Rob Austin claims his first pole position at Knockhill

Rob Austin has taken his first pole position in the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, outqualifying the West Surrey Racing BMW of Colin Turkington and the Eurotech Racing Honda of Andrew Jordan.

Austin’s time of 52.471 proved unbeatable, with the 32-year-old taking the top spot from Eurotech’s Andrew Jordan just after ten minutes into the session, with West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington, like Austin also in a rear-wheel drive car, the closest threat just 47-thousandths of a second behind.

The session was briefly red flagged a third of the way through when Warren Scott went off at Scotsman Corner, damaging both the barriers and the rear of his Tony Gilham Racing Volkswagen CC.

The next incident also involved cars of Tony Gilham’s team, this time with the two Vauxhall Insignias, with Paul O’Neill running into the back of team-mate Kieran Gallagher at the hairpin, which saw O’Neill’s session ended prematurely and the 33-year-old qualifying down in 18th.

Jordan was third fastest at the end of the session, but the independent points leader has a six place penalty after receiving his third driving infraction last time out at Snetterton and so will drop to ninth for tomorrow’s race. As a result, local driver Gordon Shedden is promoted to third ahead of Triple Eight’s Jason Plato, who will start fourth, with championship leader Matt Neal fifth.

Adam Morgan and Frank Wrathall were next in their Toyota Avensises, with Sam Tordoff ninth fastest for Triple Eight MG and Dan Welch completing the top ten in his Proton Persona.

It was a mixed result for the Rob Austin Racing team, with Will Bratt failing two consecutive ride height tests and will therefore start from the back of the grid.

In the Jack Sears Trophy for Super 2000 cars, Liam Griffin took pole for Motorbase Performance, setting the 21st fastest time overall and will start ahead of Trophy leader Lea Wood.

The first race starts at 11:45 BST on Sunday.