Dan Cammish claims maiden pole in frenetic Knockhill qualifying

Honda’s Dan Cammish claimed pole position in a frantic British Touring Car Championship qualifying session at Knockhill, edging out a trio of BMWs headed by Team Parker Racing’s Stephen Jelley.

Times tumbled continually throughout the session on the recently resurfaced Knockhill circuit, with the battle for pole seemingly being between the rear-wheel drive BMW cars until late in the session, when Cammish put his Civic at the top of the times with four minutes to go.

No-one else improved the 29-year-old’s time thereafter, giving Cammish his first pole position in the BTCC and the second for the new Civic Type R.

Jelley put in his best qualifying performance since returning to the BTCC last year by claiming second, giving the 36-yerar-old bragging rights amongst the BMW drivers.

Second practice pace-setter Andrew Jordan was third for BMW Pirtek Racing in an incredibly close session which saw the top three covered by less than a tenth of a second.

Championship leader Colin Turkington was fourth, despite carrying the full 75 kg of success ballast, ahead of BTC Norlin Racing’s Chris Smiley in fifth, with the Honda driver slotting in behind his fellow Northern Irishman.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram kept himself close to his title rival by putting his Toyota in sixth, ahead of the leading Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes of Tom Oliphant in seventh.

Subaru’s Ash Sutton was eighth, having been unable to improve his time in the final ten minutes of the session and ending up unable to match the lap he set earlier in the day in first practice.

The second Mercedes of Adam Morgan and the leading Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall of Josh Cook completed the top ten.

Eurotech Racing’s Brett Smith was 11^th, although the Honda driver threw his car off the circuit at Turn 5 with just three minutes to run and consequently couldn’t improve in the final minutes.

The only BMW driver not to crack the top ten was rookie Ricky Collard, who nonetheless put in an impressive lap to end up 12^th on the grid for race one.

HMS Racing’s Rob Austin had to save a huge slide on his final lap and could only manage 13^th in his Alfa Romeo, having been one of half a dozen drivers to have at least one of their lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.

The second Subaru of Jason Plato was 18^th fastest, with last year’s pole-sitter being almost six tenths off the pace.

Although Cammish claimed pole, his Halfords Yuasa Racing team-mate Matt Neal struggled with his car and was just 21^st fastest.

Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson was the only driver not to post a time after his Volkswagen suffered from an oil leak on his first lap out of the pits. That brought out a lengthy red flag stoppage, as Thompson’s Vauxhall completed well over half a lap of leaving oil on the circuit before he pulled off, leaving the marshals with a significant quantity of cement dust to lay on the slick.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:50 BST (12:50 CEST) on Sunday and is forecast to be wet.

Qualifying result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAP	TIME	GAP
1	27	M	Dan CAMMISH		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	20	50.929	–
2	60		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	25	50.952	0.023
3	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	25	50.980	0.051
4	2	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	27	51.172	0.243
5	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	23	51.234	0.305
6	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	17	51.236	0.307
7	15		Tom OLIPHANT		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	25	51.274	0.345
8	1	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	25	51.313	0.384
9	33		Adam MORGAN		MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	24	51.343	0.414
10	66	M	Josh COOK		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	23	51.351	0.422
11	39		Brett SMITH		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	18	51.377	0.448
12	55	M	Ricky COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	27	51.381	0.452
13	11		Rob AUSTIN		DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	24	51.385	0.456
14	26		Daniel LLOYD		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	23	51.389	0.460
15	3		Tom CHILTON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	26	51.390	0.461
16	600		Sam TORDOFF		Team GardX Racing with Motorbase	Ford Focus RS	22	51.394	0.465
17	31		Jack GOFF		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	25	51.433	0.504
18	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	21	51.502	0.573
19	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	23	51.511	0.582
20	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	22	51.525	0.596
21	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	23	51.575	0.646
22	20		James COLE		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	26	51.608	0.679
23	6		Rory BUTCHER		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	22	51.664	0.735
24	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	23	51.675	0.746
25	21		Mike BUSHELL		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	25	51.693	0.764
26	303		Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	8	51.828	0.899
27	41		Glynn GEDDIE		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	26	52.142	1.213
28	42		Carl BOARDLEY		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	21	52.163	1.234
29	23		Sam SMELT		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	25	52.273	1.344
30	43		Ollie PIDGLEY		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	24	52.854	1.925
31	19		B. THOMPSON		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	–	No time	N/A