Colin Turkington storms to Knockhill pole position

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington claimed a crucial pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, beating BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor to the top time.

Turkington, who has not had pole position at the Scottish circuit since 2014, denied Proctor a second successive pole by edging out the 23-year-old with just under five minutes of the session remaining.

Until that stage, Turkington had topped the times since the first phase of the session with a lap of 50.978 seconds, before Proctor went quicker with just seven minutes to run.

However, Turkington immediately responded, posting a time of 50.836 seconds to claim his third Knockhill pole in the BTCC.

Proctor was ultimately just over a tenth of a second back in second, with Excelr8 Motorsport’s top performer, Chris Smiley, in third, a further half a tenth behind. Smiley had been one of the last to improve, having jumped from tenth to third in the final seconds.

Josh Cook put his BTC Racing Honda in fourth, ahead of the leading MB Motorsport Ford Focus of Jake Hill in fifth.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was the top Infiniti driver in sixth, a fraction under two tenths off the pace in his fully-ballasted car.

Aiden Moffat was directly behind his team-mate in seventh, with Toyota’s Rory Butcher in eighth.

The top ten was completed by Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram and Team BMW’s Tom Oliphant, with Ingram’s late improvement dumping Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden out of the top ten, the Scot having to settle for 11^th.

Daniel Lloyd was the leading Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall driver in 12^th, ahead of Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan in 13^th. Morgan only completed 17 laps after he spun out into the gravel at the chicane after 19 minutes, bringing out the red flags which prevented him from being allowed to re-join the session.

An earlier red-flag stoppage bad occurred in the opening minutes when Excelr8 Motorsport’s Rick Parfitt Jr went off before he had even posted a time, leaving him to start from last for race one on Sunday.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	26	50.836	–
2	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	24	50.953	0.117
3	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	23	51.004	0.168
4	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	25	51.019	0.183
5	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	23	51.021	0.185
6	1		Ash SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	27	51.035	0.199
7	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	29	51.036	0.200
8	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	21	51.047	0.211
9	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	23	51.079	0.243
10	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	26	51.101	0.265
11	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	26	51.120	0.284
12	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	26	51.187	0.351
13	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	17	51.245	0.409
14	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	23	51.262	0.426
15	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	51.273	0.437
16	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	27	51.295	0.459
17	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	23	51.349	0.513
18	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	26	51.390	0.554
19	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	24	51.487	0.651
20	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	23	51.520	0.684
21	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	25	51.617	0.781
22	99		Jade EDWARDS	PHSC with BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	26	51.668	0.832
23	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	26	51.686	0.850
24	20		Paul RIVETT	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	23	51.729	0.893
25	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	51.763	0.927
26	19		Jack MITCHELL	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	26	51.772	0.936
27	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	23	51.908	1.072
28	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	23	52.141	1.305
29	62		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	3	No time	N/A