NEWS // CHILTON TAKES POLE @ ROCKINGHAM

Tom Chilton powered his Ford Focus ST to pole position for Sundays 2nd round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham. The 25 year old recorded the 5th pole of his BTCC career with a lap of 1:23.363 to record the first ever pole for an Liquid Petroleum Gas powered car... [read more]

Chilton was overjoyed to finally reward his team with the top starting spot after Team Aon had toiled relentlessly throughout the winter to both further improve the handling of the Focus and with the help of Mountune develop the all new LPG powered Turbo engine. The man from Poole in Dorset had set himself the target of a 1:23.3 lap and duly delivered on just his third timed lap. “I’d pieced the perfect lap together in my mind beforehand and imagined every corner, every gear change. It was a good job I did as I couldn’t get near it again after that!” said Chilton.

Second on the grid for tomorrows first race will be Team Honda’s Matt Neal who posted his fastest time just as Chilton - on only his third lap.

In only his second ever BTCC race weekend 19 year old Alex MacDowall put in a fantastic performance aboard his RML Chevrolet Cruze to end the session in third place. The youngster from Carlisle even managed to out qualify his hugely experienced teammate Jason Plato who was slightly subdued to have not bettered a third row starting spot despite carrying 36kg of success ballast.

Following on from his strong performance in the earlier second free practice session Uniq Racing with Triple Eight driver James Nash secured a place alongside Plato on the third row of the grid.

Again as in free practice the front of the field for tomorrows first race sees total domination by front wheel drive cars as they will fill the first four rows of the grid. Leading rear wheel drive car once more will be Stephen Kane's Team Airwaves BMW, the Irishman setting a lap of 1m 24.417 just over a second from poleman Chiltons lap.

Local driver and fans favourite Paul O’Neill just scraped into the top ten in his BTC spec Honda Integra ahead of the BMW’s of Mat Jackson and Rob Collard. In fact O’Neill was lucky to finish the session after surviving a spin at Gracelands albeit without hitting anything.

Not taking to the track for the half hour session due to engine problems was Shaun Hollamby and the Amd Milltek VW Golf.

Photo/Editorial: Neil Tozer