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Brands Hatch BTCC: Andrew Jordan claims first pole of 2013

Andrew Jordan took pole position for the first British Touring Car race of 2013 at Brands Hatch

In a session threatened by snow, the name at the top of the timesheets changed constantly early on.

The three Honda Civics of Jordan, reigning champion Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, who had an off on cold tyres, each held top spot at one stage.

Shedden moved to pole with 48.669s before Jordan struck back in his Eurotech Civic, only for Shedden to record 48.483s, identical to the 2012 pole time.

But Jordan, who was fastest in free practice, then moved to the top with 48.387s.

A snow shower in the last 15 minutes prevented any further improvements, ensuring Jordan will start on pole for the season opener.

"We thought it would come down to the first run," he said.

Double champion Jason Plato prevented a Honda clean sweep of the top three by pipping Neal to third, almost 0.2s slower than Jordan, in his works MG.

Plato's new Triple Eight team-mate Sam Tordoff was fifth, while 2012 polesitter Dave Newsham was sixth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis.

Colin Turkington's BTCC return did not start well. The 2009 champion spun at Druids early on as most tried to warm up their tyres and his new WSR BMW was hit by rookie Jack Goff's Team Hard Vauxhall Insignia.

"I made the mistake - the rear just snapped away from me," admitted Turkington after the incident brought out the red flags.

"We've had good pace straight out of the box and I think we had good potential for qualifying."

Fastest WSR BMW was thus Nick Foster, who qualified ninth.

He was helped by Frank Wrathall, who was a constant top-10 threat, being penalised for failing the ride height test and losing his times.

Lea Wood's Vauxhall Vectra was fastest of the S2000 runners contesting the Jack Sears Trophy, finishing over a second ahead of series returnee James Kaye (AmD Volkswagen Golf) and the Motorbase-run Ford Focus of Liam Griffin.

Pos  Driver            Team/Car                Time        Gap
 1.  Andrew Jordan     Eurotech Honda          48.387s
 2.  Gordon Shedden    Honda                   48.483s     + 0.096s
 3.  Jason Plato       MG                      48.571s     + 0.184s
 4.  Matt Neal         Honda                   48.614s     + 0.227s
 5.  Sam Tordoff       MG                      48.726s     + 0.339s
 6.  Dave Newsham      Speedworks Toyota       48.827s     + 0.440s
 7.  Rob Austin        Austin Audi             48.844s     + 0.457s
 8.  Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda          48.914s     + 0.527s
 9.  Nick Foster       WSR BMW                 49.201s     + 0.814s
10.  Adam Morgan       Ciceley Toyota          49.203s     + 0.816s
11.  Ollie Jackson     Speedworks Toyota       49.239s     + 0.852s
12.  Mat Jackson       Motorbase Ford          49.248s     + 0.861s
13.  Rob Collard       WSR BMW                 49.319s     + 0.932s
14.  Aron Smith        Motorbase Ford          49.553s     + 1.166s
15.  Will Bratt        Austin Audi             49.737s     + 1.350s
16.  Lea Wood          Wood Vauxhall*          50.011s     + 1.624s
17.  Tom Onslow-Cole   Hard VW                 50.231s     + 1.844s
18.  James Kaye        AmD VW*                 51.198s     + 2.811s
19.  Liam Griffin      Motorbase Ford*         51.330s     + 2.943s
20.  Joe Girling       Finesse Chevrolet*      51.415s     + 3.028s
21.  Warren Scott      BMR SEAT*               51.439s     + 3.052s
22.  James Cole        Hard Vauxhall           51.453s     + 3.066s
23.  David Nye         Welch Ford*             51.616s     + 3.229s
24.  Daniel Welch      Welch Proton            55.179s     + 6.792s
25.  Frank Wrathall    Dynojet Toyota**        -
26.  Jack Goff         Hard Vauxhall           -
27.  Colin Turkington  WSR BMW                 -

* S2000
** Times deleted as a result of failing ride height test

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