Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Gordon Shedden took his first British Touring Car Championship pole position since Donington Park 2013, obliterating the record set by Colin Turkington last year by 0.420 seconds with a 1:55.627 ten minutes into qualifying.
The defending champion posted his best effort ten minutes in, as traffic caused issues for multiple drivers that were trying to challenge the Scot for the best approach towards the first corner.
Turkington was just 0.015 seconds behind Shedden, with WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan also having traffic issues, meaning the Mercedes driver will start from third on the grid. All three drivers were separated by 0.028 seconds after the 30-minute session.
Speedworks’ Tom Ingram was the best of the Toyota drivers around in fourth place, with Motorbase’s Matt Jackson completing the top five in his Ford Focus. 2013 champion Andrew Jordan will start from the back of the grid, due to a power steering issue early in the session, which saw the Sutton Coldfield driver unable to set a competitive lap time.
Hunter Abbott secured his best qualifying result with Power Maxed Racing, putting his Chevrolet Cruze alongside Jackson, whilst his teammate Kelvin Fletcher was 2.167 seconds off the pace in 26th place.
Team BKR’s Árón Smith was seventh in his Volkswagen CC, 0.554 seconds off the pace set by Shedden, ahead of MG RCIB Insurance Racing’s Ashley Sutton, who was again the best of the rookies.
In what was a tightly-contested qualifying, Matt Neal finds himself starting from ninth for the first race of the weekend, ahead of a good effort from Team JCT600 with GardX’s Sam Tordoff in tenth. Even with the maximum 75 kilogram success ballast on him BMW 125i M Sport, the current championship leader was 0.608 seconds behind Shedden, but was 0.046 seconds ahead of Jason Plato in 11th place.
Josh Cook was only able to get as high as 12th behind Plato, but ahead of the two other BMR Subarus, driven by James Cole and Warren Scott, who were 13th and 15th, with Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat between the latter pair.
Team IHG® Rewards Club’s Jack Goff was way down the order, as the High Wycombe driver was just over a second off the pace down in 16th, with Rob Collard the slowest of the BMW drivers in 18th place, behind Team HARD’s Jake Hill.
Mike Simpson was the next best placed of the rookies in 19th, 0.114 seconds ahead of Michael Epps, with AmDTuning’s Ollie Jackson a whisker behind the pair.
Martin Depper, Mark Howard and Alex Martin were the only drivers to suffer off-track excursions during the session, with the trio finding themselves at the bottom end of the grid, whilst Michael Caine ended up in 25th on the grid.
The 16th race of the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Championship season starts at 11.32 British Summer Time tomorrow morning (Sunday, July 31st).
Qualifying times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN |  |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 9 | 1:55.627 | |
| 2 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 13 | 1:55.642 | 0.015 |
| 3 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 11 | 1:55.655 | 0.028 | |
| 4 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 1:56.009 | 0.382 | |
| 5 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 11 | 1:56.032 | 0.405 | |
| 6 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 11 | 1:56.065 | 0.438 | |
| 7 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:56.181 | 0.554 | |
| 8 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 10 | 1:56.206 | 0.579 |
| 9 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 10 | 1:56.222 | 0.595 |
| 10 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 11 | 1:56.235 | 0.608 |
| 11 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 13 | 1:56.281 | 0.654 |
| 12 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 11 | 1:56.394 | 0.767 |
| 13 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 14 | 1:56.607 | 0.980 |
| 14 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 10 | 1:56.615 | 0.988 | |
| 15 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 14 | 1:56.631 | 1.004 |
| 16 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 1:56.688 | 1.061 |
| 17 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 1:56.698 | 1.071 | |
| 18 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 11 | 1:56.752 | 1.125 |
| 19 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 1:56.803 | 1.176 | |
| 20 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 11 | 1:56.917 | 1.290 | |
| 21 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 12 | 1:56.920 | 1.293 | |
| 22 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 13 | 1:57.056 | 1.429 | |
| 23 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 12 | 1:57.374 | 1.747 | |
| 24 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 12 | 1:57.531 | 1.904 | |
| 25 | 88 | Michael CAINE | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 11 | 1:57.610 | 1.983 | |
| 26 | 84 | Kelvin FLETCHER | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 12 | 1:57.794 | 2.167 | |
| 27 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 7 | 1:57.850 | 2.223 | |
| 28 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:58.198 | 2.571 | |
| 29 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 11 | 1:58.602 | 2.975 | |
| 30 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 12 | 1:59.800 | 4.173 | |
| 31 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 0 | No time | N/A |