Mikey Doble took qualifying race victory for the British Touring Car Championship round at Silverstone after overcoming early leader Daryl De Leon.
Doble is always an ace at the Silverstone National Circuit, and his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon was unencumbered by any TOCA Turbo Boost restriction. The Surrey man fancied his chances for the weekend and, sure enough, took pole position in qualifying.
De Leon topped the other group to qualify his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport on the front row, despite a left-rear tyre failure sending him to the pits and necessitating a late charge to rescue his session.
As expected, the rear-wheel drive of the BMW catapulted De Leon into the lead at the start, but Doble kept himself in contention and then, on the third lap, moved into the lead on the Wellington Straight.
Doble’s PMR Audi team-mate Aiden Moffat had moved past Tom Chilton’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback for third on lap three, and the leading quartet remained in close formation until the safety car appeared in the middle of the race, after series newcomer Osamu Kawashima’s bid to remain within three seconds of the pace proved beyond him and he speared into the Becketts gravel.
The race restarted with seven laps remaining, and Doble then extended a gap of over two seconds. On the penultimate lap, both Moffat and Chilton found their way past De Leon, meaning Doble headed a PMR Audi 1-2.
Photo by: JEP
“It’s Silverstone – it’s what I do!” joked Doble, whose win comes back-to-back with his victory in the finale last time out at Croft. “It’s amazing, two on the bounce. I’m just in a really good place. The car was good, and I feel good.
“Momentum is definitely a thing in motorsport, and we’ve carried that momentum forward into a victory today at Silverstone. Massive congratulations to Aiden as well – it’s the first time we’ve had the luck to both compete at the front on the same day.”
Charles Rainford looked set to make it two WSR BMWs in the top five, but two laps from home he lost positions to Dan Lloyd’s Restart Racing Hyundai and the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Josh Cook. Sixth place for Cook was the highest result for anyone not running the full 20 seconds per lap of TTB, with the Toyota on 15s.
Behind Rainford, Adam Morgan got his CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon to the finish in eighth place, on 9s per lap of TTB, ahead of the twin Laser Tools-liveried Speedworks Toyotas of Aron Taylor-Smith and Gordon Shedden.
With the TTB reductions having such a significant effect at this circuit, it was always going to be a tough day for championship top three Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish and Tom Ingram.
Ingram, on 5s per lap of TTB, was classified 12th in his Excelr8 Hyundai. Sutton’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium was clipped into a spin at Copse Corner on the opening lap, but he recovered on 1s per lap of TTB to 14th, one spot ahead of team-mate Cammish, who was on 3s of boost.
BTCC Silverstone – Qualifying race results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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