Promising start for Chilton - second consecutive pole. Good effort for Racecar customer Alex Macdowall to outqualify established star Jason Plato again for second meeting
Tom Chilton has taken a clear pole position in today’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship qualifying session at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. Team Aon’s Chilton lapped Brands's world famous Grand Prix circuit in a record time of 1m31.604s to achieve his second pole in a row at the wheel of his LPG-turbo Ford Focus (pictured right).
Chilton, aged 25 from Poole, said: “That was like a lap from the gods! The car out the back on the GP loop was right on the limit but so fast. I’m also confident that we can run the same set-up for the races but we’ll take a call in the morning – it could be wet and, out of all the days of testing we did pre-season, none were wet.”Honda Racing Team driver Gordon Shedden was second, some 0.471s adrift but a similar distance ahead of third-fastest James Nash in his Triple Eight-run Vauxhall Vectra.
Scottish ace Shedden and rising star Nash, from Buckinghamshire, both believe Chilton is beatable tomorrow. Shedden said: “My best hope is he fluffs his start or screws his tyres in the opening laps.” Nash added: “I think my car will be kinder on its tyres compared to the Fords and Hondas so if I can hang on to them I’ll be hoping to charge back after them in the closing stages.”Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal was fourth, three places ahead of Silverline Chevrolet’s Jason Plato, the man he is chasing at the top of the points table. Both their cars are heavy with success ballast. Meanwhile, completing the top six were leading BMW driver, WSR’s Robert Collard, and Plato’s young team-mate Alex MacDowall.Of the locals, Wrotham-based team Airwaves BMW’s two drivers Mat Jackson and Steven Kane qualified 13th and 14th, while Orpington’s Shaun Hollamby, in his VW Golf entered by West Thurrock outfit AmD Milltek Racing.com, was 19th.Tomorrow’s three BTCC races will receive live TV coverage on the ITV4 channel from 11.30am-6.00pm. The www.itv.com website will also live-stream the day’s action.Leading times, BTCC qualifying, Brands Hatch (1 May 2010):
1. Tom Chilton (GBR), Team Aon/Ford Focus, 1m31.604s2. Gordon Shedden (GBR), Honda Racing Team/Honda Civic, +0.471s3. James Nash (GBR), Uniq Racing with Triple Eight/Vauxhall Vectra, +0.811s4. Matt Neal (GBR), Honda Racing Team/Honda Civic, +0.820s5. Robert Collard (GBR), WSR/BMW 320si, +0.859s6. Alex MacDowall (GBR), Silverline Chevrolet/Chevrolet Cruze, +0.869s7. Jason Plato (GBR), Silverline Chevrolet/Chevrolet Cruze, +1.015s8. Andrew Jordan (GBR), Pirtek Racing/Vauxhall Vectra, +1.099s9. Tom Onslow-Cole (GBR), Team Aon/Ford Focus, +1.116s10. Paul O’Neill (GBR), Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed/Honda Integra, +1.240s
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