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British Touring Car Championship
Knockhill - Qualifying - 24/8/13

By MJP Media | 24 August 2013

Rob Austin secures a stunning maiden pole position in qualifying at Knockhill to shatter the previous BTCC qualifying record by over half a second.

Rob Austin is delighted with his record-breaking performance

Qualifying for the first race from Knockhill tomorrow took place in dry conditions with only BTCC debutant Aiden Moffat failing to take to the track following an engine failure earlier in the day.

Rob Austin consolidated his performance in the first free practice session by putting his WIX Racing Audi A4 on pole for the first race tomorrow following a stunning qualifying session. In sharp contrast, the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 piloted by Will Bratt had all its qualifying times disallowed after failing ride height checks during the session meaning Bratt will have to start the first race from the back of the grid with Aiden Moffat.

Rob Austin flies to his maiden pole position

Colin Turkington continued his run of good form by qualifying his eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport in 2nd place, just 0.047 seconds behind pole-sitter Rob Austin. Andrew Jordan was the fastest of the Hondas, qualifying his Pirtek Racing Civic in 3rd place, however he will start the first race in 9th place after suffering a 6 place demotion following penalties imposed at the previous meeting.

Local hero Gordon Shedden qualified 4th in his Honda Yuasa Racing Civic, ahead of Jason Plato in the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6. Shedden's team-mate Matt Neal qualified 6th ahead of the Toyota Avensis' of Adam Morgan and Frank Wrathall in 7th and 8th respectively. Sam Tordoff qualified 9th for MG KX Momentum Racing with Daniel Welch completing the top 10 places in his Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp Proton Gen-2.

Andrew Jordan will drop to 9th on the grid

After a thrilling qualifying session, Rob Austin will start the first race tomorrow in pole position alongside Colin Turkington. Following Andrew Jordan's 6 place penalty the 2nd row of the grid will be taken by reigning BTCC champion Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato with Matt Neal and Adam Morgan on row 3.

In a demonstration of how competitive the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is, no fewer than 15 drivers qualified their cars with a faster time than the previous qualifying lap record set by Tom Chilton in 2011. With the top 19 drivers qualifying within 1 second of pole-sitter Rob Austin, the scene is set for an exciting day's racing tomorrow.

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