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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