Qualifying report

Sat 15th August 2009 Jason Plato denied the Knockhill crowd a qualifying celebration as he pipped local heroes Gordon Shedden and Jonny Adam to pole position this afternoon.

The early-morning rain gave way to sunshine and blustery wind in time for the BTCC’s 30-minute qualifying session. James Thompson and Rob Collard were among the early pacesetters before Team Sunshine.co.uk’s Paul O’Neill put in a lap that saw him take provisional pole position. He was clearly pushing the limit however, as he landed in the gravel at the Scotsman corner on the following lap.

With the Honda Integra stranded, the red flags were out, but not before Gordon Shedden – whose day job is Commercial Manager for the Knockhill circuit – had stolen pole position away from O’Neill.

There was just under half the session remaining when the action restarted and Shedden sat at the top of the times for the next few minutes. Jason Plato ended the Cartridge World driver’s hopes of a home pole position when he went three-tenths of a second faster.

During the remainder of the session, Shedden edged closer to Plato’s time, only for the Chevrolet driver to find even more pace in the closing stages.

At the chequered flag, Plato had done enough to take his second consecutive pole position, with Gordon Shedden starting alongside him on the front row. Jonny Adam starts third for Airwaves BMW, ahead of championship leader Colin Turkington and team-mate Rob Collard. Mat Jackson is sixth on the grid, ahead of Vectra pairing Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan. Stephen Jelley starts ninth for Team RAC, while Paul O’Neill was left to wonder what might have been with tenth on the grid after his earlier ‘off’. Reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi starts from 11th on the grid.

Round 19 of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship gets underway at 11.55am on Sunday.