Qualifying report form yesterday below:Scotland’s Gordon Shedden has qualified on pole position for the first of tomorrow’s (Sunday) three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at the Donington Park circuit in Leicestershire.
Shedden (Dalgety Bay), driving a Team Halfords Honda Civic, achieved top spot for tomorrow’s starting grid for the second time in three race meetings with a best lap time of 1m13.486s. Lining up alongside him on the front row of the grid will be SEAT driver Darren Turner (Leamington-Spa). Third was Shedden’s team-mate, the reigning champion Matt Neal (Droitwich).
But there were problems for the two chief title protagonists Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jason Plato (Oxford) whose cars are carrying significant success ballast due to their championship positions. Italian Giovanardi’s Vauxhall Vectra suffered engine problems and he was left stranded in 15th. Plato, who is just one point behind Giovanardi at the top of the standings, was only ninth in his SEAT Leon.
Fourth was Mat Jackson (Henley-in-Arden), a first-time winner at Oulton Park three weeks ago in his family-run BMW 320si, and fifth Mike Jordan (Lichfield) in his Eurotech team’s Honda Integra. Sixth was Colin Turkington (Portadown) in Team RAC’s BMW 320si. Both Jackson and Turkington will hope their BMWs’ rear-wheel-drive will tomorrow help them to make up places on the sprint to the first bend.
Donington’s BTCC action will be broadcast live tomorrow from 14.00 on terrestrial television channel ITV1.
Leading positions, BTCC Qualifying, Donington Park (provisional):1. Gordon Shedden (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Civic, 1m13.486s
2. Darren Turner (GBR), SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon, +0.068s
3. Matt Neal (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Civic, +0.142s
4. Mat Jackson (GBR), Jacksons MSport/BMW 320si, +0.156s
5. Mike Jordan (GBR), Eurotech-John Guest-Speedfit/Honda Integra, +0.165s
6. Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si, +0.321s
7. Adam Jones (GBR), Team Air Cool/SEAT Toledo, +0.429s
8. Matt Allison (GBR), Motorbase Performance/SEAT Toledo, +0.529s
9. Jason Plato (GBR), SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon, +0.604s
10. Tom Onslow-Cole (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si, +630s
Shedden, eighth in the current standings but who took pole and won twice at Donington in 2006, said: “It’s great to be on pole, but it is so close among the top cars. I’m expecting those BMWs to come through in the first few hundred yards and we could have a real gaggle of cars fighting it out at the first bend… It might also rain tomorrow so who knows how much of an advantage pole will really mean.”
Turner, sixth in the standings and never outside the top four in qualifying in 2007, said: “Second is a bit of a surprise as this is a bogey track for the SEAT Leon. But I put together a really good lap and here we are. I’ve got a chance to improve on my championship position, but both our cars are in front of the Vauxhalls and we’ve got a good chance to close on them in the Manufacturers’ championship as well.”
Having seen Giovanardi take away his points lead at Oulton, Plato added: “I could have been 3/10ths of a second faster and Fabrizio hasn’t got near a time like that all day. I think that extra bit of ballast is hurting his car around here. If I can beat him in races one and two and come away still just about level I’ll be happy.”
Giovanardi responded: “So I had an engine problem… it’s just a bit of metal. If it rains tomorrow, that will help to cancel out the ballast. From the middle of the grid, I just need to keep out of trouble.
