Tom Chilton admitted that he found it hard to believe it had been 14 years since his last pole position in the British Touring Car Championship, after beating team-mate Tom Ingram by over three tenths of a second on Saturday.
Chilton scored his first BTCC pole since Knockhill in 2011 at Donington Park, coming out on top in a session marked by changeable weather conditions.
The 40-year-old ran with the soft slick tyre in an inclement Q2 session, which proved to be the right decision as he was sixth quickest and able to progress into Q3 by a mere 0.037 second margin over Dan Cammish.
In Q3, Chilton then prevailed on a wet and greasy circuit to beat Ingram to the top time by 0.353 seconds and claim his 11th career pole in the BTCC.
“Finishing second practice on top in the dry I was very confident going into qualifying,” explained Chilton to TouringCars.Net. “Then literally 17 minutes before qualifying it started raining!
“All of a sudden we had to quickly change the car. Tom [Ingram] managed to change his car, but I left mine the same thinking it might dry up a bit, and we were quick in different parts of qualifying.
“Q2 was quite messy if I’m honest – I think it’s probably the messiest qualifying I can remember to-date, because the circuit was getting wetter and the tyres were getting colder.
“I knew we had to get going, but you’ve also got Jake Hill and Daryl DeLeon overtaking and slotting between us as well. When I was starting the lap I was thinking ‘this is not how you start a lap’ – it was so messy and it was like we were having a full-blown race. I thought DeLeon was going to fire me off on the exit of the last corner at one point! It was mad.
“But I’m so happy I got through to Q3, because as soon as I put that wet tyre on and Barry [Plowman, Chilton’s race engineer] softened off the car, the car was brilliant.
“It was greasy, tricky conditions. I know it was a lot wetter in Q2, but the circuit off-line was so greasy. It wasn’t fully dry on the line either, so the wet was the right tyre.”
Chilton joked that he was more nervous about having to talk ITV through his pole lap on Sunday than he would be actually lining up on the grid.
“I can’t believe it’s been 14 years since my last pole in the BTCC. I’ve had loads of poles in world touring cars and electric touring cars, but in British Touring Cars it’s been 14 years, although I was out of it for four years.
“I’m more nervous about talking through the pole lap with ITV tomorrow than I am about starting on pole position, because I’ve never done one before!
“I am confident for race day. It’s a really nice, fast flowing circuit and I’ve always loved this circuit.
“I’m sure the racing is going to be very close tomorrow, but hopefully me and Tom can work together and keep the gap to everyone else.”
Chilton also revealed that he and Ingram had discussed team strategy, and says they will both be battling for victory in the opening race.
“We’ve spoken about it – a win’s a win. But anything beyond that I’m happy to help him out if he needs that and the points, because that’s what team-mates do.
“But as it stands, for the win – I’ll be going flat-out to try and get that. But I’m sure Tom will be going flat-out trying to beat me, too…”