Lee Pattison stormed to his first Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup pole positions of the season at Thruxton, a session in which current championship leaders SV Racing struggled.
Pattison has a strong history at the high-speed Hampshire circuit, having taken a win and a second place at the corresponding meeting twelve months ago, and the series veteran emerged comfortably quickest in the depleted eleven car field.
It was Mike Bushell who led the way at the halfway mark of the session, however it was his Team Pyro team-mate Pattison who hit the ground running as the field returned from a stint in the pits, instantly feeling at home with his new team after switching from JHR Developments.
A superb time of 1m 23.060s gave Pattison pole for the opening race by half a second, with his second best time also putting him on pole for race two.
Bushell meanwhile made it a Pyro one-two for race one, rewarding the team after a busy couple of weeks fixing his Clio after his dramatic incident at Donington Park last time out.
Local driver James Colburn took a seasons best third on the grid, a charge in the second half of the session resulting in him finishing only 0.062s slower than Bushell.
Rob Smith took fourth meanwhile, completing a sensational session for Pyro, while Colburn’s Westbourne Motorsport team-mate Devon Modell took fifth to cap off a positive outing for them.
Ash Hand was the quickest of the SV Racing/KX Akademy quartet in sixth, with Donington double winner Josh Cook seventh. Ant Whorton-Eales and championship leader Alex Morgan were ninth and tenth respectively behind Paul Rivett, with Jordan Stilp completing the grid in eleventh.
Behind Pattison on the grid for race two will line up Colburn, Bushell, Modell, Cook,Hand, Smith, Whorton-Eales, Rivett, Morgan and Stilp.
Full qualifying results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/toca/2014/141803cli.pdf
