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British Touring Car Championship
Rockingham - Qualifying - 5/9/15

By MJP Media | 5 September 2015

Mat Jackson confirms Motorbase Performance's return to form with a stunning pole position in qualifying at Rockingham. Aron Smith for Team BMR RCIB Insurance completes the front row of the grid.

Mat Jackson celebrates pole position for race 1 tomorrow

The sun finally came out to provide the drivers and teams with some welcome autumn sunshine as the qualifying session got underway at Northamptonshire's Rockingham circuit. With 30 cars going out, there was always going to be an issue finding space on the track and so it proved as drivers slowed down and even pitted to find space on the technically challenging infield section.

Andrew Jordan had high hopes for qualifying after finishing quickest of any driver in free practice. His hopes were dashed however as, in an ultra-tight qualifying session, he was only able to take 10th place for MG 888 Racing despite improving on his earlier times. So tight was the session that the top 19 drivers were within 1 second of the final pole position time. Once again the BMWs of Rob Collard, Sam Tordoff and Nick Foster struggled and were all outside the top 10, with Tordoff the quickest of them in 11th place.

Aron Smith qualified 2nd for Team BMR RCIB Insurance

At the top of the timing screens it was Mat Jackson who was really on the pace and on his 11th lap set the pole position time of 1:22.087. Behind him were Aron Smith who had posted a time of 1:22.137 and Jack Goff with a time of 1:22.303. With only three minutes left on the clock an incident involving Derek Palmer, who was 'pushing too hard' according to a team spokesman, caused the session to be a red flagged. Under the rules, the restart would be with five minutes on the clock and the drivers set about chasing down Jackson's time.

As the drivers fought each other in the short time remaining there was only one real winner with Gordon Shedden putting in a lap time of 1:22.300 to move him from 10th up to 3rd and on to the second row on the grid for Honda Yuasa Racing. This continues the recent trend of Shedden out-performing his team-mate Matt Neal in the Civic Type Rs. In a similar vein, there was interest in the Mercedes Benz camp as Aiden Moffat, a podium finisher at Knockhill, finished 8th for Laser Tools Racing, eleven places ahead of Adam Morgan for WIX Racing.

Mat Jackson pushes hard to set the fastest lap

As a result of the qualifying session, the grid for the first race tomorrow will have Mat Jackson and Aron Smith on the front row, Gordon Shedden and Jack Goff on row 2, Tom Ingram and Jason Plato on row 3, Matt Neal and Aiden Moffat on row 4 and Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan rounding out the top 10 on row 5.

With the Drivers' Championship being so close at the top and with only 9 races left on the 2015 calendar it is Gordon Shedden who has stolen a march on his rivals with his last minute qualifying performance. Whether that translates into race day success we will find out tomorrow where the drivers will compete in three gruelling BTCC races. Fortunately, the weather looks set fair and warmer than it has been today which will enhance tyre performance.

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