Triple Eight Race Engineering pairing James Nash and Sam Tordoff will start from the fourth row of the grid on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, the team having both their independently run Vauxhall Vectras inside the top ten for the third time this season.
Just a second covered the top fifteen drivers in qualifying around the 1.2 mile track, with both the team's drivers lapping within three-tenths of Jason Plato's record breaking pole time. Nash will start from seventh, with Yorkshire racer Tordoff – the latest Clio Cup graduate brought up to the BTCC by the team this year – just a fraction of a second behind in eighth place – a fine performance for the series rookie.
“Qualifying eighth is a long way beyond what we were expecting,” admitted Tordoff. “It's fantastic really. I'm still learning the car and there's a hell of a lot to understand. A top 10 in the races tomorrow would be lovely.”
The fourth row start place the team in the middle of the unfolding championship battle, three contenders – Plato, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden starting ahead, but with Tom Onslow-Cole starting from the row behind, in tenth. The Triple Eight drivers, therefore will be two of the drivers Onslow-Cole needs to pass to keep his title hopes alive.
“At the last 4 meetings we've had various problems so it's very nice to be back in the midst of the leading pack for the last meeting,” said Nash. “My aim tomorrow is a top 5 in the first race and hopefully a podium in the second”.
