|
Tom Onslow-Cole will line up on the seventh row for Round
28 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton tomorrow
after posting the 13th quickest time in today’s qualifying session.
Despite going into qualifying with high hopes of repeating his seventh quickest
time in second free practice, the 20 year-old Team RAC driver couldn’t
benefit from the improving track conditions.
With more grip going down as the day progressed, Tom was
quick out of the blocks to top the time sheets early on in the session.
However while a number of his rivals took advantage of slipstreaming their
team-mates around the high-speed Hampshire circuit, Tom was unable to get into
a position to follow teamster Colin Turkington, thus losing him crucial tenths.
Despite a determined late effort, Tom could manage no
higher than a spot just outside the top ten leaving him with work to do, but
confident in the race pace that has already taken him into the winners circle
this season.
“Things didn’t go exactly to plan in
qualifying. We’d set a quick pace in free practice and I was
confident of being able to reproduce that in qualifying but sadly the time just
didn’t come. Now we’ll have a look through the data from the
session and see if we can find some time ahead of the races tomorrow.
“Thruxton is my favourite track though and one that
has always given me good results so hopefully we can make up some ground in the
races tomorrow. The BMW has great race pace so if I can capitalise on the
fantastic start offered by the rear-wheel-drive then I should be able to finish
in the top ten.”
The three races tomorrow will take place at 11.00, 13.10
and 16.20 and will be shown live on ITV.
Qualifying for Round 28
1. Tom Chilton VX Racing Vauxhall Vectra 1min 17.269secs
2. Fabrizio Giovanardi VX Racing Vauxhall Vectra 1min
17.439secs
3. Alain Menu VX Racing Vauxhall Vectra 1min 17.611secs
4. Jason Plato SEAT Sport UK SEAT Leon 1min
17.856secs
5. Matt Neal Team Halfords Honda Civic 1min 17.887secs
6. Colin Turkington Team RAC BMW 320si E90 1min 17.929secs
13. Tom Onslow-Cole Team RAC BMW 320si E90 1min 18.811secs
Championship positions after 27 rounds:
1 Jason Plato 265
2 Fabrizio Giovanardi 256
3 Gordon Shedden 188
4 Matt Neal 172
5 Colin Turkington 171
6 Darren Turner 155
7 Mat Jackson 132
8 Mike Jordan 127
9 Tom Chilton 115
10 Tom Onslow-Cole 107
|
