Jason Plato just pipped Gordon Shedden to take pole position in the Dunlop MSA British Touring car Championship’s qualifying session on Snetterton's new 300 circuit.

Shedden’s best time of 1m58.716s in his Honda Racing Civic looked unbeatable but with just a few minutes to go Plato, his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze on the ragged edge, produced a super-human lap of 1m58.691s to snatch pole away by just 0.025s.

Plato said: "That was the limit... absolutely the limit. But pole for us is everything as starting in front of the turbo cars is the only real chance I have of taking it to them in a race. It is going to be a massive fight between us and them tomorrow."

Third was Plato’s team-mate Alex MacDowall – he’d been in the running for pole until a flash fire on his Chevrolet Cruze in the pit lane spelt an early end to his session.

Fourth, just 0.248s behind Plato in a car carrying the maximum success ballast of 45kgs, was Shedden's team-mate and series leader Matt Neal. James Nash (888/Collins Contractors Vauxhall Vectra) and Tom Chilton (Aon Ford Focus) completed the top six.

A best-ever seventh for himself, his Dynojet team and its Toyota Avensis was Frank Wrathall. It’s the first time a car built to the BTCC’s new Next Generation Touring Car technical regulations has qualified inside the top ten.

Similarly, Dave Newsham was a best-ever eighth but their was much dejection for his Special Tuning Racing team-mate Tom Boardman whose SEAT Leon stopped at the side of the track early on before he'd set a time – he will therefore start the first of tomorrow’s three races from 26th and last on the grid.

There was also frustration for championship front-runners Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Vectra) and Mat Jackson (Airwaves Focus) back in 11th and 13th.

The two debutants this weekend, Martin Byford (AmD Milltek Racing.com VW Golf) and Daniel Welch qualified 19th and 20th, just 1.8s and 2.2s off the ultimate pace respectively. Welch’s performance was highly impressive given his team Welch Motorsport’s all-new Proton Gen-2 effectively turned a wheel for only the time in this morning’s practice sessions.

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