BTCC: Two BMW drivers in front row at Croft

Two West Surrey Racing drivers with BMW 125i M Sport machines will start from the front row in the first BTCC race tomorrow at Croft. Sam Tordoff has taken pole position and Andy Priaulx was second. WSR’s success is even better because their third driver, Rob Collard qualified fourth. Squeezed between three BMWs on the starting grid will be Gordon Shedden‘s Honda Civic Type R.

Tordoff made lap-time 1.28.886, just 0.07 seconds better than Priaulx. Shedden’s time of 1.24.464 was no less impressive than the BMWs ahead of him as the former BTCC champion ran the session with near maximum success ballast.

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The reigning BTCC champion Colin Turkington settled fifth lap-time. He was the first Team BMR driver on the time sheets with Aron Smith and Jason Plato down in 11th and 12th. It was a difficult day for championship leader Plato with some mechanical issues on his Volkswagen CC,  which culminated in this being the first time he has qualified outside of the top ten since Silverstone in 2006.

Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) qualified sixth and Rob Austin seventh. MG Triple Eigth drivers are eighth (Jack Goff) and tenth (Andrew Jordan). Racing between them was Adam Morgan in WIX Racing’s Mercedes A-Class.

The session got off to a disjointed start when Kieran Gallagher’s Toyota Avensis broke down at the final hairpin. Yellow flags were waved for much of the opening ten minutes with marshals requiring some clear space in traffic to remove his car. Rookies Nicolas Hamilton in AmD Tuning’s Audi S3 and Max Coates in Paras Racing’s Infiniti Q50 qualified 29th and 28th.

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