Aiello claims pole position again

He qualified his Nissan Primera on pole for tomorrow's 40-lap Feature race.

His time was set after just six minutes of the half-hour session around the tight Fosters circuit; his Nissan team-mate, David Leslie, will start alongside him.

The two Nissan drivers were the only ones to break the 1:06 barrier.

Conditions were tricky throughout the session and slick tyres were never going to be used. With a wet track at the start, most drivers opted for full wets, although soon some switched to intermediate fronts.

The first 10 minutes saw frantic activity as everyone tried to put in a quick time - a wise move, as a shower then slowed things down again.

At this point the Ford Mondeo of Alain Menu was second quickest, but he slid into the gravel at Lodge corner to bring his session to an end.

John Cleland was a fine third in his Vauxhall Vectra, which became second just a few minutes later as he went just one-hundredth quicker than Menu - although he was later demoted to third by Leslie.

As the shower ended the cars headed back out for the final minutes, and Leslie went half a second quicker to claim second.

Just as everything looked set for an action-packed finish, the red flag came out - Russell Spence had parked his Independent Renault Laguna on top of the barriers at Lodge.


The remaining two and a half minutes were scrapped, and Aiello's pole was secure.

Top Independent was, as ever, Matt Neal, the Nissan Primera driver qualifying seventh overall.

Mark Blair was twelfth in his Vauxhall Vectra - remarkably, ahead of the two works Honda Accord cars of Peter Kox and James Thompson, who simply didn't get out on the circuit at the right time.