Sport   Other Sports   Touring Cars

British Touring Car Championship
Donington Park - Qualifying - 20/4/13

By MJP Media | 20 April 2013

Gordon Shedden takes pole position for the first of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races from Donington Park tomorrow.

Gordon Shedden on his way to pole position

As the sun continued to beat down on a beautiful April afternoon at Donington Park, the crowd were entertained with an exciting qualifying session ahead of the three BTCC races tomorrow.

Having finished in the top 3 in both the earlier free practice sessions, it was Honda Yuasa Racing's Gordon Shedden who took pole position for the first race tomorrow in his Honda Civic. Following a problematic meeting at Brands Hatch, the Scot from Dalgety Bay requires good results from the Donington Park meeting to put the defence of his BTCC championship title back on track and securing pole position is just what he needed.

Frank Wrathall improved during the day and qualified 2nd

Frank Wrathall put in an excellent qualifying performance in the Toyota Avensis to claim 2nd place on the grid for his Dynojet team. Wrathall had steadily improved throughout the day, having been 9th in the first free practice session and 7th in the second and was only 0.049 seconds behind pole-sitter Shedden at the end of the qualifying session.

Hondas qualified 3rd and 4th with Andrew Jordan's Pirtek Racing Civic beating former BTCC champion Matt Neal's Honda Yuasa Racing Civic by just 0.034 seconds. Jason Plato qualified his MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 in 5th with team-mate Sam Tordoff 7th behind the Ciceley Racing Toyota Avensis of Adam Morgan.

Aron Smith caused the session to be red flagged

In the final minutes of the session, Aron Smith spun his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus into a gravel trap which caused the session to be red flagged, preventing the rest of the field from putting in last minute flying laps. Colin Turkington (eBay Motors), Dave Newsham (Speedworks Motorsport) and Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) completed the top ten.

As we look forward to tomorrow's racing, there are only 2 seconds covering the top 20 drivers. The prospect of rain arriving during the afternoon will add an extra dimension to team tactics as Gordon Shedden looks to convert his pole position to a race victory.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media