Honda’s Gordon Shedden scored his second pole position of the season in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham, in a session which featured torrential rain amid a thunderstorm.
As rain hit around an hour before qualifying was due to begin, it became clear that the session would take place on a wet circuit. That rain then intensified at the start of the session, with the early pace being set by Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson.
Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Shedden then hit the top of the times around seven minutes into the session, with an initial time of 1:36.559.
The Scot held the top time until the halfway stage of the session, with times not improving due to the increasing intensity of the rain, before the red flags flew due to the conditions becoming too dangerous.
After a ten-minute delay the storm was deemed to have passed enough to allow qualifying to resume, with Shedden holding the top spot until he improved in the closing minutes to take pole with a time of 1:36.338.
Second went to Jackson, who failed to improve on his initial time early in the session, whilst MG’s Josh Cook made a late improvement to take third, six tenths off the pole time.
Jason Plato was the leading BMR Subaru driver in fourth, having been pipped to third by Cook in the closing seconds of the session. The double champion was one of several drivers to endure a trip through the gravel at Gracelands during the session. He finished ahead of team-mate Colin Turkington, who put his sister car in fifth.
Ashley Sutton made it a strong session for the Triple Eight MG team by putting his car in sixth, the last of the drivers to be within a second of the pace having posted his time just before the halfway stage of the session.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was seventh, despite having had his times disallowed halfway through the session for failing the routine ride height check.
Matt Neal put his Honda in eighth, ahead of WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan and Power Maxed Racing’s Hunter Abbott, who completed the top ten.
Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin qualified down in 23rd, but will start race one from the back of the grid due to having received his third strike for driving standards at the previous round at Knockhill.
It was a disastrous session for the championship leaders WSR, with Sam Tordoff down in 28th position, behind team-mates Jack Goff in 26th and Rob Collard in 27th. The latter reported that he had gearbox issues and an engine misfire, blaming the problems on the soaking wet weather.
Race one takes place at 11:37 BST on Sunday.
Qualifying times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN |  |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 15 | 1:36.338 | |
| 2 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 14 | 1:36.626 | 0.288 | |
| 3 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 15 | 1:36.976 | 0.638 |
| 4 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 15 | 1:37.043 | 0.705 |
| 5 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 15 | 1:37.091 | 0.753 |
| 6 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 13 | 1:37.220 | 0.882 |
| 7 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 13 | 1:37.575 | 1.237 | |
| 8 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 14 | 1:37.580 | 1.242 |
| 9 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 15 | 1:37.640 | 1.302 | |
| 10 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 13 | 1:37.734 | 1.396 | |
| 11 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 14 | 1:38.297 | 1.959 | |
| 12 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 14 | 1:38.307 | 1.969 | |
| 13 | 71 | David NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 12 | 1:38.369 | 2.031 | |
| 14 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 14 | 1:38.400 | 2.062 | |
| 15 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 11 | 1:38.707 | 2.369 | |
| 16 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 1:38.713 | 2.375 | |
| 17 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 16 | 1:38.846 | 2.508 |
| 18 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 16 | 1:38.854 | 2.516 |
| 19 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 1:38.877 | 2.539 | |
| 20 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 12 | 1:39.023 | 2.685 | |
| 21 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:39.317 | 2.979 | |
| 22 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 14 | 1:39.429 | 3.091 | |
| 23 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 6 | 1:39.558 | 3.220 | |
| 24 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 13 | 1:39.848 | 3.510 | |
| 25 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 14 | 1:39.988 | 3.650 | |
| 26 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 10 | 1:40.613 | 4.275 |
| 27 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 7 | 1:41.033 | 4.695 |
| 28 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 8 | 1:41.560 | 5.222 |
| 29 | 34 | Tony GILHAM | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 13 | 1:41.715 | 5.377 | |
| 30 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:41.810 | 5.472 | |
| 31 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | – | No time | N/A |