Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff secured pole position in the first qualifying session for the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, with a new lap record that pipped Honda’s Dan Cammish by less than a tenth of a second.
Cammish had been the early pace setter in the session, with the Halfords Yuasa Racing driver putting in a benchmark time of 1 minute 55.630 seconds after the first flurry of lap times.
But Goff continued to chip away at the deficit and went to the top of the times with just over five minutes remaining in the session, setting a new qualifying lap record in the process with his lap of 1 minute 55.556 seconds.
Cammish had no answer to Goff’s pace in the closing moments of the session, having to settle for a front row grid position, just 0.074 seconds adrift.
Simpson Racing’s Matt Simpson was third, ahead of Eurotech Racing stable-mate Brett Smith in fourth, making it a Honda 1-2-3-4 at the top of the times.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was the best of the title contenders in fifth, ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook in sixth.
Rob Austin put his HMS Racing Alfa Romeo in seventh, ahead of the leading Motorbase Performance car of Sam Tordoff in eighth – the Leeds racer, who missed the tyre test earlier in the month, achieving his best ranking of the day so far.
Team BMR’s Ash Sutton hauled his Subaru into the top ten late in the session to secure ninth, whilst Ciceley Motorsport’s Tom Oliphant completed the top ten in his Mercedes.
Andrew Jordan was the best of the BMW drivers in 11th, ahead of the second works Honda of Matt Neal in 12th, with the three-time champion enduring a huge slide late on in the session at Coram that curtailed his efforts to improve.
Championship leader Colin Turkington could only manage 15th in his BMW, almost nine tenths off the pace, ahead of Motorbase’s Tom Chilton in 16th, who took to the circuit late on in the session after his team worked to change his engine during the early stages.
BTC Norlin Racing’s Chris Smiley was the only driver to be shown the black flag for repeated track limits exceedances, leaving him in a lowly 21st position, with team-mate Dan Lloyd also struggling to 23rd.
Subaru’s Jason Plato struggled for pace and was just 25th, almost 1.5 seconds away from the pace at the top of the times.
Both championship returnees Ant Whorton-Eales and Dan Welch propped up the timesheets, over two seconds off the pace as the AmD Tuning and Team HARD drivers have to carry 45 kg of late entry ballast.
Saturday’s second, success ballast-free qualifying session for the ‘diamond double’ race, takes place at 17:40 BST and lasts for just 15 minutes.
Qualifying result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 31 | Jack GOFF |  |
WIX Racing with Eurotech | Honda Civic Type R | 10 | 1:55.556 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 10 | 1:55.630 | 0.074 |
| 3 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 11 | 1:55.726 | 0.170 | |
| 4 | 39 | Brett SMITH | |
WIX Racing with Eurotech | Honda Civic Type R | 11 | 1:55.777 | 0.221 | |
| 5 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 10 | 1:55.934 | 0.378 | |
| 6 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed TAG Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 10 | 1:56.055 | 0.499 |
| 7 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 10 | 1:56.096 | 0.540 | |
| 8 | 600 | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team GardX Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 12 | 1:56.149 | 0.593 | |
| 9 | 1 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 12 | 1:56.196 | 0.640 |
| 10 | 15 | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 10 | 1:56.202 | 0.646 | |
| 11 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 1:56.238 | 0.682 |
| 12 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 11 | 1:56.319 | 0.763 |
| 13 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 11 | 1:56.407 | 0.851 | |
| 14 | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing | Volkswagen CC | 13 | 1:56.425 | 0.869 | |
| 15 | 2 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 1:56.429 | 0.873 |
| 16 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 5 | 1:56.516 | 0.960 | |
| 17 | 5 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 13 | 1:56.594 | 1.038 |
| 18 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER | |
AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing | MG 6 | 10 | 1:56.652 | 1.096 | |
| 19 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Power Maxed TAG Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 11 | 1:56.685 | 1.129 |
| 20 | 19 | Bobby THOMPSON | |
Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:56.696 | 1.140 | |
| 21 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 10 | 1:56.799 | 1.243 | |
| 22 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 10 | 1:56.840 | 1.284 | |
| 23 | 26 | Daniel LLOYD | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 1:56.942 | 1.386 | |
| 24 | 20 | James COLE | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 13 | 1:56.942 | 1.386 | |
| 25 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 12 | 1:57.011 | 1.455 |
| 26 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 1:57.045 | 1.489 | |
| 27 | 44 | Michael CAINE | |
Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars | Volkswagen CC | 10 | 1:57.403 | 1.847 | |
| 28 | 60 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 10 | 1:57.545 | 1.989 | |
| 29 | 23 | Sam SMELT | |
AmD with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 11 | 1:57.551 | 1.995 | |
| 30 | 10 | Ant WHORTON-EALES | |
AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing | MG 6 | 9 | 1:57.594 | 2.038 | |
| 31 | 24 | Dan WELCH | |
Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:57.775 | 2.219 |