Team BMW Ensure Front Row Lockout as Turkington Bags Pole at Brands

Photo courtesy of British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)

It was to be a day to remember for Team BMW today as a sun-drenched Brands Hatch welcomed the British Touring Car Championship for Round 2 of this year’s competition, with four-time champion Colin Turkington bagging his 28th career pole by topping today’s Quick Six.

Earlier in the day, there was hope for the boys at Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing as Aron Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble achieved the top two times in FP1.

Later in the day, NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Rowbottom was setting the pace in FP2 before his ‘off’ resulted in the session being red-flagged. After all was said and done, it was the turn of Team Bristol Street Motors’ own journeyman Tom Chilton to achieve the fastest lap.
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This weekend’s Quick Six qualifying session would mark the first this season where hybrid allocation (based on championship standings) would play a factor, as well as the new tyre choice regulation.
 
Quick Six Qualifying Round One – Group One

GROUP: Colin Turkington, Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish, Sam Osborne, Ronan Pearson, Rob Huff, Aron Taylor-Smith, Mikey Doble, Tom Chilton, Daryl DeLeon.

The rear-wheel-drive machine of Team BMW set the early pace in this session, as expected, with Turkington turning in the top time to begin with, but the rest of the pack came alive around the six-minute mark.

All eyes were on Ash Sutton who was at a decided disadvantage in terms of hybrid deployment, having only 3 seconds per lap at his disposal. But with 4 minutes remaining, Sutton showed how his driving talent could also not be denied by briefly leaping to second in the standings, in a lively first session which also saw former WTCC champion Rob Huff give a decent performance in his first active qualifying session after not being allowed to compete last time out at Donington.

Turkington finished the session with the quickest lap, ahead of Huff and NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish.

After impressing in FP1 earlier in the day, it was to be disappointment for the Power Maxed Racing team as neither Taylor-Smith nor Doble could make it to the second round.
 
QUICK SIX: Colin Turkington, Rob Huff, Dan Cammish, Ronan Pearson, Tom Chilton, Ash Sutton
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OUT: Mike Doble, Aron Taylor-Smith, Sam Osborne, Daryl DeLeon

​Quick Six Qualifying Round One – Group Two

GROUP: Adam Morgan, Jake Hill, Nick Halstead, Dan Rowbottom, Andrew Watson, Tom Ingram, Josh Cook, Aidan Moffat, Chris Smiley, Scott Sumpton.
 
Similar to the previous group, it was Team BMW that were out of the blocks early with Adam Morgan and Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill trading the quick laps.

With around 4 minutes remaining, all eyes were on TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Andrew Watson, who was still languishing in the bottom four, having not yet set a competitive lap to the others. With 2 minutes left on the clock, Watson leapt to 7th place, just sky of the important Quick Six, just behind Donington race winner Aidan Moffat.

By the final minute of the session, Watson set a personal (and briefly, ultimate) best sector to leapfrog into 2nd place behind Adam Morgan, knocking Moffat out of the top six in the process. Despite continuing to push for the remainder of the time left, Moffat had little chance of recovering and was unable to progress to the second round.

In comments to ITV Sport afterwards, Moffat made no secret of his frustration at his team for failing to learn from issues identified earlier in the day during free practice, and “wasting time and tyres” when it counted.
 
QUICK SIX: Adam Morgan, Josh Cook, Andrew Watson, Dan Rowbottom, Jake Hill, Tom Ingram

OUT: Aidan Moffat, Chris Smiley, Scott Sumpton, Nick Halstead

Photo courtesy of British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)

Quick Six Qualifying Round Two – The Top 12

GROUP: Colin Turkington, Rob Huff, Dan Cammish, Ronan Pearson, Tom Chilton, Ash Sutton, Adam Morgan, Josh Cook, Andrew Watson, Dan Rowbottom, Jake Hill, Tom Ingram
 
The main discussion point heading into Q2 was how top title rival Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton would fare due to their lack of hybrid deployment available, having only 1 second and 3 seconds per lap respectively. However, despite appearing to hold back in the first half of the session, Sutton showed once again that it is not all down to the power of the boost as he leapt into second in the standings with 4 minutes remaining.

The biggest surprises of Q2, however, were to be seen at the back of the pack as current championship leader Ingram struggled to turn in a time that would place him higher than 7th in the group, and thus out of the running for the vital Quick Six.

Behind Ingram, though, Donington double-podium finisher Jake Hill was the biggest eye-raiser as he finished last of the pack, citing a “general lack of grip”, and joined Ingram on the sidelines for the final session.

In a turnaround of fortunes for LKQ EURO CAR PARTS with SYNETIQ after Moffat’s exit in the previous session, team-mate Josh Cook topped the times, whilst Ash Sutton finished as NAPA Racing UK’s highest qualifier in third, with three of the four Ford Focus ST’s making up the official Quick Six for the final round.
 
OUT: Tom Ingram, Rob Huff, Ronan Pearson, Tom Chilton, Andrew Watson, Jake Hill

Photo courtesy of British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)

Quick Six Qualifying – Final Round
 
GROUP: Colin Turkington, Adam Morgan, Dan Rowbottom, Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish, Josh Cook

Josh Cook was the only man preventing this Quick Six finale from being an all-out BMX versus Ford affair, with the remainder of the group representing the Team BMW and NAPA Racing UK paddocks.

However, the pace and consistency of the BMW 330e M Sport’s of West Surrey Racing could not be denied as it was Turkington and Morgan who topped the boards once more to ensure a WSR lock-out at the front of the grid for Race 1 tomorrow.

With the tyres appearing to have run their course, and both knowing that they had to run the same set out for the first race tomorrow, both Cook and Sutton retired to the pits before the chequered flag was waved, accepting fifth and fourth places respectively.

Dan Cammish will line up alongside team-mate Sutton in third, both NAPA Fords on the second row behind the BMWs for Sunday’s opening race.
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Knowing the BMW’s long-standing reputation for quick off-the-line starts, it will be all eyes on Turkington and Morgan to make an early break tomorrow and get the best possible results for West Surrey Racing from the off.

Quick Six Qualifying - Results

1 20 Colin TURKINGTON Team BMW 47.875
2 33 Adam MORGAN Team BMW 47.925
3 27 Dan CAMMISH NAPA Racing UK 47.941
4 1 Ashley SUTTON NAPA Racing UK 48.041
5 66 Josh COOK LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ 48.085
6 32 Daniel ROWBOTTOM NAPA Racing UK 48.208

You can catch all of the live coverage of Rounds 4, 5 & 6 from Brands Hatch on ITV4 and ITVX tomorrow from 11:00am.

Chris Tetreault-Blay
​BTCC Journalist @ F1 Journal