Team Dynamics locks out front row as Dan Rowbottom bags first pole

Dan Rowbottom claimed his first-ever pole position in the British Touring Car Championship, after edging out Team Dynamics team-mate Gordon Shedden by just 0.005 seconds in qualifying at Brands Hatch.

Rowbottom, in just his third race meeting in the Honda Civic, had been quick throughout the half hour session, holding the third fastest time for much of the duration after a fast lap 10 minutes in.

The 32-year-old then went two tenths faster with just six minutes left to bag the top time with an effort of 48.074 seconds, just a tenth slower than the lap record in the current era of NGTC cars.

Shedden had been looking at a second row start until the Scot posted a time just 0.005 seconds slower than his team-mate two minutes later, giving Team Dynamics a front-row lockout for the first time since Thruxton in 2017.

MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill improved on his free practice efforts and put his Ford focus in third, one tenth off pole position, ahead of the leading BMW of Tom Oliphant in fourth.

Aiden Moffat was the best of the Laser Tools Racing drivers in fifth in his unballasted Infiniti, with Tom Ingram, carrying 66 kg of success ballast, in sixth, just a quarter of a second from pole.

Points leader Ash Sutton was seventh in his Infiniti, with the second Excelr8 Hyundai of Chris Smiley sharing the row in eighth.

The top ten was completed by BTC Racing’s Josh Cook and Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley, the latter posting an identical lap time to Team HARD’s Jack Goff but getting the place thanks to setting it earlier in the session.

Colin Turkington failed to significantly improve his pace from practice and missed out on the top ten in his BMW with 57 kg of weight, the Northern Irishman in 14^th, 0.383 seconds adrift of pole.

Rory butcher was another big name missing out on a strong grid position, the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK driver down in 16^th, having failed to crack the top fifteen all day.

A challenging session for both Ciceley Motorsport BMWs saw Adam Morgan lose a lap time for exceeding track limits and run wide on another attempt, leaving him in 21^st, whilst team-mate Tom Chilton was only 24^th.

28 of the 29 cars were covered by less than a second around the short Indy circuit, with only Nic Hamilton slower.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	25	48.074	–
2	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	27	48.079	0.005
3	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	19	48.179	0.105
4	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	29	48.184	0.110
5	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	31	48.318	0.244
6	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	48.332	0.258
7	1		Ash SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	30	48.370	0.296
8	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	26	48.372	0.298
9	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	28	48.407	0.333
10	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	25	48.428	0.354
11	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	26	48.428	0.354
12	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	48.431	0.357
13	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	28	48.433	0.359
14	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	30	48.457	0.383
15	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	28	48.493	0.419
16	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	23	48.506	0.432
17	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	25	48.522	0.448
18	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	29	48.580	0.506
19	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	23	48.617	0.543
20	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	29	48.677	0.603
21	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	30	48.680	0.606
22	88		Glynn GEDDIE	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	25	48.727	0.653
23	99		Jade EDWARDS	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	30	48.756	0.682
24	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	26	48.885	0.811
25	62		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	25	48.903	0.829
26	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	48.909	0.835
27	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	27	48.982	0.908
28	44		Andy NEATE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	28	48.984	0.910
29	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	24	49.325	1.251