Shedden snatches Rockingham pole

The Scotsman, who had set the pace in the first practice session of the day, repeated his form in the final minute with a stunning 1:24.327 in his Team Halfords Honda to knock Matt Neal off the top spot with what was the fastest BTCC lap ever recorded at the circuit.

A sharp burst of rain 20 minutes before qualifying doused the track and left most drivers starting the session on either wet, or a mixture of wet and dry rubber. I

t was Shedden's teammate Tom Chilton who began a raft of quick laps as he took the brave decision to switch to four slicks before anybody else.

The times tumbled with pole changing hands seven times before the end of the session as Shedden, on a dry circuit, grabbed the sixth pole of his career and his first of the season.

Two-time champion Neal (Vauxhall) ended up alongside him on the front row and just ahead of Adam Jones, who was a brilliant third fastest in his petrol-powered Team Air-Cool SEAT.

The diesel SEATs of works drivers Darren Turner and Jason Plato were next up with Turner doing especially well to qualify on the second row after his times for the first 22 minutes of the session were expunged due to a failed ride-height test.

Tom Onslow-Cole was sixth for Vauxhall with Chilton and Colin Turkington next up.

BMW Dealer UK's Mat Jackson and Vauxhall's reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi were only ninth and tenth, no doubt hampered by carrying 36 and 45 kilos of ballast due to their hugely successful weekends at Brands Hatch last time out.

Elventh on the grid was Steven Kane, the Motorbase BMW driver having to pull a quick lap out of the bag on his final effort after a his car failed to start on the flat patch, which saw all his earlier times disallowed. His teammate Rob Collard was also in trouble with the stewards as he suffered an identical penalty for failing a ride-height test.

Mike Jordan was 12th fastest despite missing the first 12 minutes of the session due to a gearbox issue, but there were problems for others too. Martyn Bell went off at the Deene hairpin and eventually stopped his Arkas Vauxhall coming out of the Tarzan hairpin, while Michael Doyle and Chris Stockton failed to make it out of the pits at all.

Pos Driver               Team       Time
 1. Gordon Shedden       Honda      1:24.327
 2. Matt Neal            Vauxhall   1:24.554  +0.227
 3. Adam Jones           SEAT       1:24.654  +0.327
 4. Darren Turner        SEAT       1:24.662  +0.335
 5. Jason Plato          SEAT       1:24.760  +0.433
 6. Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall   1:24.770  +0.443
 7. Colin Turkington     BMW        1:24.804  +0.477
 8. Tom Chilton          Honda      1:24.869  +0.542
 9. Mat Jackson          BMW        1:24.981  +0.654
10. Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   1:25.019  +0.692
11. Steven Kane          BMW        1:25.091  +0.764
12. Mike Jordan          Honda      1:25.104  +0.777
13. Stephen Jelley       BMW        1:25.405  +1.078
14. Matt Allison         Chevrolet  1:25.441  +1.114
15. Andrew Jordan        Honda      1:25.732  +1.405
16. Rob Collard          BMW        1:26.172  +1.845
17. Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet  1:26.459  +2.132
18. John George          Honda      1:26.485  +2.158
19. Jason Hughes         Honda      1:26.648  +2.321
20. Martyn Bell          Vauxhall   1:27.211  +2.884
21. Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall   1:27.596  +3.269
22. Alan Taylor          Honda      1:27.827  +3.500
23. Stuart Oliver        Lexus      1:29.377  +5.050