Home NEWS by SERIES WTCC BTCC : 2011 Croft - Plato ends Honda British touring car dominance with pole
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BTCC : 2011 Croft - Plato ends Honda British touring car dominance with pole E-mail
Saturday, 18 June 2011 15:16
British Touring Cars result and report from Croft - Jason Plato has ended Honda’s domination of qualifying in the Dunlop British Touring Car Championship with pole position in his Chevrolet at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire this afternoon.

Reigning champion Plato set the pole time in 1m24.839s in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze to grab top spot on the starting grid for the first of tomorrow’s three races.

Matt Neal who leads the series was second in his Honda Racing Team Civic and Robert Collard third in his WSR BMW, Collard had looked set for the first pole of his BTCC career until his time was beaten by both Plato and Neal late on.

Raised in Newcastle Plato very much regards Croft as a home circuit and said: “I gave it the full berries there, just how a proper qualifying lap should be. But I’m aware my car has a fair bit less success ballast in it compared to Matt’s so let’s see how things play out tomorrow.

“Matt and I will need to make our cars pretty wide off the line because the BMW’s rear wheel drive gives it an advantage at the start and Rob will be feeling punchy.”

Worcestershire racer Neal, like Plato with two BTCC titles already to his name, added: “That was everything we’ve got, I could not have made the car go any quicker in qualifying. I’d prefer it to stay dry tomorrow, in wet conditions our turbo engine will chew up the wet weather tyres more than the normally aspirated cars.”

Collard, from Hampshire, commented: “I’m delighted to be third but still gutted not to get the pole, I really thought we’d got it then. Jason’s right about him and Matt needing wide cars at the start tomorrow, too right I’ll be trying to get past them into the first corner. Rain would be a bit of a saviour for us. I had the car on the ragged edge there in qualifying and can’t do that every lap tomorrow. If it’s wet then the BMW will be much closer to the Hondas and Chevrolets.”

Leading BTCC qualifying times, Croft Sat 18 June (provisional):
Pos. Class. Driver Car Time Laps Gap Speed
1 1 Jason Plato Chevrolet Cruze 1'24.839s 11 90.17mph
2 2 Matt Neal Honda Civic 1'25.211s 15 +0.372s 89.77mph
3 8 I Robert Collard BMW 320si E90 1'25.391s 14 +0.552s 89.58mph
4 20 Alex MacDowall Chevrolet Cruze 1'25.547s 14 +0.708s 89.42mph
5 77 I Andrew Jordan Vauxhall Vectra 1'25.575s 13 +0.736s 89.39mph
6 14 I James Nash Vauxhall Vectra 1'25.656s 14 +0.817s 89.31'ph
7 52 Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 1'25.674s 15 +0.835s 89.29mph
8 5 I Tom Chilton Global Ford Focus 1'25.820s 15 +0.981s 89.14mph
9 7 I Mat Jackson Ford Focus ST 1'25.928s 17 +1.089s 89.02mph
10 29 I Paul O'Neill Chevrolet Cruze 1'25.991s 15 +1.152s 88.96mph
11 13 I Rob Austin Audi A4 1'26.189s 15 +1.350s 88.75mph
12 22 I Tom Boardman SEAT Leon 1'26.247s 16 +1.408s 88.69mph
13 18 I Nick Foster BMW 320si E90 1'26.314s 16 +1.475s 88.63mph
14 17 I David Newsham SEAT Leon 1'26.505s 15 +1.666s 88.43mph
15 4 I Tom OnslowCole Ford Focus 1'26.532s 12 +1.693s 88.40mph
16 55 I Jeff Smith Vauxhall Vectra 1'26.624s 15 +1.785s 88.31'ph
17 11 I Frank Wrathall Toyota Avensis 1'26.963s 14 +2.124s 87.96mph
18 44 I Andy Neate Global Ford Focus 1'27.146s 15 +2.307s 87.78mph
19 34 I Tony Gilham Vauxhall Vectra 1'27.192s 17 +2.353s 87.73mph
20 43 I Lea Wood Honda Integra 1'27.632s 14 +2.793s 87.29mph
21 99 I Shaun Hollamby VW Golf MK5 1'28.215s 14 +3.376s 86.72mph
22 66 I Liam Griffin Ford Focus ST 1'28.456s 16 +3.617s 86.48mph
23 28 I John George Chevrolet Cruze 1'28.732s 15 +3.893s 86.21'ph
24 78 I Chris James Chevrolet Lacetti 1'29.977s 15 +5.138s 85.02mph

I = Independent

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