James Cole surprised by maiden pole

James Cole admitted he was surprised to secure a maiden BTCC pole after topping the times in qualifying at Rockingham.

The Subaru driver emerged on top of the pile in a tightly-fought session ahead of the eighth meeting of the year, snaring pole ahead of Eurotech Honda driver Jack Goff by just 0.048 seconds.

It made Cole the first driver to take pole position at the Northamptonshire circuit in a rear-wheel drive car, and gave BMR pole for the third time in the last four rounds.

“We should have been quick with no weight onboard but I’m surprised to take pole,” he said to TouringCarTimes. “We had only run on old tyres going into qualifying which was a bit of a gamble, but I felt confident that new tyres would get us up into the top ten. I didn’t think we’d get that high up though.

“The circuit here is so abrasive that you only really get one lap, two at most, to set a time. The tyres drop off so quickly, so I was lucky to get the lap in and it felt good behind the wheel.

“The aim now is to get it off the line tomorrow and see where we end up. If I can pull away and make a break for it then great, but if the front-wheel drive cars have an advantage early on, we’ll have to let the race come back to us as I expect us to be strong late on.”