Daniel Rowbottom emerges victorious in eventful qualifying race

Daniel Rowbottom secured a dream result for Plato Racing in the first-ever British Touring Car Championship qualifying race at Donington Park, in an eventful sprint which saw Ash Sutton spin out.

Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram had shortly beforehand earned pole for the qualifying race with the fastest time in qualifying, and duly lined up on pole position.

The Hyundai driver had to fend off an attach from Sutton from the off, however, as the NAPA Racing UK driver challenged around the outside into the first corner.

A feisty Sutton continued his attacks further around the lap, diving inside Ingram with a tap at McLeans, and another at Coppice, both of which allowed Rowbottom to briefly take the lead emerging from the chicane at the end of the opening lap.

As Ingram then battled Rowbottom into Redgate at the start of the second lap, Sutton tried to make a late lunge on the Hyundai, but Ingram moved to defend and there was light contact, with Sutton edged onto the grass and sent into a slide.

The four-time champion was sent skidding into the path of team-mate Dan Cammish, but the latter managed to avoid the worst of the incident, just clipping Sutton’s rear bumper and continuing in the race, albeit six places down.

Sutton, however, ended up beached in the gravel and out of the race, leaving him to start from 21^st and last for Sunday’s first race proper.

Just minutes later, news filtered through that Ingram had been handed a five-second time penalty for being out of position at the start, meaning the leader would have his work cut out to hold on to the top spot in the 13-lap race.

Despite some early pressure from Rowbottom’s Mercedes, Ingram began to eke clear and after going almost a second and a half faster than his closest rival on the final lap, he fell just 0.024 seconds short of keeping the win.

Rowbottom was thus classed as the victor, with Ingram in second. Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook completed the podium, ensuring a strong start for the local manufacturer.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble took fourth after passing Team Vertu’s Tom Chilton for the position into the chicane on lap five.

WSR’s Charles Rainford was fifth, ahead of Chilton in sixth and the second Plato Racing Mercedes of Adam Morgan in seventh.

Power Maxed’s Aiden Moffat, Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden and Power Maxed’s Dexter Patterson completed the top ten. WSR’s Daryl De Leon had crossed the line in tenth, but was later given a five-second time penalty for a technical infringement relating to his car’s Closed Loop Boost system (CLBS), dropping him to 17^th.

Cammish was ultimately classified down in 13^th after losing a further four places on the final lap as he had battled with Shedden before finding himself out of position on the track as Patterson and others muscled him out.

Race one on Sunday gets underway at 11:30 BST.

Revised* qualifying Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	13	15:07.947	1:08.649	3
2	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	0.024	1:08.236	1
3	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	0.310	1:08.713	6
4	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	13	1.302	1:08.624	8
5	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	2.005	1:08.744	9
6	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	3.508	1:08.818	5
7	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	13	4.718	1:09.028	10
8	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	13	5.008	1:08.868	7
9	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	9.604	1:09.104	13
10	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	13	10.846	1:08.948	16
11	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	11.169	1:09.045	14
12	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	11.431	1:09.022	17
13	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	11.567	1:08.996	4
14	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	11.794	1:08.984	11
15	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	12.704	1:08.968	18
16	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	14.847	1:08.866	15
17	2	I		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	15.699*	1:08.969	12
18	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	20.200	1:08.981	19
19	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	20.495	1:09.444	20
20	19	M		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	23.379	1:10.071	21
R	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	1	DNF	1:16.403	2