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British Touring Car Championship
Silverstone - Qualifying - 27/9/14

By MJP Media | 27 September 2014

In a momentous qualifying session that saw the closest grid of the year, Jason Plato takes pole position and greatly improves his chances of re-taking the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Jason Plato on his way to securing pole position in his MG6

In the early stages it was eBay Motors driver Colin Turkington who took provisional pole position, however several cars then swapped the lead position including Turkington, Sam Tordoff, Jason Plato and Mat Jackson with Jackson then running at the front.

At the halfway stage it was Jason Plato leading from Mat Jackson, Sam Tordoff and Aron Smith with Tom Ingram in 5th. Luke Hines then had the misfortune of having his best lap disallowed for exceeding the track limits before pulling off with mechanical issues.

Colin Turkington will start on the front row, having qualified 2nd

The great surprise of the first half of the qualifying session was Laser Tools Racing's Aiden Moffat - who celebrates his 18th birthday tomorrow - running in 13th place! The biggest disappointment at this stage in the session was championship contender Gordon Shedden who was struggling down in 15th with team-mate Matt Neal in 20th. Tomorrow will see a double birthday celebration, as not only is it Aiden Moffat's birthday, it is also Warren Scott's who was running down in 21st.

In the second half of the session, Colin Turkington put his foot down to go 2nd, just 0.06 seconds behind Jason Plato. This was an amazing performance considering the fact that he was carrying maximum success ballast on a circuit that isn't meant to suit his car. With both these championship contenders seemingly unable to add to their already posted times, the Hondas were really struggling with reigning champion Andrew Jordan 14th, Gordon Shedden 15th and Matt Neal 19th. It has been some years since the Hondas have been this uncompetitive.

Right to left: Matt Neal (18th), Gordon Shedden (17th) and Andrew Jordan (16th)

At the finish it was Jason Plato taking pole position with Colin Turkington 2nd. This will seem like a hollow victory for Plato as Turkington's eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport is so quick off the line, however the extra point for pole position will still be useful. Sam Tordoff was 3rd with Mat Jackson 4th and Aron Smith 5th. Aiden Moffat ended up a fantastic 15th - not bad for a 17 year old! All of the Honda's were outside the top 15 and there were 4 former BTCC champions between 16th and 19th places!

Tomorrow will see everything to play for, with Colin Turkington and Jason Plato emerging as the only realistic title contenders. Will the 2014 BTCC Drivers' Championship title be decided tomorrow? We'll just have to wait and see. We will have the action from all three races here and we look forward to bringing you what could well be title deciding news.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media