TCT: Neal Takes First Series Pole at Oulton Park

The first pole of the Dunlop Tyres Touring Car Championship went to Henry Neal. The Team Dynamics entry will line-up in the best position ahead of the first race in the afternoon.

Neal, driving the Honda Civic Type R, pitted with four minutes left of the session, having taken the best out of his Dunlop tyres. It did not matter though, with the competition unable to top his 1min 44.046.

The track was still damp off line after rain in the morning, but with the sun peeking through the clouds, the field ventured out on track for their first qualifying of the year. Henry Neal remained quiet during free practice, but with the bullet between his teeth was the first to drop below the testing benchmark, with a 1min 44.894.

First man to beat it was Ollie Taylor, the defending TCR UK-vice champion was looking for a strong result on his return to Oulton Park and was quickly bettered by Carl Swift. The Endurance Financial Racing driver set back-to-back fast laps, before Neal shocked the grid, by dropping the benchmark by over six tenth of a second.

Behind Neal, the top TCR entry of Ollie Taylor lined up second. The Maximum Motorsport driver has switched to the Cupra TCR for this year and proved he’d lost none of his pace over winter. His best time a 1min 44.592, over half a second behind the polesitter.

Practice pace setter Swift, will line up third, despite setting a lap almost a second quicker than the early morning. Sunny Wong completes a TCR-filled second row with a 1min 45.728. Alex Day in the Audi A4 will line up fifth ahead of the #99 DAT Racing TCT. Guy Colclough, driving the Dat’s Cupra TCR DGS had been a last minute entry, but made a strong series debut, despite an extinguisher issue in practice hampering early running.

The first race begins at 14:05 UK Time.