to improve.

Dave Newsham qualified third in the Team ES Racing Vauxhall Vectra, with Andrew Jordan the fastest of the Hondas in fourth ahead of the Toyota Avensis of Speedworks Motorsport driver Adam Morgan.

The session was red flagged 10 minutes in after Gordon Shedden, who had managed to get out in a repaired Honda after a fire in FP1, stopped on circuit. Shedden was able to bring the car back to the pits, though further issues with the Honda meant the Scotsman was unable to set a time in the session and so he will start 22nd and last tomorrow.

Mat Jackson qualified in 16th with the brand new NGTC Ford Focus ST, whilst BTCC newcomer, American-driver Robb Holland qualified in 20th place in the older S2000-spec Honda Civic, just behind team owner Tony Gilham in his first qualifying session in the Thorney Motorsport Vauxhall Insignia.

Championship leader Matt Neal qualified in seventh place, just within a second of Wrathall’s time.

The first race tomorrow starts at 12:00 BST.