Daniel Rowbottom snatches second career pole at Thruxton

Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom secured his second pole position in the British Touring Car Championship, beating MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill by less than a tenth of a second in qualifying at Thruxton.

Rowbottom had been fastest seven minutes into the session but as the session hit the halfway mark the Honda driver was bumped down the order as Hill, and then BTC Racing’s Josh Cook, went faster.

Hill had put in a lap of 1 minute 15.674 seconds, subsequently improving to a 1:15.607, to hold the top spot until there was just three minutes to go.

Rowbottom then put in a scintillating lap which was just under a tenth of a second faster than Hill to claim his second pole in the championship.

Hill, who has never had a BTCC pole, narrowly missed out on the top spot but nevertheless secured his second front-row starting position of the year.

Thruxton specialist Cook was third fastest, the Honda racer having nipped past Toyota’s Rory Butcher in the final minute of the session to make a gain of one place.

Butcher might have gone quicker, but the Scot went off on the grass in the closing minutes of the session when taking avoiding action around the slower Carl Boardley.

Tom Oliphant was the leading BMW driver in fifth, three tenths off the pace, ahead of the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in sixth – Morgan had earlier been third and fourth in practice, so to have drifted further off the pace in qualifying will likely come as a disappointment.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was seventh in his fully-ballasted Infiniti, ahead of the leading Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall of Daniel Lloyd in eighth.

The top ten was completed by Team BMW’s Colin Turkington, unable to find a late improvement after going wide on the grass, and BTC Racing’s Senna Proctor.

Tom Ingram, second in the points, could only muster 12^th in his Hyundai – the best of the Excelr8 Motorsport quartet – over half a second off the pace.

The second Team Dynamics’ Honda of Gordon Shedden was just 14^th, the Scot having had brake issues in the final sector during the session which scuppered what looked to be his fastest lap.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:40 BST on Sunday.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	13	1:15.521	–
2	24		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	18	1:15.607	0.086
3	66		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	18	1:15.632	0.111
4	6		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	1:15.731	0.210
5	15		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	16	1:15.838	0.317
6	33		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	17	1:15.855	0.334
7	1		Ashley SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	16	1:15.862	0.341
8	123		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	1:15.922	0.401
9	2		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	17	1:15.931	0.410
10	18		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	17	1:15.939	0.418
11	11		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	1:16.043	0.522
12	80		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:16.099	0.578
13	3		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	18	1:16.153	0.632
14	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	14	1:16.166	0.645
15	12		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	16	1:16.211	0.690
16	22		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	1:16.266	0.745
17	31		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	19	1:16.510	0.989
18	16		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	1:16.644	1.123
19	99		Jade EDWARDS	PHSC with BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	18	1:16.690	1.169
20	48		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	16	1:16.740	1.219
21	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	18	1:16.746	1.225
22	96		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:16.763	1.242
23	20		Paul RIVETT	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	17	1:16.770	1.249
24	23		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	1:16.880	1.359
25	19		Jack MITCHELL	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	16	1:17.006	1.485
26	41		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	18	1:17.061	1.540
27	4		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	17	1:17.070	1.549
28	62		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	1:17.137	1.616
29	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	16	1:18.176	2.655