While former champ Jason Plato bagged his fourth pole position of the British Touring Car Championship season for the opener at Rockingham, Kirkcaldy youngster Jonathan Adam qualified on the front row of the grid for the first time in his career.
“I’m chuffed, dead chuffed,” BMW ace Adam said after lapping the 1.94-mile Northamptonshire circuit in 1min 24.194secs, just 0.107s off the pole time of Plato’s Chevrolet. “Now I can make a charge for my first win of the season.
“I knew the car would go well here, so I’m not surprised. Now I have to take maximum advantage of my position and make sure I get a big points haul and ideally at least a couple podium finishes in Sunday’s three races.”
There was more good news for another Scot, Gordon Shedden. The Dalgety Bay racer, forced to sit-out the last round at Silverstone after his Clyde Valley Racing Team withdrew from the championship, returned with a bang.
The 30-year-old, second last month on his first outing in his Seat Leon at Knockhill, qualified his new ‘Club Seat-backed’ car sixth on the grid and admitted he’s hungry for more success.
“I won here last season in the Honda so, to be honest, I don’t see why I can’t do it again this weekend in the Seat,” Shedden, who has put together a package supported by Seat and Cartridge World, said.
Championship leader and former Knockhill race instructor Colin Turkington suffered a nightmare session qualifying a miserable 14th in his RAC BMW after an early off.
The Irishman’s main rival for the championship, Vauxhall’s double champ Fabrizio Giovanardi, starts seven places ahead determined to close the 11-point gap in the nailbiting battle for the title.
JM
