BTCC Rockingham: Gordon Shedden claims pole in rain-hit qualifying

The Team Dynamics Honda Civic driver dominated the interrupted session, which was halted as rain flooded the Northamptonshire circuit.

Shedden banked the fastest time before the halt, and then improved it further in the closing minutes to land a 1m36.338 seconds lap.

"It is brilliant," said Shedden of his pole. "The car was fantastic but the track was slippery.

"I had some big moment and I wouldn't want to be having those sort of moments all the time.

That put him 0.288s ahead of Motorbase Ford driver Mat Jackson, while MG's Josh Cook left it until the end to put in a flier to post the third-quickest lap.

Jason Plato, who had run off the circuit in the first stages of the second part of the 30-minute session, put his Subaru on the second row.

He ended up ahead of his Team BMR team-mate Colin Turkington, who took fifth.

The top 10 was rounded out by MG's Ash Sutton, Toyota's Tom Ingram, the second Dynamics Honda of Matt Neal, Adam Morgan's Mercedes and Hunter Abbott's Chevrolet.

Championship leader Sam Tordoff struggled again in the wet conditions and could only manage the 27th best time, directly behind his two WSR BMW 125i M Sport team-mates Jack Goff and Rob Collard.

Tordoff said: "We had water get in to the electrics on all three cars and we had a misfire.

"That just capped off a tough day, because we are out of bed with the car in terms of set-up.

"We aren't in the sweet spot, and we have a lot of work to do tonight."

QUALIFYING RESULT