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Onslow-Cole, who is this weekend celebrating his 21st birthday, set
the pole time in 1m17.165s - an average speed of some 109.91mph in his Vauxhall
Vectra VXR - to beat team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi, the reigning
champion.
"That was a pretty hairy lap - I really couldn't have wrung
much more from the car," said Onslow-Cole, from New Malden.
He added: "I
had the pole at Donington Park two weeks ago, but missed out on the win -
hopefully I can put that right tomorrow, but the most important thing is that I
score well in all three races."
Italian Giovanardi, leading the series
arriving at Thruxton, set a time of 1m17.425s to wind up second fastest overall.
Third was Team Halfords' Gordon Shedden with a time of 1m17.516s.
Sixth
was Giovanardi's nearest championship challenger Jason Plato but there was a
late scare for the former champion when all his times were disallowed after his
SEAT Leon TDI failed a ride height check.
This left him with just three
minutes in which to set a time which was good enough for the third row on
tomorrow's race one starting grid.
BTCC Thruxton
qualifying, leading positions (provisional):
1. Tom
Onslow-Cole (GBR), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra VXR,
1m17.165s
2. Fabrizio
Giovanardi (ITA), VX Racing/Vauxhall Vectra VXR, +0.260s
3. Gordon Shedden
(GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Civic, +0.351s
4. Matt Neal (GBR), VX
Racing/Vauxhall Vectra VXR, +0.360s
5. Tom Chilton (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda
Civic, +0.547s
6. Jason Plato (GBR), SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon TDI,
+0.646s
7. Darren Turner (GBR), SEAT Sport UK, SEAT Leon TDI, +0.682s
8.
Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC/BMW 320si, +0.751s
9. Mike
Jordan (GBR), John Guest Racing/Honda Integra, +0.850s
10. Andrew Jordan
(GBR), John Guest/Honda Integra, +0.863s
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'Birthday boy' Tom Onslow-Cole celebrates a second straight BTCC pole
position at Thruxton 
Gordon
Shedden's Honda prevented a Vauxhall 1-2-3 in qualifying with the 3rd fastest
time
Jason
Plato recovered to grab sixth on the grid after all his times were
disallowed
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