James Cole was left ‘genuinely speechless’ after securing his maiden British Touring Car Championship pole position at Rockingham yesterday.
The Subaru Levorg driver’s late effort of 1:23.187s was enough to eclipse Jack Goff’s Eurotech Honda Civic Type R by 0.048 seconds and secure Cole not only his first front row start, but pole position too.
The result follows an upturn in form for the Liverpudlian including a run of four successive fifth place finishes.
“I did not expect that at all and until I was told at the end of the session I had no idea!” said Cole.
“I didn‘t want my team to tell me – amazing job by them, this is fantastic. I’m genuinely speechless!
“Given how we were in FP1 and FP2, if we got everything right for qualifying I was expecting to maybe get into the top ten but didn’t think we could do that!
“Going into race one, here it’s about looking after your tyres and with a front-wheel drive car next to me, I’m looking forward to it!
“My confidence is up and what more of a boost can you get than that? It’s qualifying where we’ve been weaker at times and we’ve been stronger in the races, so I’m looking forward to it. Ask me in the morning how I slept!”