Scottish driver Gordon Shedden has qualified on pole position for tomorrow’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship starting grid at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire.

Shedden, driving a Team Halfords Honda Civic, spent the session vying for top spot with rivals Colin Turkington and Darren Turner but in the end achieved pole with an unbeatable lap time of 1m26.243s. That was just 0.050s clear of Turkington, who set a time of 1m26.293s in his Team RAC BMW 320si E90. Turner, also right behind, was third in a time of 1m26.332s in his SEAT Leon.

Series leader Jason Plato, his SEAT Leon carrying maximum success ballast, was back in eighth. Significantly, he will start behind his chief championship rival Fabrizio Giovanardi – fifth in his Vauxhall Vectra thanks to a stunning final qualifying lap. Until that point the Italian ace had been back in 14th as his mechanics repaired a broken suspension component on his car.

Local driver, Durham-based Simon Blanckley was 17th fastest in his Sibsport Honda Integra for what will be his first BTCC race meeting in front of his home crowd.

Shedden, aged 28 from Dalgety Bay and currently tenth in the championship standings, said: “The team has continued to develop the car in the last month and to have both myself and Matt in the top four is an excellent reward. I’m also confident of our race pace from what we saw in the earlier two practice sessions.”

Turkington, aged 25 from Portadown, is currently fifth in the championship. He said: “I think I’ve got a great chance of leading into the first bend. The BMW has rear-wheel-drive compared to the front-wheel-drive of the Hondas and SEATs so it should give me an advantage off the start. After that we’ll see what happens, but our car seems to be using its tyres well and I’m sure we’ll be in strong shape.”

Turner, aged 33 and from Leamington-Spa, is sixth in the standings and still seeking his first win in the BTCC – and it could come in what will be his SEAT Sport UK team’s 100th race in the championship. He added: “Any one of us could have got the pole, but a lot of it was down to getting a clear track. On my final run I caught one car which delayed me and on my next lap I had to slow because there was debris on the track at one of the corners. But I’m really looking forward to the scrap tomorrow.”