Team Aon continues pole dominance

Sat 19th June 2010 Team Aon secured its fourth pole in as many race weekends for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship today at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire, with Tom Chilton completing the fastest lap around the 2.1 mile track in 1:24.629.

Chilton led the way in Free Practice 1 this morning, with a best time of 1:25.685, which he improved upon for this afternoon’s qualifying, despite going off early on in the 30-minute session. Having returned to the pits, the team turned the car around quickly enough for Chilton to get back on track and set pole position.

With the top ten cars setting qualifying times within one second of each other, team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole set a solid lap in 1:25.337, which sees him start tomorrow’s first of three races in seventh place. The 22-year-old put his Ford Focus on pole halfway through the session but was unable to stay at the top as others improved.

Tom Chilton: “Maximum points for trying hard today I think! I locked up but got out of it just in time. This is the closest qualifying of the year so far and I’m on pole; some of it is down to luck definitely, but I’m still chuffed to be back at the top. Now I’m really hoping for wins tomorrow.” Tom Onslow-Cole: “I was on pole for the earlier part of the session but the time I set ended up P7 in the end. Everyone else just got quicker and quicker and we didn’t quite piece it together. I was quickest in Sector 1 and 3 but couldn’t get the best of the car in the second sector. We’re going to work on the race pace now and hope to sort things out for tomorrow’s races.”