Turkington back on top with impressive Knockhill pole

Team BMW's Colin Turkington re-ignites his BTCC title challenge after claiming pole position for Sunday's opening race at Knockhill.

Simon Evans

14 Aug 2021

iColin Turkington (GBR) - Team BMW BMW 330i M Sport
© JEP

Team BMW's Colin Turkington has re-ignited his British Touring Car Championship challenge after securing an important pole position at Knockhill ahead of Sunday's opening race.

Having endured a torrid last couple of meetings at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park, the four-time champion finds himself languishing down in ninth in the drivers' standings, almost 40-points adrift of reigning champion and current points leader Ash Sutton.

As virtue of his current championship reckoning, Turkington made the most of running with minimal success ballast by powering to the top of the timesheets after a late-session duel with BTC Racing's Senna Proctor.

At one point, it was Proctor who looked poised to take back-to-back pole positions for the first time in his BTCC career after dipping below Turkington's earlier benchmark by just 0.025s.

However, Turkington wasn't to be denied and the West Surrey Racing driver duly moved back ahead of the Proctor/Honda Civic Type-R combination after setting a 50.836s lap around the infamous Scottish circuit.

Practice pace-setter Chris Smiley made a late charge up the timing screens to snatch the third fastest time on his final flying lap to qualifying as the top Hyundai runner with title challenger Tom Ingram qualifying ninth fastest.

BTC Racing's Josh Cook joins Smiley on the second row in fourth position, ahead of MB Motorsport's Jake Hill, who completed the top-five race one grid order in fifth.

Laser Tools Racing's Ash Sutton survived an off-track skirmish on his way to setting the sixth fastest time aboard his Infiniti Q50 machine, directly ahead of his team mate and home hero Aiden Moffat in seventh.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher followed his compatriot with the eighth fastest time, while Ingram and Tom Oliphant completed the remainder of the top-ten race one grid order in ninth and tenth.

Surprisingly, Gordon Shedden ended qualifying the slowest of the Scottish contingent after narrowly missing out on the top-ten by just 0.019s in eleventh.