Thompson snatches late pole at Croft

James Thompson will start round 13 of the 2006 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship from pole position after a blistering lap towards the end of Saturday’s qualifying session.

It looked like Tom Chilton would start at the front, having topped the times for much of the session, but the Vauxhall driver was pipped to the post by double champion Thompson.

Local hero Thompson, who hails from Harrogate set a best time of 1m26.213s in his SEAT Leon to secure his first qualified pole position of the season.

After the session, he said, "I’m really pleased with pole, because I had to fight hard for it. I had some contact with Mark Smith’s Alfa early in the session and it damaged a rear wheel, so my car wasn’t quite at its best. Things were tricky after that. I had one flying lap that was very average, so I came into the pits to check the car and went out again with just a few minutes left and sneaked up at the front. I had to do one lap and that was it – it was a case of put up or shut up!"

Vauxhall will still be hoping to clinch their elusive 100th BTCC victory on Sunday, with Chilton starting alongside Thompson on the front row for the first race. Reigning champion and current points leader Matt Neal will start third, while SEAT’s lead driver, Jason Plato, starts fourth.

Gordon Shedden (Team Halfords) and Fabrizio Giovanardi (VX Racing) qualified in fifth and sixth positions respectively, while Colin Turkington, currently second in the championship, was seventh fastest. Mike Jordan, Rob Collard and Gavin Smith complete the top ten, all of whom were separated by just six tenths of a second.