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Qualifying report

Tordoff beats Priaulx to BTCC pole at Croft

Sam Tordoff came out on top in a battle with West Surrey Racing teammate Andy Priaulx to claim pole position for the first of this weekend’s BTCC races at Croft.

Sam Tordoff, West Surrey Racing

Sam Tordoff, West Surrey Racing

PSP Images

Sam Tordoff, Team JCT1600 With Gardx
Third place Sam Tordoff
Andy Priaulx, Team IHG Rewards Club
Andy Priaulx, Team IHG Rewards Club
Andy Priaulx, Team IHG Rewards Club
Gordon Shedden, Honda Yuasa Racing

On a circuit renowned for favouring rear-wheel drive cars, the BMW duo were the men to beat, Priaulx going quickest at the halfway stage of the session with a 1m24.275s.

Tordoff, the pacesetter in second practice, soon slotted into second, less than a tenth away from the triple World Touring Car champion, with Priaulx then consolidating his place atop the timesheets in the closing stages with a 1m23.956s, exactly four tenths up on Tordoff.

But, fresh from his first victory of the season at Oulton Park and despite the disadvantage of carrying 27kg of success ballast, Tordoff was able to snatch the top spot away from Priaulx with a 1m23.886s and seal his first pole of the year.

Honda’s Gordon Shedden was the quickest of the front-wheel drive cars in third, 0.508s back from Tordoff and carrying a considerable 66kg of ballast, with Rob Collard making it three WSR BMWs in the top four with a time just 0.044s shy of the Scot.

Early pacesetter Colin Turkington found himself demoted to fifth late on in the best of the BMR Volkswagens, 0.650s off the pace, and will share the third row with the second Honda Civic Type-R of Matt Neal.

Rob Austin, who briefly topped the times in his self-run Audi A4, will start seventh, ahead of the MG of Jack Goff, Adam Morgan’s Mercedes and the second MG of Andrew Jordan.

Points leader Jason Plato struggled with 75kg of success ballast in his BMR VW, and could do better than 12th, while Nicolas Hamilton will start his maiden BTCC race down in 29th, the slowest of those to set a time.

Qualifying results:

Pos Driver Car Time Gap
Sam Tordoff BMW 1'23.886  
Andy Priaulx BMW 1'23.956 0.070
Gordon Shedden Honda 1'24.464 0.578
Rob Collard BMW 1'24.508 0.622
Colin Turkington Volkswagen 1'24.536 0.650
Matt Neal Honda 1'24.559 0.673
Rob Austin Audi 1'24.582 0.696
Jack Goff MG 1'24.642 0.756
Adam Morgan Mercedes 1'24.650 0.764
10  Andrew Jordan MG 1'24.696 0.810
11  Aron Smith Volkswagen 1'24.718 0.832
12  Jason Plato Volkswagen 1'24.820 0.934
13  Tom Ingram Toyota 1'24.840 0.954
14  Martin Depper Honda 1'25.174 1.288
15  Hunter Abbott Audi 1'25.247 1.361
16  Aiden Moffat Mercedes 1'25.292 1.406
17  Jeff Smith Honda 1'25.310 1.424
18  Warren Scott Volkswagen 1'25.325 1.439
19  Josh Cook Chevrolet 1'25.403 1.517
20  Dave Newsham Chevrolet 1'25.445 1.559
21  Mike Bushell Ford 1'25.653 1.767
22  Alex Martin Ford 1'26.248 2.362
23  Simon Belcher Toyota 1'26.822 2.936
24  Daniel Welch Proton 1'27.013 3.127
25  Stewart Lines Toyota 1'27.098 3.212
26  Andy Wilmot Proton 1'27.274 3.388
27  Derek Palmer Infiniti 1'27.326 3.440
28  Max Coates Infiniti 1'27.555 3.669
29  Nicolas Hamilton Audi 1'28.026 4.140
30  Kieran Gallagher Toyota   no time

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