BTCC Brands Hatch: Maiden pole for Smith as title rivals struggle
Brett Smith claimed his first British Touring Car Championship pole position at Brands Hatch, as title favourites Colin Turkington and Tom Ingram struggled in qualifying for the series finale
Eurotech Honda Civic driver Smith pipped the factory-backed and newer-shape Team Dynamics Civic Type R of early pacesetter Dan Cammish with six minutes to go.
Smith, who is 24th in the points and therefore had no success ballast aboard his car, said he had been surprised with the result.
"I thought Brands Hatch was a bogey track for me," said the 26-year-old.
"I did my quick lap and then went for a second run and had a massive slide at Graham Hill Bend and I thought I had ruined it.
"Then the team got on the radio and told me it was P1. I couldn't believe it."
Cammish, for his part, felt he had been denied a shot at setting an even faster time by troublesome traffic.
The Honda man was on his fastest lap when he happened across a queue of cars heading into Clearways.
Cammish will start ahead of his team-mate Matt Neal, who said he was pleased with the time and with his starting slot.
The top five on the grid will be completed by Jack Goff's Eurotech Honda Civic and Dan Lloyd's similar car, run by BTC Norlin. Senna Proctor will start sixth in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.
Championship leader Colin Turkington will line up in 17th spot in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport, one place behind title outsider Tom Chilton's Motorbase Ford Focus.
Second in the points, Tom Ingram, will line up 19th in his Speedworks Toyota Avensis.
Turkington leads the standings by 34 points going in to tomorrow's three races from Ingram, with Chilton 64 points adrift with 67 to play for.
Turkington had 75kg aboard his rear-wheel-drive car and said he was satisfied with the performance to grab 17th if not the position.
"It is important that I am ahead of Ingram," he said.
"It gives me the upper hand early on in the weekend."
Ingram, who carried 66kg of weight into the session, thought that he had more to come.
He said: "We knew qualifying would be the hardest part of the weekend although I am not sure any of us with weight expected to be this far back.
"We have work to do to take some serious points out of Colin in race one, but we know what the BTCC finale weekend can bring. It is still all to play for."
The session was red-flagged in the dying moments when Rory Butcher's AmD Tuning.com MG slid into the gravel on the grand prix loop.
Qualifying result
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Brett Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 1m30.537s |
2 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 0.043s |
3 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 0.188s |
4 | Jack Goff | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 0.236s |
5 | Daniel Lloyd | BTC Norlin | Honda | 0.238s |
6 | Senna Proctor | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 0.310s |
7 | Sam Tordoff | Motorbase | Ford | 0.349s |
8 | Chris Smiley | BTC Norlin | Honda | 0.358s |
9 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 0.378s |
10 | Ash Sutton | Team BMR | Subaru | 0.382s |
11 | Ricky Collard | WSR | BMW | 0.441s |
12 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 0.462s |
13 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 0.574s |
14 | Rob Austin | HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo | 0.586s |
15 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase | Ford | 0.588s |
16 | James Cole | Motorbase | Ford | 0.603s |
17 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 0.627s |
18 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 0.632s |
19 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks | Toyota | 0.687s |
20 | Tom Oliphant | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 0.765s |
21 | Mike Bushell | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 0.771s |
22 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 0.812s |
23 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 0.856s |
24 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 0.927s |
25 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | MG | 1.165s |
26 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 1.218s |
27 | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1.270s |
28 | Sam Smelt | AmD Tuning | Audi | 1.523s |
29 | Ethan Hammerton | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1.718s |
30 | Ollie Pidgley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1.994s |
31 | Josh Caygill | AmD Tuning | MG | 2.757s |
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