Doble leads Power Maxed one-two in BTCC Silverstone qualifying race

Mikey Doble will start the first of three British Touring Car Championship races on Silverstone's National Circuit on Sunday after winning the qualifying 'Race To Pole' ahead of his LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing teammate Aiden Moffat.

Doble started the RTP from first on the grid after topping the second of two timed qualifying sessions beforehand, but was bested off the line by Group 1 pacesetter Daryl DeLeon who made the most of his BMW's rear-wheel drive to get away well.

The WSR driver didn't break clear though, with Doble remaining on his tail until lap 3 when Doble completed a move for the lead on the Wellington straight having started the move at Becketts. Behind them, Moffat got by third placed Tom Chilton on entry to Becketts to put two Audis into the top-three.

Doble’s qualifying race win – his first since the format was introduced at the start of the season – comes after he won Race 3 at Croft three weeks ago.

“It’s amazing, two on the bounce,” Doble said. “I was just in a really good place. The car was was good and I felt good. It's enjoying the cooler conditions out there today, it’s nice to get our first race to pole victory.

“I think momentum is definitely a thing in motorsport. Obviously, we got that reverse grid win last time out at Croft, and we've carried that momentum forward into a race to pole victory here at Silverstone.

The one-two result with Doble and Moffat is a mammoth one for Power Maxed Racing which was almost wiped out entirely by a fire at its headquarters last season, then built a fleet of new Audi S3 Saloons from scratch in the off-season.

“A massive congratulations to Aidan as well,” Doble said. “We've not always had the best of luck to both perform on the same day this year, but it doesn't get much better than a one-two.

“The car is new, but we won the first race of the season, so it could only really go downhill from there, if I'm honest. But we're starting to put some of those wrongs to rights. Obviously, we're still in a big battle for P4 in the overall championship, got some good points there, [I’m] leading [the] independents [championship]. I really want to consolidate that lead over the course of tomorrow so we can have some fun at Brands Hatch.”

After falling to Doble, DeLeon continued to slip back, with Moffat moving by him to lock in a one-two for Power Maxed. By the end of the race DeLeon had slipped to fourth, with Chilton retaking third late on.

Chilton has switched from the Swindon Powertrain-developed Hyundai engine used by his teammates to the M-Sport developed engine available from the championship organizers TOCA for this weekend. The Ford-derived TOCA engine, sampled by Chilton in a test between rounds, may not be as powerful, it is said to be 15kg lighter than Team Vertu’s usual powerplant.

Fifth went to Restart Racing's Daniel Lloyd who moved up late on, ahead of Speedworks Corolla Racing's Josh Cook, Charles Rainford in the other WSR BMW, and CPRL's Adam Morgan. The Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport pairing of Aron Taylor_Smith and Gordon Shedden completed the top-10 ahead of Dexter Patterson, Tom Ingram, and the NAPA Racing UK trio of Lewis Selby, Ash Sutton, and Dan Cammish, and Ryan Bensley in the second Speedworks Toyota.

Sutton's recovery to 14th came after he started 17th on the grid by virtue of him having only one second per lap of TOCA Turbo Boost because of his championship position, which left him lacking in timed qualifying. He then spun at Copse on the opening lap and fell to the back of the 23-car field.

The drivers that were classified 17th through 21st – Daniel Rowbotton, Lewis Gilbert, Nick Halstead, Nicolas Hamilton, and Sam Osbourne – were all handed five second penalties for track limits violations, with Osborne also getting an additional 10s for a false start. Chris Smiley was the last of the finishers in 22nd, having gone a lap down when he pitted with a puncture at the end of the second lap.

Osamu Kawashima will complete the grid, having retired from the RTP. He went off at Beckets on Lap 7 after spinning when taking a kerb under braking. The off brought out a safety car which led to the 15-lap race being extended by three laps.

Kawashima, the first Japanese driver of the BTCC’s modern era – and the first since Kunimitsu Takahashi in 1985 – has replaced Ricky Collard at Team Vertu for the final two events of the season at Silverstone and Brands Hatch with Collard sidelined due to a budgetary shortfall.

He was bottom of the times in the first group of timed qualifying but, after starting the session more than four seconds off the pace but made up nearly two seconds in pace as the session progressed.

Collard, who sat fourth in the points heading into the Silverstone weekend – and slipped to fifth after qualifying – after scoring seven podiums this season, is remaining with Team Vertu in a reserve driver role, but seemed less than impressed with his replacement, taking to Instagram to post “Off to support my family race not watch my car be driven round in last place 3 seconds off the pace.”

Watch all three races from Silverstone on Sunday live on RACER Network and RACER+.

QUALIFYING RACE RESULTS

QUALIFYING TIMES