Turkington, whose earlier pole place within the sequence got here again in August 2022 at Snetterton, ended up in a battle with the sister West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Adam Morgan, whose solely BTCC pole was at Rockingham in 2018 in his Ciceley Mercedes days.
With simply seven seconds of further hybrid and turbo enhance allowed attributable to his pre-weekend championship place of fourth, and with Morgan exterior the highest seven so allowed the complete 15s, Turkington was up towards it – particularly with a doubling within the enhance surge for 2024.
Each had topped their respective Q1 periods, earlier than Josh Cook leapt to the fore in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport in Q2.
However Prepare dinner didn’t have sufficient when it mattered, and it was Morgan who led the way in which early doorways, earlier than Turkington eclipsed the red-headed Lancastrian by 0.050 seconds.
“It was fairly sudden,” mentioned Turkington. “I used to be pondering if I made it into the quick six for Q3, I’d be pretty pleased with that.
“We took the 5 minutes in between every session to maintain nudging the automobile to the place we wish it.
“It’s nice to have two BMWs on the entrance row – it bodes very well for tomorrow.”
Tom Ingram, Bristol Avenue Motors with EXCELR8 Hyundai i30 N Fastback
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The brand new enhance laws appeared to have labored a deal with in Q1, with championship chief Tom Ingram, on one second of hybrid, and runner-up Ash Sutton, on three, each squeaking by way of their teams on the bubble in sixth place.
However in some way reigning champion Sutton stomped in an astonishing time in Q2 to take his NAPA-liveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST into the Fast Six in third place.
Sutton may solely repeat that point within the closing shootout, the place he was leapfrogged by team-mate Dan Cammish, who took third place on 13s of enhance and completed simply 0.066s away from Turkington’s pole time.
Prepare dinner ended up fifth, whereas Dan Rowbottom was the third of the Alliance Fords within the shootout in sixth.
Ingram fell on the second hurdle in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, ending up eighth in Q2 and pipped within the closing phases of that session by the Speedworks Toyota of Andrew Watson.
Ingram was instantly adopted by team-mates Ronan Pearson and Tom Chilton, who rounded out the highest 10.
The opposite drivers to make it into Q2 have been Rob Huff (Speedworks Toyota) and Jake Hill (WSR BMW), who completed up on the foot of the occasions, Hill on simply 5s of enhance.