NEAL AND THOMPSON HEAD THRUXTON QUALIFYING
Honda’s Matt Neal will start tomorrow’s (Monday)
fifth round of the Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship
from pole position after setting the fastest time in today’s
(Sunday) qualifying session ahead of reigning champion James
Thompson in his Vauxhall. GA Motorsports’ Gavin Pyper
was the fastest Hilton Independents Trophy qualifier in sixth,
while Team Varta’s Tom Boardman headed the Production
class runners.
Neal, looking super-smooth behind the wheel of his Civic
Type-R, set his pole position lap of one minute, 18.024 seconds
early into the 20-minute session. It briefly looked like it
would be an all-Honda front row as his team-mate Alan Morrison
moved into second, but, with just under five minutes to go,
he was pipped by Thompson’s Astra Coupe.
“It was a very good lap,” said Neal, who won
after starting from pole at Brands Hatch three weeks ago.
He added: “The Civic felt really strong around the lap
and everything came right. Of course, you always feel like
you have a little bit more time up your sleeve but you never
know just how much the others have in reserve as well, but
P1 is always nice.”
Championship leader, Vauxhall’s Yvan Muller, who had
been fastest in both practice sessions held earlier in the
day, qualified fourth fastest. Vauxhall’s Paul O’Neill
and GA’s Pyper, also in an Astra Coupe, completed the
top six.
Sharing the fourth row of the grid having set identical qualifying
times will be MG’s Colin Turkington in his ZS and Honda’s
Tom Chilton. Hilton Independents Trophy leader Rob Collard,
eager to maintain his advantage over rival Pyper, will line
up ninth in his Astra Coupe ahead of MG’s Anthony Reid
and Warren Hughes.
Hilton Independents Trophy runners James Kaye, in Synchro
Honda Racing’s Civic Type-R, and Carl Breeze and Dan
Eaves, in their Team Halfords Peugeot 307s, completed the
Touring class qualifiers. But there was a disaster for Proton.
Phil Bennett was forced to park his Impian at Goodwood after
it shed a rear wheel on its first lap and, right at the end
of qualifying, team-mate David Leslie’s times were disallowed
when his car was judged to be underweight. Both will make
up the rear of the Touring class grid in 15th and 16th places.
Team Varta’s Tom Boardman continued his strong morning
practice form to head the Production class field in his Peugeot
307 ahead of points leader Michael Bentwood’s Edenbridge
Racing BMW 320i.
Barwell Motorsport’s Luke Hines had lay second but
his times were annulled half way through the session after
he missed a weighbridge check and had to begin again. In the
dying moments, he managed to get up to third in class, only
to be demoted again to the back of the grid after his team
were judged to have changed his car’s engine just prior
to qualifying.
Jim Edwards, second in class to Bentwood in Team Varta’s
Honda Accord, Barwell’s Alan Blencowe and the GA Alfa
Romeo 156 of Paul Wallace completed the Production runners.
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