Chilton takes pole at Rockingham

Chilton took his Arena Ford Focus to the top of the timesheets after seven minutes of the half-hour session with a lap of 1m23.363s, and remained there as time ticked away to secure the sixth pole of his career.

"I don't think I could do that again," said Chilton, who significantly took the first BTCC pole for an LPG-powered car. "Before I went out, I said that if I got everything perfect, I could do a 23.3, and that's exactly what I did."

Honda driver Matt Neal was second fastest, 0.297s slower than Chilton, while series rookie Alex MacDowall was a revelation, putting his Chevrolet third on the grid in what is only his second BTCC weekend.

Tom Onslow-Cole made it two Arena Fords in the top four while Jason Plato's Chevrolet and the returning James Nash's Triple 8 Vauxhall completed the third row.

Thruxton polesitter Gordon Shedden was seventh quickest in his Honda as Andrew Jordan (Eurotech Vauxhall), Steven Kane (Motorbase BMW) and Paul O'Neill (Tech-Speed Honda) completed the top 10.

O'Neill went off at Gracelands during the session, but regained the track without hitting anything. His team-mate John George had a half spin at the same corner a minute later, while Andy Neate's WSR BMW went off for good into the gravel there in the final minute.

That brought out the waved yellow flags and prevented anybody from improving their times on their final runs.

Pos  Driver           Car         Time       Gap
 1.  Tom Chilton      Ford        1m23.363s
 2.  Matt Neal        Honda       1m23.660s  + 0.297s
 3.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet   1m23.782s  + 0.419s
 4.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Ford        1m23.798s  + 0.435s
 5.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet   1m23.834s  + 0.471s
 6.  James Nash       Vauxhall    1m24.245s  + 0.882s
 7.  Gordon Shedden   Honda       1m24.263s  + 0.900s
 8.  Andrew Jordan    Vauxhall    1m24.404s  + 1.041s
 9.  Steven Kane      BMW         1m24.417s  + 1.054s
10.  Paul O'Neill     Honda       1m24.503s  + 1.140s
11.  Mat Jackson      BMW         1m24.544s  + 1.181s
12.  Rob Collard      BMW         1m24.751s  + 1.388s
13.  David Pinkney    Vauxhall    1m24.928s  + 1.565s
14.  Tom Boardman     SEAT        1m25.207s  + 1.844s
15.  Andy Neate       BMW         1m25.400s  + 2.037s
16.  John George      Honda       1m25.570s  + 2.207s
17.  Martin Johnson   Vauxhall    1m26.156s  + 2.793s
18.  Arthur Forster   BMW         1m27.059s  + 3.696s
19.  Matt Hamilton    Honda
20.  Shaun Hollamby   Volkswagen