Andrew Jordan completed a clean sweep of Saturday sessions as he claimed pole ahead of tomorrow’s British Touring Car Championship races at Thruxton, ahead of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden.
The result, Jordan’s second pole position of the 2014 season, means he reclaims the outright lead of the championship as the point for first place moves him ahead of rival Jason Plato, who did well to recover from struggles earlier in the day to claim sixth.
The action was limited in the opening quarter of the session, but a brief flurry of activity saw the three MGs of Plato, Sam Tordoff and Marc Hynes take to the top of the standings before Alain Menu took top spot.
Those efforts were all resoundingly beaten however as Shedden went half a second faster than a second effort from Plato on a 1:16.458s, before Jordan did what he had done in the previous two sessions and duly smashed that time himself, setting a new qualifying record in the series with a 1:16.192s on his first flying lap, which would ultimately be the best time in the session.
But that not the end of the action, as Matt Neal stole into second place with an impressive 1:16.364s, sealing a best qualifying result to date for the Honda Yuasa Racing team’s Civic Tourer. His time also meant that Mat Jackson was squeezed out of the top three having been at the sharp end of the times all session, but he will likely be delighted with a fourth place grid slot for tomorrow’s first race.
Tom Ingram continued his impressive start to life in the BTCC by securing fifth on the grid, 0.413s behind Jordan, while Plato ended up ahead of teammate Tordoff after a late push.
Rob Collard dragged good speed from his BMW to claim eighth spot with Menu and Morgan completing the top ten, but Colin Turkington could only manage 13th in the leading eBay Motors car, one second off the pace.
James Cole put in a heroic performance to put his new United Autosports machine 14th on the grid, and with Glynn Geddie in 18th it marks the team’s best qualifying performance in the series.
Race One starts tomorrow at 12:12 BST.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN |  |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 15 | 1:16.192 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 14 | 1:16.364 | 0.172 |
| 3 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 13 | 1:16.488 | 0.296 |
| 4 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 13 | 1:16.515 | 0.323 |
| 5 | 80 | I | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:16.605 | 0.413 |
| 6 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 15 | 1:16.676 | 0.484 |
| 7 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 15 | 1:16.809 | 0.617 |
| 8 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1:16.904 | 0.712 |
| 9 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 15 | 1:16.966 | 0.774 |
| 10 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 16 | 1:16.975 | 0.783 |