Jack Goff came on on top of a dramatic qualifying session at Brands Hatch, scoring a third pole position of the season while Colin Turkington struggled with electrical issues plaguing his BMW, leaving the championship challenger far down the order for race one tomorrow.
Goff followed up his impressive pace in second free practice with a comfortable pole position, taking advantage of rapidly drying conditions to set an unassailable time late in the session.
The Eurotech driver was quick throughout, but his task was made harder by two separate red flag incidents. His team-mate Brett Smith caused the first, running straight on at the entry to Druids and glancing the barriers, leaving his Honda Civic beached in the gravel.
The second, much lengthier red flag period was courtesy of Josh Cook, who ran wide at the exit of Clearways and went off into the barriers at Clark Curve, leaving his car stranded.
When the session resumed, times quickly fell as the early rain abated, with a plethora of drivers cycling through the top spots until second place landed upon Aiden Moffat, continuing his strong form from the first free practice session this morning.
Ash Sutton set up his charge for a first BTCC title with the third fastest time, though a poor run through the Grand Prix loop through his final attempt ruined a lap which until then had been good enough to beat Goff.
There was misery for his title rival Colin Turkington however, who could only muster the 17th quickest time as BMW struggled. Having lost team-mate Rob Collard before the session began, Turkington’s car suffered an electrical failure as the first red flag fell.
West Surrey Racing were left to frantically resolve the issue, and aided by the second red flag period, were able to send him out halfway through the resumed session. While the electrical issue had been fixed, the BMWs were still devoid of pace, as team-mate Andrew Jordan went one hundredth of a second slower in eighteenth place.
A gap of thirteen places to Turkington behind leaves Sutton sitting pretty in the title fight, and best of the rest behind the Subaru was Rob Austin, taking his ageing Toyota Avensis to fourth in its final BTCC weekend.
The Power Maxed Vauxhalls demonstrated the same form that earned Tom Chilton a podium at the opening race meeting of the season around the Brands Hatch Indy configuration, with Chilton going fifth quickest.
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