MacDowall earns pole at Knockhill

The Chevrolet driver broke Darren Turner's qualifying record by lapping the Scottish circuit in 53.009s with four minutes of the session remaining.

"It's my local track, but I've not been here for about three years," he said. "The Chevrolet has a strong engine and a good chassis, so I knew we'd be strong, but this is just brilliant."

Practice pace-setter Gordon Shedden (Honda) was the man MacDowall knocked off the top spot, but his time, just 0.072 seconds slower, was still good enough for a front-row spot.

Old adversaries Matt Neal (Honda) and Jason Plato (Chevrolet) filled the second row, their cars carrying 27 and 45kg of success ballast respectively.

A fine effort in the final minute from Steven Kane gave the Motorbase BMW driver his best grid spot of the year in fifth. Paul O'Neill (Tech-Speed Honda) was sixth, having duelled with Shedden for the top spot during the first half of the session.

The Arena Fords of Tom Chilton and Tom Onslow-Cole were next up with Chilton, seventh, just 0.172s off pole

Rob Collard put his WSR BMW ninth while Andrew Jordan, suffering from a bout of food poisoning, completed the top 10 in his Eurotech Vauxhall.

Series debutant Jeff Smith was just 1.2s off the pace as he qualified 16th, five places behind his Triple 8 Vauxhall team-mate James Nash.

The session was red-flagged at its midpoint when Andy Neate (WSR BMW) hit the tyre barrier at Duffus Dip. He was unhurt and qualified 18th, while John George (Tech-Speed Honda) had offs at Duffus and the hairpin.

Pos  Driver           Car         Time     Gap
 1.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet   53.001s
 2.  Gordon Shedden   Honda       53.073s  + 0.072s
 3.  Matt Neal        Honda       53.099s  + 0.098s
 4.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet   53.120s  + 0.119s
 5.  Steven Kane      BMW         53.160s  + 0.159s
 6.  Paul O'Neill     Honda       53.172s  + 0.171s
 7.  Tom Chilton      Ford        53.173s  + 0.172s
 8.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Ford        53.357s  + 0.356s
 9.  Rob Collard      BMW         53.383s  + 0.382s
10.  Andrew Jordan    Vauxhall    53.458s  + 0.457s
11.  James Nash       Vauxhall    53.685s  + 0.684s
12.  Mat Jackson      BMW         53.700s  + 0.699s
13.  David Pinkney    Vauxhall    53.920s  + 0.919s
14.  John George      Honda       54.119s  + 1.118s
15.  Tom Boardman     SEAT        54.191s  + 1.190s
16.  Jeff Smith       Vauxhall    54.297s  + 1.296s
17.  Andy Neate       BMW         54.450s  + 1.449s
18.  Shaun Hollamby   Volkswagen  54.725s  + 1.724s