Tom Chilton claimed pole position for the first of tomorrow’s three races at Knockhill as he lapped the circuit in a best time of 52.999 seconds.

Chilton continued his good form from the two practice sessions held earlier in the day, when he had been second fastest in both, and after going quickest just before the first red flag of the session, with just over ten minutes gone, he never rescinded top spot, instead consistently improving his time in a dominant display that was hugely reminiscent of some of his displays last season. Not only was it Chilton’s first pole position of 2011 but it also marked the first pole for the new Global Ford Focus since it debuted in the championship at the opening event of the year at Brands Hatch in April.

Second fastest was Honda Racing’s Matt Neal, who is racing this weekend despite breaking his hand during a martial arts exam just three weeks ago. He edged out arguably the two most impressive performers of the session, Frank Wrathall and Rob Austin who will line up third and fourth tomorrow on an all NGTC spec second row.

Free practice pace setter Gordon Shedden could only manage fifth which was somewhat of a surprise, ahead of a much more competitive
looking Jason Plato who put behind him two off the pace practice sessions to qualify sixth.

Championship leader Mat Jackson managed a creditable seventh with maximum ballast on board to split the Chevrolets as Alex MacDowall managed the eighth fastest time. Tom Onslow-Cole and Rob Collard rounded out the top ten.

As already alluded to, it was a disjointed session with the red flag coming out on three occasions. The first interruption came after ten
minutes when John George’s GoMobileUK.com with Tech-Speed Chevrolet ground to a halt, ending his participation in qualifying. The second red flag came just five minutes later when Andy Neate spun into the gravel, and Paul O’Neill in the second of the GoMobileUK.com with Tech-Speed Chevrolets caused the final disruption when he spun off the circuit and damaged the rear end of his car with just seven minutes left on the clock.

None of this was enough to upset Chilton’s rhythm and he will look to convert his pole into race victory tomorrow.

The first race of the day begins at 11:45 tomorrow and will be shown live on ITV4.

For the full qualifying classification, see here:http://www.tsl-timing.com/toca/2011/113503trg.pdf

Photo Credit: Jonathan Hobley

Tom Surgay is the Porsche Carrera Cup GB correspondant for 2011. Tom's currently studying English Language with Journalism at Huddersfield University. You can contact him at tom@btcccrazy.co.uk or on twitter @tsurgay.