BTCC: Jason Plato pole-sitter at Oulton Park

Clash of the veterans, that how we can named a qualifying session of fourth round of 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship today at Oulton Park. Three most experienced drivers in championship Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Andy Priaulx showed the younger colleagues that speed is proportional to years, so they occupied first three positions.

Jason Plato (Team BMR, Volkswagen CC) made a laptime 1.25.484, just 0.011 seconds faster than Neal (Honda Yuasa, Civic Type R) whilePriaulx (WSR, BMW 125i) was 0.071 seconds slower. It was Plato’s 48th pole position of his BTCC career, on the track where he has won nine times. Plato was also fastest in two practice session earlier today. He didn’t repeat mistake from Donington earlier in the season, where he was fastest in FP but lost pole-position.

Ten drivers in one second gap is announcement for intense races tommorow. Matt Neal joked that first row with him and Plato is “recipe for disaster”. In second row are also dangerous rivals and former champions, so nothing can be predict but crazy battle for every position.

Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa) was fifth, with unbelievably one thousanth of a second same time as Jordan. Reigning champion Colin Turkington (Team BMR) was sixth, with Aron Smith (Team BMR) in seventh after losing his best time due to exceeding track limits. Jack Goff (MG Triple Eight) went one worse, losing all of his lap times after failing scrutineering checks part way through qualifying. He recovered to eighth. Tom Ingram (Speedworks, Toyota Avensis) was ninth and Adam Morgan (WIX Racing, Mercedes A-Class) rounded out the top ten.

Only one driver failed to set a lap time. Kieran Gallagher’s RCIB Insurance squad was busy changing his Toyota Avensis’ engine during the session.