Matt Neal was first to set a quick lap time with a 1.22 minute lap, which was quickly beaten by Redstone Racing’s Mat Jackson, until the Honda Civic retook the at the front of the field.
The eBay Motors’ BMW of Tom Onslow-Cole was the third driver to pop up in provision pole on the timing sheets, as he set a 1.20.243 with twenty-four minutes of the session remaining. With the damp conditions on track, the rear-wheeled drive BMWs looked to be in a good position going into qualifying.
The three Redstone Racing red devils were all running in the top ten, with Mat Jackson sitting in third, Aron Smith in fifth and Liam Griffin in 8th. Meanwhile, Rob Collard had his fastest time removed by track officials for exceeding track limits, dropping the eBay Motors’ driver back down to third behind team mate Onslow-Cole. This wasn’t uncommon, as the rest of the session was littered with time removals left, right and centre.
Jason Plato put in a great lap time with his KX Momentum MG to put him on provisional pole position, ahead of Honda Racing’s Gordon Shedden second. The Scot’s team mate Matt Neal was at that time down in twelfth with work to do in his Honda Civic.
With the lap times falling, it was Andrew Jordan setting the time sheets alight, as the Pirtek Racing Honda flew into provision pole with a lap time of 1.17.389. Gordon Shedden and Rob Collard were still close behind in second and third respectively. Whilst on another flying lap, Jordan was closing up to Dave Newsham, who went wide when trying to get out of the way of the fast-moving Honda.
Upfront, Frank Wrathall was beginning to shine as he set a superb lap time to get into third position with his Dynojet Toyota Avensis. Meanwhile, whilst trying to rectify twelfth place, Matt Neal got it all wrong at the first corner and span out on track, just managing to keep the Civic out of the barrier. However, damage to the rear wheel meant that was the end of his session. Meanwhile team mate Flash set a mighty time of 1.16.894 to now put him in provisional pole position for tomorrow’s first race.
Frank Wrathall was still holding onto third place, with Mat Jackson close behind in fourth with his Redstone Racing Ford Focus, with Jason Plato now in sixth. Rob Austin, whose new engine had only been returned from Lichtenstein early on this morning, was battling down in 20th place with less than fifteen minutes of the session remaining.
More drivers who were losing their fastest times were Dan Welch, Andy Neate and Lea Wood amongst others. Tom Onslow-Cole would soon also lose his fastest time, leaving him and his BMW down in eleventh place.
The Team ES Racing drivers of Dave Newsham and Chris James were running in a consistent sixth and eighteenth place respectively, before smoke bellowed from the rear of Newsham’s Vectra, forcing him into the pits
With eleven minutes of the session remaining, it all kicked off on track. Whilst entering Church – one of the fastest corners in British motorsport – his Triple Eight MG swapped around on him leaving him with nowhere to go but off the track. This brought out the red flag on the session. The speed he was travelling could be seen from his finishing position – in some hedges off of the track perimeters. Luckily, Plato was unharmed and travelled back to the pit lane in the doctor’s vehicle, where he spoke to the team and roaming pit lane commentator Alan Hyde about the incident. Jason was lying in second position before the incident, but the question being asked, was where he would end up come the end of the session.
While under the red flag conditions, the MG of Jason Plato and the Honda Civic of Matt Neal were both cleared from the track, back in the pit lane, Gordon Shedden had his lap times deleted due to a boost issue – similar to that of Mat Jackson that caused him to lose his race three victory at Donington Park last time out. This meant that upon the session restart, it would be Andrew Jordan in provisional pole with eleven minutes remaining.
The green flag was waved for the re-start, and it was Team HARD driver Tony Gilham who was the first man out of the pit lane to start a warm-up lap. Following the pink and green Civic was Redstone Racing’s Aron Smith, who was having a bad day. A clutch problem earlier in the day scuppered the Irishman’s appearance in free practise two with the team also having to take the engine out twice during the morning through issues. Despite all this, Aron was running well in seventh, with his team mate still up at the front in fourth with Liam Griffin rounding out the top ten.
Despite his off, Jason Plato’s time was still good enough for second place, with Andrew Jordan leading, and Frank Wrathall 0.9 seconds off pole in third. Gordon Shedden was going in and out of the pits, and had yet to set a valid qualifying lap time with only five minutes of the session remaining.
At Goodwood corner, Tony Hughes span off onto the grass, whilst elsewhere on track, Jeff Smith was also pirouetting his Pirtek Honda on the damp surface. Dan Welch who had been running consistently through the session had to retire with a drive shaft problem.
Wrathall, who was trying to improve his lap time, was caught up in the traffic of the eBay Motors BMW’s as they were starting their quick lap to see if their times would be improved. Back with the leaders, and Andrew Jordan improves his lap time to 1.16.983, whilst Gordon Shedden was pushing his Civic to get a lap time – taking out an advertising board in the process.
Waved yellow flags for Andy Neate, who went off with his Triple Eight at MG at Goodwood would mean that no lap time improvements would be made by the rest of the drivers on track. Rob Austin’s awful day came to a shuddering halt when he too went off at Goodwood, and ended up hitting the barrier backwards, causing more significant damage to the Audi A4. This brought the red flag out again – and ended the session.
Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan will start tomorrow’s opening race from Thruxton Circuit in pole position, ahead of Jason Plato – who manage to keep hold of his second place time despite his incident – and Frank Wrathall who will start in third. This result will be the Dynojet racers best ever BTCC qualifying finish.
The Honda team mates Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal finished the day in 18th and 19th respectively, and will be looking up to make up some important places tomorrow.
Final Results:
1) Andrew Jordan – 1.16.983
2) Jason Plato
3) Frank Wrathall
4) Mat Jackson
5) Dave Newsham
6) Rob Collard
7) Aron Smith
8) Lea Wood
9) Liam Griffin
10) Tom Onslow-Cole
11) Nick Foster
12) Tony Gilham
13) Ollie Jackson
14) Adam Morgan
15) Chris James
16) Andy Neate
17) Rob Austin
18) Gordon Shedden
19) Matt Neal
20) Tony Hughes
21) Jeff Smith
22) Dan Welch
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