Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Chilton gives Global Ford Focus first BTCC pole at Knockhill

Tom Chilton gave the Global Ford Focus its first pole position by topping a dramatic British Touring Car qualifying at Knockhill

Three red flags - caused by separate offs for Techspeed Chevrolet Cruze drivers John George and Paul O'Neill and the Arena Ford of Andy Neate - made for a fragmented session.

Honda Racing duo Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal initially set the pace before a sequence of fast laps took Chilton to the top of the timesheets.

In the closing 10 minutes, when many of the top runners set their fastest times, the Hondas edged closer to the Arena Motorsport driver. But Chilton settled the matter with a 52.999s lap in the last two minutes to take pole by 0.2s. Three of his earlier laps would also have been good enough for pole.

Despite Shedden (running 36kg of success ballast) being only 0.097s behind second-placed Neal (with 27kg of ballast), he ended up fifth. Late charges from NGTC runners Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota Avensis) and Rob Austin (Audi A4) moved them up to third and fourth respectively.

Reigning champion Jason Plato completed the top six after a slow start, topping the normally aspirated runners in his works Chevy.

Points leader Mat Jackson took his Motorbase Focus to seventh as the top 17 were covered by just 0.9s.

BTCC newcomer Aron Smith was 15th in his Vauxhall Vectra, just over a tenth slower than Triple Eight team-mate James Nash.

Pos  Driver           Team/Car              Time       Gap
 1.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford            52.999s    
 2.  Matt Neal        Honda                 53.201s    + 0.202s
 3.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota        53.222s    + 0.223s
 4.  Rob Austin       Rob Austin Audi       53.227s    + 0.228s
 5.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                 53.298s    + 0.299s
 6.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet             53.338s    + 0.339s
 7.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford        53.377s    + 0.378s
 8.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet             53.422s    + 0.423s
 9.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Arena Ford            53.472s    + 0.473s
10.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW               53.580s    + 0.581s
11.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall     53.597s    + 0.598s
12.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall     53.707s    + 0.708s
13.  Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT   53.735s    + 0.736s
14.  Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet  53.796s    + 0.797s
15.  Aron Smith       Triple 8 Vauxhall     53.828s    + 0.829s
16.  Daniel Welch     Welch Proton          53.867s    + 0.868s
17.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW               53.886s    + 0.887s
18.  Martin Byford    AmD Volkswagen        54.124s    + 1.125s
19.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall     54.251s    + 1.252s
20.  Andy Neate       Arena Ford            54.334s    + 1.335s
21.  Dave Newsham     Special Tuning SEAT   54.415s    + 1.416s
22.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford        54.777s    + 1.778s
23.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet  55.425s    + 2.426s
24.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet          55.904s    + 2.905s

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Gordon Shedden stays fastest in second British Touring Car practice session at Knockhill
Next article Leading BTCC drivers call for NGTC cars to be pegged back

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe