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Chilton storms to pole at Brands Hatch

BTCC News | Sat 1st May 2010

Tom Chilton put in a dominant performance in qualifying at Brands Hatch this afternoon to take pole position for Team Aon by just under half a second.

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Chilton's time of 1:31.604 was enough to secure his second consecutive pole position and his second straight lap record in the gas-powered Ford Focus.

Gordon Shedden got closest to Chilton, with a lap late in the 30-minute session that left him 0.471 seconds off the pace-setter.

Chilton's fellow Team Aon driver Tom Onslow-Cole was set for third spot on the grid, only for his Focus to fail the ride-height test with 13 minutes of the session remaining. That meant he lost all his times up to that point in the session and was left with a tough task to put in another competitive lap.

Third place on the grid eventually went to Triple Eight's James Nash in his all-black Vauxhall Vectra. Matt Neal ended the session fourth quickest, ahead of Rob Collard in the first of the BMWs.

Alex MacDowall took sixth, just ahead of his Silverline Chevrolet teammate Jason Plato. Andrew Jordan will start eighth for Pirtek Racing, depite ending the session in the gravel trap on the outside of the final corner.

Tom Onslow-Cole eventually recovered to ninth fastest, with Paul O'Neill in tenth. Tom Boardman qualified 11th and David Pinkney 12th. It was a disappointing session for Airwaves BMW, with Mat Jackson and Steven Kane in 13th and 14th respectively.

So, Tom Chilton has the advantage ahead of Sunday's races and there's no doubting the pace of the Focus over a single lap. However, Chilton's race performances haven't matched his raw speed so far this season and there may just be some rain thrown into the mix, so he may not find it quite so easy on Sunday.

After taking pole position, Tom Chilton said: "I think that was an almost perfect lap - I think I even had the wind going in my direction! We put new tyres and new brakes on the car, but it's so difficult to get them both to come in at the same time.

"We've worked on the chassis to try and get some good race pace, but I think it's going to be wet tomorrow, so who knows what will happen."

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