Pole for Onslow-Cole at Oulton Park

Tweet

Sat 5th June 2010 Tom Onslow-Cole secured pole position for round 10 of the 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park this afternoon. The Team Aon driver set a best time of 1:27.330 to head Gordon Shedden by just two hundredths of a second.

It is Onslow-Cole's first pole position for more than two years and the third in a row for LPG-powered Team Aon. However, unlike at Brands Hatch and Rockingham, the pole position time was slower than the existing qualifying lap record.

After the session, Onslow-Cole said: "It's a fantastic result. We did the time half way through the session and I wondered if it would get beaten. It wasn't a perfect lap, but it's tight at the front. We just timed it right with the tyres, the track temperature and everything came together for a stunning pole lap."

Behind Onslow-Cole and Shedden, it will be an all-Chevrolet second row, with Jason Plato ahead of Alex MacDowall. Tom Chilton starts fifth in the second Team Aon Focus, ahead of WSR's Rob Collard in sixth. Joint championship leader Matt Neal could only manage seventh, while Paul O'Neill claimed his best qualifying result so far this year, despite stopping out on track after completing just four timed laps.

Mat Jackson is the first of the Airwaves BMWs in ninth, ahead of James Nash in the lone Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra. The sixth row is shared by Steven Kane and Tom Boardman, ahead of Lea Wood in 13th – an impressive performance in just his second BTCC outing. Andy Neate lines up 14th, David Pinkney 15th and Matt Hamilton 16th.

Martin Depper and Arthur Forster will start 17th and 18th respectively in the Forster Motorsport BMWs. John George, Martin Johnson and Shaun Hollamby were the last three qualifiers.

Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan will start Sunday's first race from the back of the grid after an engine change for his Vauxhall Vectra kept him out of qualifying.

The three BTCC races are scheduled for 12.15, 14.30 and 17.10.