Croft BTCC: Sutton handed pole position after qualifying abandoned
The British Touring Car Championship qualifying session at Croft was abandoned after a mid-session pile-up, which has handed pole position to Ash Sutton in the Team BMR Subaru Levorg GT
He had only done three flying laps in the nine minutes of the scheduled 30-minute session that were run, but his 1m33.182s lap was good enough for him to annex pole by 0.561s from Colin Turkington's WSR BMW 125i M Sport.
Mat Jackson (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) and reigning champion Gordon Shedden (Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R) will line up in third and fourth positions.
Josh Cook, who is returning to the Triple Eight MG team for this meeting, will share the third row with his team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith, who was one of those involved in the accident.
Jason Plato (Team BMR Subaru Levorg) and Matt Neal (Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R) are seventh and eighth. The top 10 is completed by the Team BMR Subarus of Josh Price and James Cole.
Luke Davenport (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) and Jeff Smith (Eurotech Honda Civic) had to be cut from their cars before being taken to hospital. Their injuries have been described as not life-threatening.
Aron Taylor-Smith (Triple Eight Racing MG) was also involved and he was knocked out in the accident. He was taken to the circuit's medical facilities to be checked over.
After the accident, Shedden examined the track alongside series director Alan Gow after the accident and the pair decided that the session should be abandoned.
"There is 100 metres of oil on the track and the rain on the circuit is expanding it all over the place," said Shedden.
"They are trying their best to clean it with a road sweeper, but that is just pushing the oil around.
"There could be another accident going through that corner with the track in the condition it is, so it is better to stop it."
QUALIFYING RESULT:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ash Sutton | Team BMR | Subaru | 1m33.182s | - | 3 |
| 2 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 1m33.743s | 0.561s | 3 |
| 3 | Mat Jackson | Motorbase | Ford | 1m33.786s | 0.604s | 3 |
| 4 | Gordon Shedden | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 1m33.808s | 0.626s | 2 |
| 5 | Josh Cook | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 1m33.904s | 0.722s | 3 |
| 6 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 1m33.989s | 0.807s | 2 |
| 7 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 1m34.011s | 0.829s | 3 |
| 8 | Matt Neal | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 1m34.077s | 0.895s | 4 |
| 9 | Josh Price | Team BMR | Subaru | 1m34.086s | 0.904s | 3 |
| 10 | James Cole | Team BMR | Subaru | 1m34.184s | 1.002s | 3 |
| 11 | Jeff Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 1m34.245s | 1.063s | 2 |
| 12 | Tom Chilton | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m34.293s | 1.111s | 2 |
| 13 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 1m34.317s | 1.135s | 3 |
| 14 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 1m34.379s | 1.197s | 3 |
| 15 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 1m34.397s | 1.215s | 3 |
| 16 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | Ford | 1m34.870s | 1.688s | 3 |
| 17 | Senna Proctor | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m34.875s | 1.693s | 2 |
| 18 | Jake Hill | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m34.953s | 1.771s | 3 |
| 19 | Rob Austin | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 1m35.098s | 1.916s | 3 |
| 20 | Will Burns | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m35.110s | 1.928s | 3 |
| 21 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 1m35.181s | 1.999s | 3 |
| 22 | Michael Epps | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m35.334s | 2.152s | 3 |
| 23 | Matt Simpson | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 1m35.514s | 2.332s | 4 |
| 24 | Dennis Strandberg | Maximum Motorsport | Ford | 1m35.689s | 2.507s | 3 |
| 25 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 1m35.875s | 2.693s | 3 |
| 26 | Ant Whorton-Eales | AmD Tuning | Audi | 1m35.978s | 2.796s | 3 |
| 27 | Martin Depper | Motorbase | Ford | 1m37.681s | 4.499s | 3 |
| 28 | Jack Goff | Eurotech Racing | Honda | - | - | 2 |
| 29 | Luke Davenport | Motorbase | Ford | - | - | 1 |
| 30 | Dave Newsham | BTC Racing | Chevrolet | - | - | 1 |
| 31 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Chevrolet | - | - | 1 |
| 32 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | - | - | 0 |
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