CHILTON ACHIEVES FIRST EVER POLE ON BTCC RETURN
Young British driver Tom Chilton will be on pole position
for the start of the first of tomorrow’s (Sunday) three
Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Thruxton,
Hampshire.
Chilton, driving a Honda Civic for the Arena team, achieved
his first ever BTCC pole position in a time of one minute,
17.011 seconds in today’s (Saturday) qualifying session.
Chilton, who missed the championship’s opening round
at Donington Park three weeks ago, was delighted with his
performance on his return. “What a result,” said
the 20-year-old. “I really didn’t think I’d
be this fast first time back.
“But this is a very ballsy circuit and I love driving
on the edge. Winning tomorrow will be tough because the high
speeds take a lot out of the tyres over a race distance. The
three races should be very exciting but also unpredictable.”
SEAT’s former champion Jason Plato will start second
alongside Chilton after setting a time of 1m17.567s. Vauxhall’s
young signing Colin Turkington, aged 23, will start third.
Turkington was only 0.001s faster than fourth-placed Dan Eaves
in his Team Halfords Honda Integra.
But championship leaders Matt Neal and Yvan Muller, whose
cars are carrying considerable success ballast, have work
to do. Neal, in his Team Halfords Honda, was only sixth fastest
– a second slower than Chilton – with Muller fifth
in Vauxhall’s Astra Sport Hatch.
Muller, the 2003 champion and who is the most successful
BTCC driver around Thruxton in recent years, was at a loss
to explain his lack of speed. The Frenchman said: “Clearly
there is a problem but we don’t know what it is so fixing
it for the races will be difficult. Obviously, the ballast
we have doesn’t help but we’re still at a bit
of a loss.”
Local hero Rob Collard, from Eversley, Hants was eighth fastest
and was prevented from pushing for a faster time in the later
stages of the session when his WSR team’s MG stopped
at the side of the track with a wheel missing.
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