Rory Butcher set a blistering lap at a sultry Brands Hatch to put his Ford Focus on pole position for round four of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship. The Scot came out on top of a tight session to give his Motorbase team pole at their home circuit.
Butcher set the benchmark time early in the session, and even though three other drivers got within 0.055 seconds of his time, no one could knock him off the top of the pile.
He said: “I was so focused. I believed going into that session I could fight for pole, I really fired myself up and I think I gave everything on that one lap. I don’t think I had anything else in the tank for the second run; you saw everything there.”
Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Dan Cammish was second fastest despite having to carry 54kg of success ballast courtesy of sitting second in the championship.
He said: It was a great lap from Rory, I gave it everything. I’ve got to be happy; when you’re dragging 54kg round, you’re going to feel it. So I’m really happy to be starting at the front end and it sets us up well for a positive day.”
Butcher’s team mate Ollie Jackson was third, his best ever qualifying performance, ahead of Jake Hill in fourth, who had topped both free practice sessions.
Championship Leader Colin Turkington was fifth fastest despite carrying maximum ballast and will be joined on the third row by team-mate Tom Oliphant who set an identical lap time.
Senna Proctor was seventh as the Excelr8 Hyundai continued to impress, with Tom Ingram eighth in the works Toyota Corolla.
BTC Racing’s Josh Cook and Tom Chilton rounded out the top ten in what was a competitive session.
For the full classification see here.
All three races will be broadcast live on ITV4 tomorrow from 10:20am.
