BTCC Rockingham: Morgan beats Tordoff and Cammish to land first pole

The 29-year-old wrested top spot from the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus of Sam Tordoff in the dying minutes, bagging the top slot by 0.102 seconds.

Free practice pacesetter Dan Cammish was third in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.

Morgan, who is ninth in the points, was delighted with the result.

"It's taken six years and it feels like a win," he said. "Now I can tick the box, I'm over the moon. We knew we had it in us, it's just taken forever to get there.

"The car does feel good and our race pace is stronger than our qualifying pace. We're not carrying much weight and we're feeling racy."

Tordoff was frustrated to have missed out on top slot, but said his performance would help him rebound after a difficult weekend a fortnight ago at Snetterton.

"We've made a big step since Snetterton. We just couldn't get it to work there," said Tordoff.

"We've gone and done our homework in the last fortnight and followed a different direction. Hopefully we'll continue in the same vain tomorrow."

Cammish, meanwhile, was raging as he stepped from his Honda, feeling that he had been badly held up on his fast laps.

"Every time I tried a lap I was caught in traffic," he said. "I may as well have been on the M1 and I was just tearing my hair out by the end. We have got a fast car, but unfortunately it unravelled around us.

"I don't know what some of them are doing out there, and I should have put Stephen [Jelley, Team Parker Racing BMW driver] in the wall. He just drove right in front of me."

Mike Bushell claimed fourth spot in his much-improved Team Hard VW CC, ahead of BTC Norlin Racing Honda Civic Type R pair Dan Lloyd and Chris Smiley.

Championship leader Tom Ingram, carrying 75kg of success ballast, was fifth after the opening runs, but suffered two successive tyre blowouts as he rejoined the circuit in a bid to improve his time and ended up in 13th position in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis.

That was one place behind the WSR BMW 125i M Sport of Colin Turkington, which was fitted with 66kg of success ballast.

Jack Goff could only qualify his Eurotech Racing Honda Civic Type R, which is fourth in the points and has 48kg of ballast, 23rd after again struggling with the handling of his machine.

Both fared better than Matt Neal, who is third in the standings. He will start in 29th in his Team Dynamics Civic after an engine change between the end of free practice and the start of qualifying.

The last-minute job meant that the set-up of the hatchback, with its 57kg of ballast, could not be refined in time for him to take to the circuit. He also suffered a couple of lock ups, which restricted his pace.

Qualifying result