Having posted the fastest time in both the morning’s free practice sessions, Darren Turner completed a perfect day’s work at the Rockingham Motor Speedway by setting the fastest time in qualifying to score his first ever pole in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Darren was the only driver to break the 1min 25sec barrier in all three sessions around Rockingham’s new 1.94 mile International Super Sports Car Circuit. Having set a 1:24.948 best in Free Practice 1 and a 1:24.790 in Free Practice 2, Darren’s last flying lap in the closing seconds of the 30 minute qualifying session saw him set a 1:24.908 – knocking Fabrizio Giovanardi into 2nd place by +0.028s. The team believes the increased wind blowing around the Corby track in the afternoon contributed to the slightly slower qualifying times, compared to second free practice.

With one SEAT Leon on the front row of the grid, Jason Plato made sure both SEAT Sport UK cars are in a good position to score Manufacturer points tomorrow by setting the 3rd fastest time – an incredible achievement, as the Championship leader’s car is carrying 45kgs of success ballast and is the heaviest of all 26 cars on the track.

DRIVER QUOTES

Darren Turner: “I’m delighted to get my first pole in the BTCC – but I certainly didn’t mean to leave it so late in the session to put in my quickest lap. We didn’t have the best combination of tyres on my first attempt – we had new ones on the front, used tyres on the rear and lots of oversteer – and on the second attempt, with new tyres all ‘round, I was held up in traffic, so I only had one flying lap at the end to try and get pole. My Race Engineer, Nick Clipson, didn’t tell me the chequered flag had come out and that I was on my final lap because he didn’t want to put me under any pressure. It wasn’t a great lap anyway, so I’m really pleased to have snatched pole away from Fabrizio Giovanardi right at the end. Jason did a fantastic job to qualify in third with so much weight on the car. I’m going to look at his data to see how he did it!”

Jason Plato: “With forty-five kilos of lead weight in the car, I have to say that I’m pretty pleased to have qualified third on the grid. We’re the heaviest car by far and it really hurts around Rockingham. I’m a little disappointed in myself because I reckon I could have gone faster, but I don’t think I’d have been able to break the one minute twenty-five barrier, so it wouldn’t have made any difference to my grid position. I had three flying laps, two of which were okay, and then we sat in the pits while the starter motor was replaced. Full credit to the team; the temperatures in the engine bay are enormous and it takes a lot of guts to dive in and change the starter motor during a qualifying session. Tomorrow, we have to think of the bigger picture. I want to extend my lead in the Championship and there are two Leons at the front of the grid, so that is also important as we want to score as many Manufacturers points as possible.”