2015 BTCC: Mat Jackson scored pole position at Rockingham

Mat Jackson scored his first BTCC pole position after six years of waiting today at Rockingham.  Jackson was fastest in Motorbase Performance’s Ford Focus and he set the new qualifying lap record (1.22.087) at 1.94-mile track. It was also the maiden BTCC pole position for Motorbase Performance.

Aron Smith (Team BMR) was fastest of four drivers in Volkswagens and secured second starting position, with lap time just 50 thousands of a second slower than Jackson. Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa) set the third fastest time in his ballast-laden Honda Civic Type R, but he was penalized with a four-place grid penalty after the session because he committed a procedural infringement during qualifying having left the pitlane out of ascending pit bay order.

That promoted Jack Goff (MG Triple Eight) to third. He will share second row of the grid with Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport). Behind Goff’s MG and Ingram’s Avensis starters from the third row will be championship leader Jason Plato (Team BMR) and Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa). Shedden was moved to seventh spot and will share the grid with Aiden Moffat (Laser Tools Racing) in Mercedes A-Class.

The championship challenging trio of Colin Turkington (Team BMR), Andrew Jordan (MG Triple Eight) and Sam Tordoff (West Surrey Racing) were next up in the order, whith Josh Cook (Power Maxed Racing) rounding the Top 10.

Three BTCC races at Rockingham are scheduled for tomorrow at 11.37, 13.52 and 16.40.

Photo: btcc.net