Jason Plato edged out Gordon Shedden to take pole position for the BTCC round at the new Snetterton 300 circuit.
Chevrolet driver pushes to the limit to take top spot at Snetterton 300
Jason Plato edged out Gordon Shedden to take pole position for the British Touring Car Championship round at the new Snetterton 300 circuit.
Plato produced a brilliant lap of 1 minute 58.691 seconds in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze to take top spot ahead of Honda Racing Team driver Shedden by just 0.025s.
Their respective team-mates Alex MacDowall and Matt Neal qualified third and fourth, with the former in the running for pole before his car dramatically caught fire in the pit-lane.
Neal's time, just over a quarter of a second behind Plato, was impressive as it was set in a Honda Civic carrying the maximum 45 kilograms of success ballast.
"That was the limit - absolutely the limit," Plato said of his pole position lap.
"But pole is everything to us as it gives us a chance to take it to the turbo cars like the Hondas. I can stick my elbows out a bit from there.
"But it's only pole for the first race and there are three to get through - it's going to be a massive fight."
Shedden added: "There was nothing left in the tank, but the front row is still pretty good. Snetterton's been a happy hunting ground for me in the past and a nice big bag of points is my goal tomorrow."
James Nash completed out the top five ahead of Tom Chilton while Mat Jackson, who is just nine points behind Neal in the championship standings, could only manage 13th.
