BTCC pole for Shedden; Rory impressesposted in BTCC04 | 06 | 2011

FIFER GORDON SHEDDEN bagged his second British Touring Car Championship pole position in succession when he topped the timesheets in his Honda Racing Civic at Oulton Park in Cheshire.

The 31-year-old from Dalgety Bay, who started from pole last time out at Thruxton before going on to score a win and a second place, lapped the 2.3-mile circuit in 1min 27.355secs.

The Scot's team-mate, double BTCC champ Matt Neal who leads this year's title race by 12 points, was 0.150secs slower but starts tomorrow's opener in the triple-header alongside Shedden on the front row of the grid.

England's Andy Neate completed the top three in his Ford Focus ahead of the Chevrolet of defending champ Jason Plato in fourth. The top 10 were covered by 1.090secs.

"Another terrific day for Honda Racing," Shedden beamed afterwards. "We've now had the fastest car on the grid right through the opening four meetings of the season, and to do it again with another reduction in turbo-boost just shows how good the car, and the team is.

"Hopefully now we can turn this pole position into a flag-to-flag win in the opening race tomorrow, as I managed at Thruxton, then go out and do exactly the same in the second race."

Inverness-based Dave Newsham, last yea's Clio Cup champ, qualified his Seat Ibiza 16th on the grid on his first BTCC outing in the car, just four places and 0.239s behind his more experienced team-mate Tom Boardman.

In the Porsche Carrera Cup Pro-Am1, Dunfermline 22-year-old Rory Butcher will start his Celtic Speed racer from third in the opening race at Outlon Park. The talented youngster's team-mate, Edinburgh's George Brewster, lines up on pole position in the Pro-Am2 class.

Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/scotcars

Jim McGill