Oulton Park BTCC: Jason Plato on pole after dominating qualifying
Jason Plato topped British Touring Car qualifying at Oulton Park with a dominant performance in his works MG
Plato set a 1m26.130s early on in the session and then sat in the pits as his rivals repeatedly tried - and failed - to match him.
Reigning champion Gordon Shedden's works Honda Civic got closest with 1m26.429s, only to lose the time for exceeding the track limits.
That dropped him to fifth, but the Honda man immediately went back out and snatched second back with a time a fraction slower than his earlier effort.
It was, nevertheless, still half a second down on Plato. And when Sam Tordoff made a late improvement, MG secured its first front-row lockout of the NGTC era.
Shedden held on to third, while a late effort from a surprised Dave Newsham annexed fourth in his Speedworks Toyota Avensis.
This season's form man Andrew Jordan could not quite deliver in his Eurotech Honda and ended up fifth. He suffered with a slide through Cascades on his final effort.
Frank Wrathall's Dynojet Toyota Avensis rounded out the top six, just ahead of Colin Turkington's WSR BMW.
Championship leader Matt Neal suffered a spin at the Knickerbrook chicane and ended up eighth, with exactly the same time as Adam Morgan's Ciceley Racing Avensis.
Both were less than 0.3s behind second-placed Tordoff, but 0.7s down on poleman Plato.
After initially trailing Liam Griffin, Lea Wood was the top S2000 runner, going 19th overall with his Vauxhall Vectra.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Jason Plato MG 1m26.130s 2. Sam Tordoff MG 1m26.561s + 0.431s 3. Gordon Shedden Honda 1m26.630s + 0.500s 4. Dave Newsham Speedworks Toyota 1m26.706s + 0.576s 5. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda 1m26.728s + 0.598s 6. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota 1m26.742s + 0.612s 7. Colin Turkington WSR BMW 1m26.801s + 0.671s 8. Matt Neal Honda 1m26.831s + 0.701s 9. Adam Morgan Ciceley Toyota 1m26.831s + 0.701s 10. Tom Onslow-Cole Hard VW 1m27.057s + 0.927s 11. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 1m27.076s + 0.946s 12. Ollie Jackson Speedworks Toyota 1m27.375s + 1.245s 13. Daniel Welch Welch Proton 1m27.417s + 1.287s 14. Jack Goff Hard Vauxhall 1m27.435s + 1.305s 15. Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 1m27.549s + 1.419s 16. Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m27.608s + 1.478s 17. Aron Smith Motorbase Ford 1m27.634s + 1.504s 18. Rob Austin Austin Audi 1m27.936s + 1.806s 19. Lea Wood Wood Vauxhall* 1m28.068s + 1.938s 20. James Cole Hard Vauxhall 1m28.203s + 2.073s 21. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford* 1m28.260s + 2.130s 22. Nick Foster WSR BMW 1m28.378s + 2.248s 23. Will Bratt Austin Audi 1m28.570s + 2.440s 24. Aaron Mason AmD VW* 1m29.048s + 2.918s 25. David Nye Welch Ford* 1m29.412s + 3.282s 26. Warren Scott BMR SEAT* 1m29.873s + 3.743s * S2000
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About this article
| Series | BTCC |
| Drivers | Jason Plato |
| Teams | BTC Racing |
| Author | Kevin Turner |
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