Colin Turkington storms to pole position at Croft

Colin Turkington scored an impressive pole position in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Croft, his second of the present campaign.

On a circuit where the Team BMW star has often excelled – 14 previous race wins, and 6 pole positions have earned him the ‘King of Croft’ moniker – Turkington was again in imperious form on board his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport.

The 42-year-old cleared both Q1 and Q2 with relative ease, before posting a 1m21.072s in the Quick Six Shootout to pip nearest rival Dan Cammish (NAPA Racing UK) to pole position by almost two tenths of a second.

Turkington’s 29^th career pole also moves him above James Thompson to fifth in the BTCC’s all-time list and means he will start from the very front for the first of three races at the 2.1-mile Yorkshire venue tomorrow.

EXCELR8’s Tom Ingram looked to beat the driver to beat after an impressive turn of pace throughout both practice and the first two parts of qualifying but could only muster third in his Hyundai i30 in Q3.

He will, however, take some satisfaction from the misfortune of current championship leader and Ingram’s closest rival, Jake Hill, who lost his best effort in Q2 to track limits, and could only recover to 11^th.

Alongside Ingram on the second row will be Aron Taylor-Smith, the Irishman putting his Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing-run Vauxhall Astra into Q3 for the first time this season.

Likewise, Toyota Gazoo Racing star Rob Huff, who benefited from another late track limits infringement, this time for NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton, to claim fifth.

Chris Smiley was unfortunate not to make the Q3 cut after an impressive run to seventh in the Restart Racing CUPRA, with the one-time BTCC race winner failing to make the cut by just over 0.030 seconds.

Tom Chilton (EXCERL8 Hyundai) was quickest in his Q1 group, but could only manage eighth overall, with FP2 pace-setter Josh Cook’s Toyota also lower-than-expected in ninth spot.

Fresh from his first outright podium finish in the BTCC at Oulton Park prior to the summer break, Mikey Doble steered his Power Maxed Racing-run Vauxhall to tenth, with Hill and Andrew Watson (Toyota) the other casualties from a hard-fought Q2 session.

Dan Rowbottom (NAPA Racing UK) will start from an unlucky 13^th and will feel slightly aggrieved after setting the benchmark pace in his qualifying group, only to twice fall foul of the Judges of Fact and have his lap times removed for track limits infringements, with little time to make amends.

Daryl Deleon (CUPRA) and Aiden Moffat (Toyota) are next, with Adam Morgan (Team BMW) struggling his way to 16^th.

Sam Osborne (Ford), Ronan Pearson (Hyundai), Scott Sumpton (CUPRA) and Nick Halstead (Hyundai) complete the 20-strong field, with three races to follow tomorrow at 12:05, 14:45 and 17:00 respectively (all times BST).

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:21.072	–
2	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:21.245	0.173
3	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:21.253	0.181
4	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:21.433	0.361
5	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:21.478	0.406
6	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:21.582	0.510

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:21.121	–
2	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:21.350	0.229
3	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	7	1:21.401	0.280
4	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:21.536	0.415
5	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:21.558	0.437
6	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:21.594	0.473
7	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	7	1:21.626	0.505
8	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:21.712	0.591
9	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	7	1:21.830	0.709
10	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:21.871	0.750
11	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:21.877	0.756
12	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	7	1:21.885	0.764

Q1 Group 2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:21.058	–
2	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:21.700	0.642
3	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:21.823	0.765
4	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:21.964	0.906
5	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:22.073	1.015
6	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	6	1:22.099	1.041
7	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:22.157	1.099
8	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:22.184	1.126
9	14		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:22.191	1.133
10	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	6	1:23.114	2.056

Q1 Group 1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	5	1:21.133	–
2	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:21.213	0.080
3	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	7	1:21.342	0.209
4	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	7	1:21.584	0.451
5	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:21.694	0.561
6	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:21.773	0.640
7	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:21.900	0.767
8	18		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	6	1:22.072	0.939
9	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:22.128	0.995
10	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:24.890	3.757