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British Touring Car Championship
Knockhill - Qualifying - 22/8/15

By MJP Media | 22 August 2015

Andy Priaulx clinches pole position for the first race tomorrow in his Team IHG Rewards Club BMW 125i M Sport as Team BMR RCIB Insurance struggle around the Knockhill circuit.

Andy Priaulx takes pole position at Knockhill

With the ever present threat of rain, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship took to the track at Knockhill near Dunfermline in Scotland for the qualifying session of the 7th meeting of the 2015 season. With local hero Gordon Shedden topping the time sheets in both the earlier free practice sessions, the crowd where eager to see if the Scot from Dalgety Bay could secure pole position for the first race tomorrow.

In contrast to Gordon Shedden in the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R, Team BMR RCIB Insurance appeared to struggle with their Volkswagen CCs around the short and tight Knockhill circuit. Defending BTCC champion Colin Turkington managed only 17th and 16th place in the two practice sessions while current Drivers' Championship leader Jason Plato's best result was 9th fastest in the second session.

Sam Tordoff qualified an impressive 2nd in his BMW 125i M Sport

With the increasing possibility of rain, all the drivers were keen to set a meaningful lap time with Rob Collard the first to do so in his JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW 125i M Sport. As the lap times started to tumble, light rain began to fall but not enough to cause any problems on track and the times continued to fall.

As the session settled down, Mat Jackson and Andy Priaulx were at the top of the time sheet and looked reasonably safe however in the closing minutes, Priaulx posted a 51.671 second lap to take pole position while Sam Tordoff went 2nd fastest for JCT600 Racing with GardX, pushing Jackson down to 3rd. With Rob Collard in 4th place, it was an excellent result for West Surrey Racing with their 3 cars in the top 4 places. Following his dominant performance in the free practice sessions, Gordon Shedden could only manage 5th place, meaning the Honda Yuasa Racing driver will start the first race tomorrow on the 3rd row of the grid alongside Rob Austin who qualified 6th.

Mat Jackson in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus

Team BMR RCIB Insurance's woes continued with defending BTCC champion Colin Turkington qualifying 9th behind Matt Neal in 7th and Andrew Jordan in 8th. Turkington's team-mates fared less well with Aron Smith 14th, Warren Scott 17 and Jason Plato 22nd in their Volkswagen CCs. Laser Tools Racing's Aiden Moffat just missed out on a top ten qualifying position with 11th place behind fellow Mercedes Benz A-Class driver Adam Morgan. Inverness based Dave Newsham qualified 23rd for Power Maxed Racing.

With 23 drivers qualifying within 1 second of pole-sitter Andy Priaulx's lap time, the scene is set for a day of thrilling action from Knockhill with the next three rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship plus a full supporting race programme. Catch the action live on ITV4 or better still, come to Knockhill and experience the spectacle of Britain's premier motor sport series first hand.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media