Darren Turner and Jason Plato will start Round 13 of the 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park from the second and third row of the grids, after qualifying their SEAT Sport UK Leons in 4th and 5th positions respectively.

The 30 minute session was stopped after just five minutes when Tom Onslow-Cole spun his BMW at Cascades, and a 15 minute delay followed while the tyre barrier was repaired. Jason was first out onto the circuit when qualifying started, and he set 4th fastest time, 0.013 seconds ahead of his team-mate.

With the BMW of Colin Turkington on pole and the two Honda Civics of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal in 2nd and 3rd, the rest of qualifying was pretty static – with the only significant change being Darren, who bettered his time by 0.065 seconds to take 4th away from Jason. A misfire towards the end of qualifying prevented Jason improving his time – although 5th was still a great effort, as the Championship leader was running with the maximum 45kgs of success ballast.

Whilst today’s qualifying was held in dry conditions, heavy showers of rain are forecast for tomorrow’s race day.

DRIVER QUOTES

Jason Plato: “Everything was going really well and I’d set what I thought was quite a good time with maximum success ballast. I didn’t get a final flying lap in because the car picked up a misfire, but the team has found what the problem is and it will be fine for race day.”

Darren Turner: “It’s been a frustrating qualifying session because the balance of the car wasn’t right and I was fighting it all the way around the circuit. I was aiming for pole, so fourth isn’t really where I wanted to be. Jason did a good very lap with the weight he’s carrying.”