Tom Chilton has qualified on pole position for Sunday's opening round of the new Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch. But there's been a disaster for reigning Champion Matt Neal (Droitwich) - he'll start from the back of the grid after crashing on his first qualifying lap.

Chilton, driving Vauxhall's Astra Sport Hatch, achieved pole position in a time of 48.975 seconds. The 21-year-old from Reigate said: "It's a great way to start my career with Vauxhall. I got every corner perfect and had no cars in my way. I can't complain."

Lining up alongside Chilton for the start, second on the grid, will be SEAT's Jason Plato (Oxford) whose team-mate James Thompson (Harrogate) will be directly behind in third. Plato and Chilton have exchanged heated words in the run-up to tomorrow's opening round and Chilton reckons Plato's Leon will have a start line advantage, adding: "The SEAT's lighter than my car and, with the camber of start-finish straight, he could nose ahead. It will be very close into the first corner. I need a perfect start. I'm certainly expecting a few little 'love taps'."

Plato added: "We were a little bit too conservative with our qualifying set-up on the car and we only just got beat. We'd already shown in the practice sessions that our car is the quickest in race trim. I predict a SEAT 1-2 tomorrow."

Lining up fourth on the grid will be the TEAM RAC MG ZS of Colin Turkington (Portadown). Turkington said: "I'm very pleased with that, especially as the team has a new look for 2006. It's a great way to start and hopefully, after what's been said earlier in the week, there'll be a bit of bother in front of me and I can take advantage."

After winning his first BTCC Drivers' title at Brands Hatch last year, meanwhile, Neal has a mountain to climb from near the back of the grid in 15th. His Integra had just left the pit lane when it suffered brake failure and spun off the track at the Druids hairpin bend.

The 39-year-old said: "I realised I was going way too fast so threw the car sideways - it dug into the gravel trap and almost rolled over. Overtaking is very difficult around here and even getting through the midfield lot will be tough. At least this has happened today. Tomorrow would have meant no points."