Andrew Jordan took pole position for the first British Touring Car race of 2013 at Brands Hatch.
In a session threatened by snow, the name at the top of the timesheets changed constantly early on.
The three Honda Civics of Jordan, reigning champion Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, who had an off on cold tyres, each held top spot at one stage.
Shedden moved to pole with 48.669s before Jordan struck back, only for Shedden to record 48.483s, identical to the 2012 pole time.
But Jordan, who was fastest in free practice, then moved to the top with 48.387s.
A snow shower in the last 15 minutes prevented any further improvements, ensuring Jordan will start on pole for the season opener.
“We thought it would come down to the first run,” he said.
Double champion Jason Plato prevented a Honda clean sweep of the top three by pipping Neal to third, almost 0.2s slower than Jordan, in his works MG.
Plato’s new Triple Eight team-mate Sam Tordoff was fifth, while 2012 polesitter Dave Newsham was sixth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis.
Colin Turkington’s BTCC return did not start well. The 2009 champion spun at Druids early on as most tried to warm up their tyres and his new WSR BMW was hit by rookie Jack Goff’s Team Hard Vauxhall Insignia.
“I made the mistake – the rear just snapped away from me,” admitted Turkington after the incident brought out the red flags.
“We’ve had good pace straight out of the box and I think we had good potential for qualifying.”
Fastest WSR BMW was thus Nick Foster, who qualified ninth.
He was helped by Frank Wrathall, who was a constant top-10 threat, being penalised for failing the ride height test and losing his times.
Lea Wood’s Vauxhall Vectra was fastest of the S2000 runners contesting the Jack Sears Trophy, finishing over a second ahead of series returnee James Kaye (AmD VW Golf) and the Motorbase-run Ford Focus of Liam Griffin.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap
1. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda 48.387s
2. Gordon Shedden Honda 48.483s + 0.096s
3. Jason Plato MG 48.571s + 0.184s
4. Matt Neal Honda 48.614s + 0.227s
5. Sam Tordoff MG 48.726s + 0.339s
6. Dave Newsham Speedworks Toyota 48.827s + 0.440s
7. Rob Austin Austin Audi 48.844s + 0.457s
8. Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 48.914s + 0.527s
9. Nick Foster WSR BMW 49.201s + 0.814s
10. Adam Morgan Ciceley Toyota 49.203s + 0.816s
11. Ollie Jackson Speedworks Toyota 49.239s + 0.852s
12. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 49.248s + 0.861s
13. Rob Collard WSR BMW 49.319s + 0.932s
14. Aron Smith Motorbase Ford 49.553s + 1.166s
15. Will Bratt Austin Audi 49.737s + 1.350s
16. Lea Wood Wood Vauxhall* 50.011s + 1.624s
17. Tom Onslow-Cole HARD VW 50.231s + 1.844s
18. James Kaye AmD VW* 51.198s + 2.811s
19. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford* 51.330s + 2.943s
20. Joe Girling Tech-Speed Chevrolet* 51.415s + 3.028s
21. Warren Scott BMR SEAT* 51.439s + 3.052s
22. James Cole HARD Vauxhall 51.453s + 3.066s
23. David Nye Welch Ford* 51.616s + 3.229s
24. Daniel Welch Welch Proton 55.179s + 6.792s
25. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota** -
26. Jack Goff HARD Vauxhall -
27. Colin Turkington WSR BMW -* S2000
** Times deleted as a result of failing ride height test
Brad Keselowski Ruby Tuesday Dodge Carl Edwards Copart Ford Denny Hamlin
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