BTCC: Cammish snatches first pole position from Sutton and Ingram

An intense qualifying session saw shock eliminations and a close battle for pole between the Ford's and Hyundai's.

The first qualifying group saw Dan Cammish take the top spot ahead of 2022 Champion Tom Ingram and NAPA teammate Daniel Rowbottom. They would be joined by Mikey Doble, Charles Rainford and Árón Taylor-Smith in advancing to the second round of qualifying.

A shocking first round elimination was three time champion Gordon Shedden who just missed out in 7th in the group. Another shock was Adam Morgan who seemed right at home in the Hyundai across testing and practice before ending up at the bottom end of the timesheets at the end of his qualifying group.

The second group saw four-time champion Ash Sutton on form as he went fastest ahead of Hyundai's Tom Chilton and BMW's Jake Hill. Josh Cook would be the lead Independent driver in the group ahead of Restart Racing's Daniel Lloyd and Toyota's new signee Ronan Pearson who all make it through to the next session.

Sam Osborne would just miss out on advancing to the next session but would pip James Dorlin and Daryl DeLeon by sessions end.

The second part of qualifying would be even more shocking than the group stage of qualifying. Sutton would go fastest ahead of Ingram and Rowbottom. The three would be joined by Cammish and Chilton making that two Team Vertu's and two NAPA cars in the final part of qualifying. The five of them would be joined by Pearson in his Toyota as the young up and comer has got immediately comfortable with his new machinery and as his experience grows, so does his speed.

Cook and Hill would be shockingly eliminated from qualifying as they just missed out by only a few hundredths of a second.

The final part of qualifying saw Tom Chilton lose power and be unable to partake in the rest of the session leaving the other 5 driver just over 4 minutes to fight over pole. Sutton jumped straight on it taking it provisionally before Cammish snatched it away from him with a 1:07.659. By the end of the session, Cammish claimed pole by just 11 thousandths of a second over Sutton and just 39 thousandths over Ingram. Rowbottom would finish the session in 4th ahead of Pearson who starts an astonishing 5th place.

With the grid set for the first round of the season, an exciting Sunday of action will take place with some drivers very much out of position.