Frank Wrathall has spectacularly taken the first pole position of his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship career at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk.The 25-year-old from Preston achieved pole in a time of 1m57.595s in his Dynojet Toyota Avensis to pip former double Champion, Oxfords Jason Plato in his MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 by just 0.015s.Wrathalls pole is the first for a Toyota driver in the BTCC since 1993 and also a qualifying record for the championship around the Snetterton track.Invernesss Dave Newsham was also close to pole, just 0.054s away from Wrathall in third in his Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra.An elated Wrathall said: That was very close as Jason and I were trading fastest times but in the end I came out on top. Id come back into the pit lane and knew he was out there giving it one final go, but it seems he made a mistake and went off the trackwhen the team told me I was shouting a lot in the car! To beat a driver of his stature makes it all the more rewarding and Im delighted.Plato replied: Congratulations to Frankits always nice to see a young driver doing well, even if it is at my expense! The important thing is Im ahead of the two drivers Im chasing for the title and from here can start thinking about taking points back off them.And added Newsham: Finally the Vectra feels like it did back at the start of the season when I had three really strong opening events. From what weve seen in the earlier practice sessions our tyre wear rate is also excellent so Im hoping for three very strong races tomorrow.There were career-best qualifying results, too, for Preston's Adam Morgan and Fleet's Daniel Welcha fine fifth and sixth fastest in their Speedworks Motorsport Toyota and Welch Motorsport Proton respectively.But there were major frustrations for the two championship leaders, Honda Yuasa Racing Team team-mates Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden. Worcestershire's Neal was a lowly seventh by his standards and Fife's Shedden 22nd and last after on-going problems with his Civicwhich had suffered a major fire in practice this morningprevented him from setting a time.Elsewhere Warwickshire's Mat Jackson, another of the championships top names, qualified the Redstone Racing teams all-new Ford Focus ST an encouraging 16th fastest on its debut. The Focus, only completed at 7.00am, becomes the seventh different make of car to be built to the BTCCs new and much-applauded NGTC regulationsMeanwhile Neal will go into tomorrows three BTCC races at Snetterton leading the standings by a point from Shedden. Plato is a further 28 back with 20 awarded for a race win. All the action will be shown live on the ITV4 and ITV4 HD channels plus www.itv.com
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