BTCC: Andy Priaulx takes pole at Knockhill

West Surrey Racing drivers Andy Priaulx and Sam Tordoff will occupy the front row of starting grid in tomorrow’s first BTCC race at Knockhill Circut. In today’s qualifying session at the 1.27-mile track, Priaulx set the fastest lap of 51.671s, 15 hundreds of a second faster than Tordoff. Both drivers were driving a BMW 125i M Sport.

Priaulx made a qualifying lap record just a few moments before the end of session and stole the pole position from Tordoff. Before that, Tordoff snatched the first place from Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson in Ford Focus. Third WSR drivers Rob Collard finished fourth, after recovering from an off-track excursion during one of his late flyers.

Honda Yuasa’s Gordon Shedden, who had dominated both practice sessions earlier in the day, didn’t manage better than fifth. It could have been better for the Scotsman as one of his fastest attempts was scuppered when his team-mate Matt Neal went off, bringing out one of the two safety car periods. Regular Knockhill front-row starter Rob Austin finished sixth, ahead Matt Neal. MG’s Andrew Jordan took eighth with his last attempt ruined after he ran wide and into the gravel.

Reigning BTCC champion Colin Turkington is the best Team BMR driver at ninth place. Adam Morgan in WIX Racing Mercedes rounded top 10. Because Knockhill is a short track, gaps are very close and every move indicated to the lap times. Championship leader Jason Plato was driving ballast-laden Volkswagen CC and get the lowest grid position in his career – 22nd place. We can assume that he will start from the pitlane, as he did at Croft earlier this season, in a bid to make a fastest lap and grab pole position for race two.

Race 1 is scheduled for tomorrow at 11.45. Second race will start at 14.17 and third race will start at 17.07.