Jack Goff takes close pole position at Silverstone

Jack Goff secured his second pole position of the season in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone in a dominant fashion, ending up a mere 0.001 seconds ahead of Tom Ingram.

The qualifying session started dry, although rain was threatening and starting to fall.  As expected, the teams’ put the cars out straight away to try to get a ‘banker’ lap in case the rain continued and became heavier.

Fortunately the suspected rain never developed to anything and the session and track remained dry, although the temperature was low cold (track temperature being just under 14 degrees) so everyone seemed to be struggling initially with getting heat into their tyres.

Adrian Flux Subaru Racing’s James Cole was the first driver to go sub one minute, putting in a 59.872, some 5 minutes into the qualifying session.  This was quickly followed by his team mate and Championship leader Ash Sutton with a 59.712 and then Josh Price with a 59.945 – the Subaru Levorgs were obviously the first to get their tyres to work.

Ten minutes in, however, and everything was changing quickly lap after lap on what is one of the shortest circuits on the BTCC calendar.  Provisional pole was set by Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington (who as the first driver to go sub 59 seconds) within the space of a few minutes.

Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff’s Honda Civic was looking speedy throughout, putting in a 58.848 for provisional pole after having a huge slide into Brooklands on the previous lap! Handy Motorsports’ Rob Austin was also putting in some fast times, moving up to 2nd with just 19 minutes left of qualifying.

Once again, track limits were an issue with several drivers getting black and white warning flags, several having lap times removed (Mat Jackson, Goff, Brett Smith, Stewart Lines and Jason Plato) and Plato and Lines both getting black flags for continued infringements!

Ciceley Motorsports’ Adam Morgan seemed to be struggling to get heat into the tyres of his A Class Mercedes as the car was sliding and jumping quite spectacularly.  However, he managed to get the car and the tyres working as, by the half way point, he was second, ahead of Neal in third and Goff on provisional pole.

The championship protagonists, however, were really struggling at the half way point, likely due to carrying championship ballast.  Whilst Turkington was in 5th (with an additional 66 kg), Shedden was in 17th (57 kg) and Sutton in 18th (75 kg), all with plenty of work to do.

The top three remained static for some time, although the positions below them were changing constantly.

With just 6 minutes of qualifying left, Sutton and Shedden were still nowhere near the top three.  Sutton was in 13th and Shedden 9th.  Goff, in the meantime, was securing his pole position by going even faster and putting in a 58.634 and no one could better this.

Tom Ingram managed a 58.654 to put him a very close second in the closing stages by just 0.001 seconds, pushing Morgan to third, Neal into 4th and Jake Hill into fifth.  Austin and Ant Whorton-Eales both managed strong times to secure sixth and seventh respectively and Turkington, Smith and Sutton rounded out the top ten.

Shedden ended down in 12th but with the whole field covered by just 0.886 seconds, Sunday’s racing is expected to be close.

Race one takes place at 11:57 BST on Sunday.

Qualifying results

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	31		Jack GOFF		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	21	58.653	0.000
2	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	22	58.654	0.001
3	33		Adam MORGAN		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	23	58.702	0.049
4	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	22	58.808	0.155
5	24		Jake HILL		TAG Racing	Volkswagen CC	19	58.817	0.164
6	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	20	58.882	0.229
7	10		Ant WHORTON-EALES		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	22	58.886	0.233
8	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	25	58.893	0.240
9	39		Brett SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	23	58.914	0.261
10	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	26	58.930	0.277
11	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	18	58.951	0.298
12	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	21	58.973	0.320
13	20	M	James COLE		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	24	58.979	0.326
14	6		Rory BUTCHER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	22	59.015	0.362
15	17		Dave NEWSHAM		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	19	59.022	0.369
16	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	25	59.042	0.389
17	3		Mat JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	22	59.061	0.408
18	66		Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	17	59.082	0.429
19	28	M	Josh PRICE		A-Plan Academy	Subaru Levorg GT	21	59.088	0.435
20	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	21	59.098	0.445
21	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	20	59.100	0.447
22	5	M	Rob COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	25	59.116	0.463
23	30		Martin DEPPER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	23	59.178	0.525
24	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	22	59.179	0.526
25	12		Mike EPPS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	22	59.227	0.574
26	61		Will BURNS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	21	59.240	0.587
27	40	M	Árón TAYLOR-SMITH		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	17	59.270	0.617
28	37	M	Rob HUFF		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	59.291	0.638
29	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	59.426	0.773
30	95		Stewart LINES		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	21	59.460	0.807
31	303	M	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	22	59.495	0.842
32	7		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	21	59.539	0.886