Honda Yuasa Racing’s Gordon Shedden secured pole position at Donington Park after his late flying lap edged out a fantastic effort from Frank Wrathall in the Dynojet Toyota Avensis.
The Scotsman hasn't started from pole position since Oulton Park in 2011, despite winning the 2012 season.
It seemed as though Wrathall had P1 in the bag, when the ballast-free Honda stole the position from him late in qualifying. The Toyota was only 0.049s behind, but will start on the front row nonetheless.
Sitting behind Wrathall is Andrew Jordan driving for Pirtek Racing, despite his strong qualifying performance, he will have to take some significant success ballast.
Sheddon's teammate Matt Neal will start in fourth, in front of MG racer come Fifth Gear presenter Jason Plato. Rounding out the top six is Ciceley Racing's Adam Morgan after yet another impressive performance.
Plato's stablemate Sam Tordoff will reluctantly start seventh on the grid, after a disappointing day in qualifying. Colin Turkington starts eighth, as his eBay Motors team continue to develop the new BMW 125i M Sport.
Dave Newsham will start ninth, ahead of the Honda Civic of Jeff Smith who span early in the day. Tom Onslow-Cole (VW Passat), Rob Collard (BMW 125i M Sport) and Mat Jackson (Ford Focus) will begin 11th, 12th and 13th respectively.
Gordon Shedden said “With the tools at our disposal and with not carrying any ballast, then I think pole position had to be the aim. Wrathall was the surprise of the session so I plan to try and get my head down and keep out in front tomorrow. It’s my first pole position in the NGTC car and it’s been a long time coming, so I’m delighted.”
Frank Wrathall said “The lap was pretty wild. It was on the edge but I managed to keep it all together and squeeze every last bit out of the car. We didn’t really know what our true pace was, so it was nice to find ourselves so far up and be in the mix.”
Andrew Jordan said “We were hoping for pole and I messed up my fastest lap a little at the chicane. It was still a good result considering the weight we have on the car and we’ll look forward to fighting at the front tomorrow.”
What is Success Ballast?
After both the first and second races on Sunday, the following weight handicaps are added to the top five finishers’ cars before the start of races two and three respectively: 1st = 45kgs; 2nd = 36kgs; 3rd = 27kgs; 4th = 18kgs; 5th = 9kgs. Sixth place or lower does not carry any ballast.
Full Qualifying Result
P
No
Driver
Car
Time
Gap
Speed Trap
1
#1
Gordon Shedden
Honda Civic
1:10.074
101.67
2
#11
Frank Wrathall
Toyota Avensis
1:10.123
+0.049
101.60
3
#77
Andrew Jordan
Honda Civic
1:10.181
+0.107
101.51
4
#2
Matt Neal
Honda Civic
1:10.215
+0.141
101.46
5
#99
Jason Plato
MG6
1:10.358
+0.284
101.26
6
#33
Adam Morgan
Toyota Avensis
1:10.493
+0.419
101.06
7
#88
Sam Tordoff
MG6
1:10.561
+0.487
100.97
8
#29
Colin Turkington
BMW 125i M Sport
1:10.595
+0.521
100.92
9
#17
Dave Newsham
Toyota Avensis
1:10.905
+0.831
100.48
10
#55
Jeff Smith
Honda Civic
1.11.202
+0.946
100.31
11
#6
Tom Onslow-Cole
VW Passat CC
1:11.117
+1.043
100.18
12
#5
Robert Collard
BMW 125i M Sport
1:11.156
+1.082
100.12
13
#7
Mat Jackson
Ford Focus
1:11.158
+1.084
100.12
14
#48
Ollie Jackson
Toyota Avensis
1:11.320
+1.246
99.89
15
#10
Daniel Welch
Proton Gen-2
1:11.344
+1.270
99.86
16
#8
Aron Smith
Ford Focus
1:11.412
+1.338
99.76
17
#14
Will Bratt
Audi A4
1:11.555
+1.481
99.56
18
#13
Rob Austin
Audi A4
1:11.581
+1.507
99.53
19
#31
Jack Goff
Vauxhall Insignia VXR-R
1:11.582
+1.508
99.53
20
#15
James Kaye
VW Golf MK5
1:11.867
+1.793
99.13
21
#18
Nick Foster
BMW 125i M Sport
1:12.216
+2.142
98.65
22
#12
David Nye
Ford Focus
1:12.552
+2.478
98.20
23
#66
Liam Griffin
Ford Focus
1.12.591
+2.517
98.14
24
#43
Lea Wood
Vauxhall Vectra
1:12.628
+2.554
98.09
25
#90
Joe Girling
Chevrolet Cruze
1:12.920
+2.846
97.70
26
#20
James Cole
Vauxhall Insignia VXR-R
1:13.611
+3.537
99.78
27
#39
Warren Scott
SEAT Leon
1:22.641
+12.567
86.21
Photo: BTCC (Copyright Free)
