Saturday, May 14 2022

Colin Turkington claimed pole position in this afternoon's Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship qualifying session on the Brands Hatch, as BMW machinery dominated on the Indy circuit to lock out the top four positions. Turkington's lap of 47.539s was enough to give the Team BMW driver the best starting berth ahead of Sunday's three races.

In a fast and furious session, it appeared at the mid-point as though Jake Hill may have done enough to claim a second successive pole in his ROKiT MB Motorsport entry, run and prepared by the same WSR stable as the Team BMW machinery. The local driver was forced to settle for second however, as four-time champion Turkington produced an outstanding lap to move 0.167s clear of the rest.

Stephen Jelley in the second Team BMW branded entry also appeared to have a real shot at pole position early on, but he ultimately had to settle for third position, an agonising three thousandths of a second off the front row. Adam Morgan's Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport customer BMW 330e M Sport completed the foursome of Bavarian tin tops at the head of the grid.

Joch Cook heads the non-BMW runners, with a lap just over two tenths shy of Turkington's best time to complete the top-five in a Rich Energy BTC Racing Honda Civic, one place ahead of Tom Ingram, undoubtedly one of the session's finest performers. Ingram arrived at Brands Hatch as championship leader, and as such was the only competitor in the field with no access to hybrid power boost ahead of qualifying. Despite this, Ingram was a contender throughout the early stages of the 30-minute session, and secured sixth on the grid for the first race tomorrow.

George Gamble's impressive start to his maiden BTCC season continued with seventh in the second Ciceley prepared BMW, whilst Dan Cammish was the lead NAPA Racing UK driver with eighth in his Ford Focus ST. Toyota GAZOO Racing UK's Rory Butcher and 2021 Brands Hatch Indy pole-sitter Daniel Rowbottom completed the top-ten.

Beyond that, reigning champion Ashley Sutton isn't as high up the grid as would normally be expected. The second NAPA branded Ford driver was only able to set the 18th fastest time, setting up an intruiging charge as he aims to regain ground on Sunday.

Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, Qualifying, Brands Hatch

1. Colin Turkington, Team BMW, BMW, 47.539s
2. Jake Hill, ROKiT MB Motorsport, BMW, +0.167s
3. Stephen Jelley, Team BMW, BMW, +0.170s
4. Adam Morgan, Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport, BMW, +0.186s
5. Josh Cook, Rich Energy BTC Racing, Honda, +0.218s
6. Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com, Hyundai, +0.233s
7. George Gamble, Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport, BMW, +0.256s
8. Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK, Ford, +0.257s
9. Rory Butcher, Toyota GAZOO Racing UK, Toyota, +0.266s
10. Daniel Rowbottom, Halfords Racing with Cataclean, +0.324s

For full timings and results from this weekend, click here.