BTCC: Charles Rainford takes pole position in ‘Race to Pole’ at Snetterton

BMW’s Charles Rainford takes his first pole position of the season at Snetterton in excellent ‘Race to Pole’ fight.

Group One of Qualifying saw Tom Chilton take the top spot for much of the session after an excellent set of qualifying laps that left him untouchable for the rest of the session. Meanwhile, Josh Cook managed to pull his way into second ahead of NAPA’s Dan Cammish and the Mercedes of Daniel Rowbottom. His Plato Racing teammate, Adam Morgan would complete the top five in the group ahead of Sam Osborne and Aiden Moffat. Lewis Selby would qualify eighth in the group ahead of a struggling Ricky Collard whose car was not nearly as planted as his Hyundai teammate while Max Buxton would round out the group in eleventh.

Group Two would see a lot more chopping and changing early on with Rainford, Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton, all fighting it out for the fastest time of the session as well as aiming to beat Chilton’s time in Group One. But it was Rainford who managed to pull the tiniest of margins over his rivals taking the top time in Group Two. However, it was not enough to top Chilton in the first group leaving them to start on the even numbered side of the grid. Ingram would qualify second in the group ahead of James Dorlin and Sutton while Daryl De Leon completed the top five. The second half of the group would see Dexter Patterson qualify ahead of teammate Mikey Doble as well as the two Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport Toyota’s of Gordon Shedden and Árón Taylor-Smith while Nic Hamilton completed the group.

The Qualifying Race would see Chilton get a solid start managing to keep the rear-wheel-drive BMW behind initially before going side-by-side into the first couple of corners, making it very difficult for the for Rainford to get by, keeping him to the outside as much as possible in order keep that race lead. However, Chilton would push Rainford wide onto the grass briefly at the exit of Hamilton, but Rainford kept it planted and managed to take the inside into the following corner to take the lead while Chilton got shuffled out of place by Cook who took second away from him as well. He managed to keep side by side with Ingram down the Bentley Straight before Sutton came charging into the battle making it three wide before taking the position from both Team Vertu Hyundai’s. Ingram would finally get passed Chilton a few corners later before Cammish would drop Chilton one more place before being given a 5 second penalty for being out of position in what became a disastrous start.

Cook would apply pressure to Rainford but was unable to create an opportunity to pass as Rainford continued on faultless. Sutton would struggle to keep pace due to having less boost before going off at the final corner and onto the grass, coming straight into the pits with a puncture dropping him to the back of the field along with Taylor-Smith who had come in as well.

Collard would manage to pull himself into the points moving up to thirteenth place on lap six passing Shedden on the run down to Nelson taking the outside line to complete the move and start trying to catch Patterson in twelfth. Further up into the top ten, Dorlin would pass Moffat for ninth place at the same place on the following lap moving him into the podium places of the Independent runners.

Out front, Rainford had dropped Cook by two seconds and crossed the line to take victory in the ‘Race to Pole’ giving himself a great opportunity for Sunday. Cook would finish second ahead of Ingram and Cammish while Chilton would finish fifth on track, but that penalty would drop him down to eighth. The Plato Racing Mercedes of Rowbottom as well as De Leon and Morgan would benefit due to the penalty. Dorlin would complete finish ahead of Osborne who retired on the last lap pushing him back down the order.