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Thruxton BTCC: Matt Neal heads Honda 1-2 with first pole since 2012

Honda driver Matt Neal took his first British Touring Car Championship pole for almost five years in qualifying at Thruxton

The Team Dynamics driver, who scored his last pole at Croft in 2012, led a Honda Civic 1-2-3 from team-mate Gordon Shedden and Eurotech's Jack Goff.

"I can't remember my last pole," said Neal.

"This place has been good to Honda over the years."

Andrew Jordan was the first driver to dip below 1m17s in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport before team-mate Colin Turkington lowered the benchmark to 1m16.662s.

But the rear-wheel-drive BMWs fell back as the quickest FWD runners got up to speed.

Shedden, championship leader Tom Ingram and Neal battled for top spot, with Ingram ahead after the first runs on 1m16.236s.

Shedden then bettered the previous qualifying record (Ingram's 1m16.161s from 2016) with a lap of 1m16.075s with the maximum 75kg of onboard.

On the following run he got a tow from Chris Smiley's Chevrolet Cruze and looked set to improve, but was then held up by the Chevy.

Almost immediately Neal pipped his team-mate's time with a 1m16.040s, while practice pacesetter Goff moved his Eurotech Honda into third.

Ingram, running with 66kg of success ballast, ended up as the best non-Honda in fourth in his Toyota Avensis.

The Speedworks driver had struggled to find a balance in free practice and changed the set-up considerably ahead of qualifying.

Donington Park polesitter Rob Austin was fifth in his Handy Toyota, while Jeff Smith made it four Hondas in the top six in his Eurotech Civic.

Tom Chilton was set to move his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra into the top 10 before Smith went off at Allard and brought out the red flags with five minutes to go.

Many drivers elected not to go for a time after the restart, but Chilton managed to improve to eighth, behind the Ciceley Mercedes A-Class of Adam Morgan.

However, Chilton was later stripped of that time for not slowing under yellow flags and the 12-time BTCC racer winner will therefore start the first race from 11th.

Ash Sutton instead moves up to eighth in his BMR Subaru Levorg and was top RWD car, despite having two times disallowed for track limits infringements.

Team-mate Jason Plato was 21st, 0.999 seconds off pole.

Turkington wound up ninth and was best BMW, running 57kg of ballast, while Mat Jackson (Motorbase Ford) moved up a place as a result of Chilton's demotion and completed the top 10.

QUALIFYING RESULT:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Matt Neal Dynamics/Honda Honda 1m16.040s - 14
2 Gordon Shedden Dynamics/Honda Honda 1m16.075s 0.035s 13
3 Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda 1m16.200s 0.160s 23
4 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m16.236s 0.196s 15
5 Rob Austin Handy Motorsport Toyota 1m16.377s 0.337s 22
6 Jeff Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 1m16.395s 0.355s 19
7 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 1m16.494s 0.454s 19
8 Ash Sutton Team BMR Subaru 1m16.588s 0.548s 17
9 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 1m16.622s 0.582s 19
10 Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 1m16.640s 0.600s 17
11 Tom Chilton Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m16.648s 0.608s 21
12 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 1m16.653s 0.613s 19
13 Matt Simpson Dynamics/Honda Honda 1m16.656s 0.616s 15
14 Senna Proctor Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 1m16.702s 0.662s 23
15 Luke Davenport Motorbase Ford 1m16.742s 0.702s 19
16 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 1m16.864s 0.824s 24
17 Josh Cook Maximum Motorsport Ford 1m16.934s 0.894s 16
18 Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m16.962s 0.922s 21
19 Ant Whorton-Eales AmD Tuning Audi 1m16.966s 0.926s 18
20 Michael Epps Team Hard Volkswagen 1m16.974s 0.934s 18
21 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 1m17.039s 0.999s 15
22 Dave Newsham BTC Racing Chevrolet 1m17.060s 1.020s 14
23 Aron Taylor-Smith Triple Eight/MG MG 1m17.130s 1.090s 13
24 Jake Hill Team Hard Volkswagen 1m17.248s 1.208s 16
25 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 1m17.252s 1.212s 18
26 James Cole Team BMR Subaru 1m17.255s 1.215s 23
27 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Chevrolet 1m17.283s 1.243s 18
28 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing Ford 1m17.451s 1.411s 19
29 Daniel Lloyd Triple Eight/MG MG 1m17.460s 1.420s 16
30 Will Burns Team Hard Volkswagen 1m17.571s 1.531s 19
31 Martin Depper Motorbase Ford 1m17.767s 1.727s 21
32 Josh Price Team BMR Subaru 1m18.172s 2.132s 19


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