Morgan denies Tordoff to snatch maiden BTCC pole

Mac Tools Racing's Adam Morgan has secured his first ever British Touring Car Championship pole position after snatching the top-spot away from Sam Tordoff at Rockingham.

Having suffered a double DNF last time out at Snetterton, the Mercedes A-Class driver bounced back to form in triumphant fashion after producing a lap good enough for pole position during the final sequence of runs.

The Motorbase Performance Ford Focus RS of Tordoff had led the timesheets with a 1 minute 23.0s effort, following the first of runs.

However, while Tordoff managed to lower the benchmark and improve upon his own effort, Morgan subsequently eclipsed the Ford driver's time after posting a 1 minute 22.835s lap.

Tordoff still managed to secure second position on the front row, while BTCC rookie Dan Cammish was the top factory Honda effort in third.

Cammish was the first of the pole position candidates to set a representative time with a 1 minute 23.086s lap early in the session. But the Team Dynamics was unable to improve on that effort throughout the remainder of the 30-minute shootout.

Having shone in both free practice sessions, Mike Bushell successfully replicated that form to secure his best ever qualifying run in fourth position aboard his Team HARD prepared Volkswagen CC.

Dan Lloyd leads an all BTC Norlin Racing third row ahead of Chris Smiley in fifth and sixth.

Motorbase Performance's Tom Chilton maintains his current run of consistency in seventh, ahead of WIX Racing's Brett Smith in eighth.

Two-time BTCC champion Jason Plato out-qualified his Subaru team mate Ashley Sutton for the first time this season to lead an all BMR fifth row in ninth and tenth.

Meanwhile, the main title protagonists all struggled further down the order with championship leader Tom Ingram starting directly behind his main Colin Turkington in 13th position.