CHILTON ACHIEVES FIRST EVER POLE ON BTCC RETURN

Chilton, driving a Honda Civic for the Arena team, achieved his first ever BTCC pole position in a time of one minute, 17.011 seconds in today’s (Saturday) qualifying session.

Chilton, who missed the championship’s opening round at Donington Park three weeks ago, was delighted with his performance on his return. “What a result,” said the 20-year-old. “I really didn’t think I’d be this fast first time back.

“But this is a very ballsy circuit and I love driving on the edge. Winning tomorrow will be tough because the high speeds take a lot out of the tyres over a race distance. The three races should be very exciting but also unpredictable.”

SEAT’s former champion Jason Plato will start second alongside Chilton after setting a time of 1m17.567s. Vauxhall’s young signing Colin Turkington, aged 23, will start third. Turkington was only 0.001s faster than fourth-placed Dan Eaves in his Team Halfords Honda Integra.

But championship leaders Matt Neal and Yvan Muller, whose cars are carrying considerable success ballast, have work to do. Neal, in his Team Halfords Honda, was only sixth fastest – a second slower than Chilton – with Muller fifth in Vauxhall’s Astra Sport Hatch.

Muller, the 2003 champion and who is the most successful BTCC driver around Thruxton in recent years, was at a loss to explain his lack of speed. The Frenchman said: “Clearly there is a problem but we don’t know what it is so fixing it for the races will be difficult. Obviously, the ballast we have doesn’t help but we’re still at a bit of a loss.”

Local hero Rob Collard, from Eversley, Hants was eighth fastest and was prevented from pushing for a faster time in the later stages of the session when his WSR team’s MG stopped at the side of the track with a wheel missing.