Plato takes pole position at Brands Hatch in a high-action BTCC qualifying session.

Soaring temperatures at the Brands Hands Grand Prix circuit in Kent could only mean one thing – the penultimate qualifying session of the year was underway.
     A bumper line up of 29 drivers headed to the track to set their best times to decide their grid positions for tomorrow’s opening race. Two drivers will be making their touring car debut this weekend; Ollie Jackson will be taking the wheel of Triple 8 Racing’s second Vauxhall Vectra whilst Chris Swanick will be joining forces with Rob Austin Racing a second Audi A4.
     Martin Byford in the AmD Miltek Golf set the fastest time early on in the session, before momentarily being knocked off the top spot by the Chevrolet of Jason Plato. Matt Neal in the turbo charged Honda Civic maintained good pace to jump onto the top of the times.
     Fellow Honda driver Gordon Shedden also set a fast lap, followed closely by both James Nash and Andrew Jordan, demoting Plato into fifth position. The Chevrolet driver responded by posting a flying lap – three tenths of a second ahead of Gordon Shedden in the Civic.
     Chris James was off into the barrier at Hawthorn’s Bend due to his front right wheel coming off on track. James was unscathed in the incident which brought out the red flag – stopping the session for several minutes.
     Paul O’Neill, who’d had good pace in the earlier practise sessions, was looking set to put in a flying time; however the red flag left him with nowhere to go but the pits.
     The restart to the race saw Frank Wrathall begin his first flying lap with clear air ahead of him, putting the Dynojet driver in a strong tenth position. Having performed so well at Rockingham two weeks ago, the team would be looking to improve on the lap time.
     With Jason Plato still sitting pretty on the top spot, Matt Neal came straight from the pits to deliver a fast lap, putting the Worcestershire driver up into second place in a Chevy Sandwich ahead of Alex MacDowall in third.
     A disappointing start to the weekend for Tony Hughes saw him end his session half way through due to an over-heating issue with his Toyota Avensis.
     A second red flag was needed during the session after Frank Wrathall took too much kerb going into Clearways, resulting in his NGTC Toyota beached in the gravel. With Jason Plato still in provisional pole ahead of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, the marshals quickly cleared the circuit and the action resumed.
     Despite blocking the safety vehicle in the pit lane – all cars made it out on track to set a competitive lap time with thirteen minutes of the session remaining. Mat Jackson, who was looking to recover from a disappointing few rounds had delivered a strong lap and was soon up into seventh position.
     With the clock still ticking down, MacDowall put in an outstanding lap putting him in second place behind team mate Jason Plato who was still holding off that top spot with a time now of 1:31.8. The question of whether he could maintain the position until the end of the session was yet to be answered.
     Paul O’Neill, who was running well before the red flags, had now improved his lap time and was now sitting in sixth place. Meanwhile, Matt Neal was on a flying lap, however running very wide at Graham Hill Bend leading to him losing time saw the Honda Racing driver abort the lap he was on.
     A bolt from the blue in the session saw Dan Welch in the Proton running fantastically well and was up into the top ten with only a few minutes of the session remaining.
    Despite early promise, James Nash looked to only be able to manage 11^th in his Vauxhall Vectra. However, a late lap in the session saw the Triple 8 Racing driver fly into third position behind Andrew Jordan in Pirtek’s rival Vauxhall, who had a good qualifying session and lay in second place when the chequered flag fell.
     But it was Jason Plato who took his fourth pole position of the season ahead of the two Vauxhalls, whilst championship rivals Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal are fifth and sixth on the grid - the turbo-powered Honda Civics seeming to struggle with the rising temperatures.
     Despite an early setback, Wrathall ended up in 14^th place, whilst debutants Ollie Jackson and Chris Swanick managed 15^th and 27^th respectively.
     Team Aon’s weekend started on a positive note, with Tom Onslow-Cole and Tom Chilton rounding out the top ten; however team mate Andy Neate struggled with the interruptions of the red flags and also traffic on track to finish in 16^th ahead of Jeff Smith in the Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra.