Upon his return to the series, Alex Morgan took his maiden pole position in Goodyear Touring Car Trophy / TCR UK. The experienced TCR competitor returned to test out his Cupra TCR, sticking it on pole ahead of both races that will take place this afternoon. His time of 1min 27.772 was almost a quarter of a second quicker than anyone else.
Oulton Park has been a classic of the TCR UK calendar ever since their inaugural season and so it was only fitting that it hosted the largest grid the TCT / TCR UK has ever seen. Sixteen cars were featured out on track, with TCR Europe race winner Alex Morgan the first to complete a lap ahead of a short 15 minute qualifying.
Despite it being 2.6 miles in length, the Oulton Park circuit did not provide much room for many of the drivers to extract the optimum from their Touring Cars, especially with many of the drivers exchanging hot laps and recharging laps.
It would be the Hyundai’s who set the early benchmark with Bradley Kent setting a 1min 28.248. The chaos from Free Practice would quickly re-emerge though as first Bruce Winfield, then Jac Constable and finally Alex Morgan all took their turn atop the standings. With three minutes left to run, Morgan’s two purple sectors was enough to see him pull out a three tenth of a second gap to Constable just behind.
Lewis Kent was not prepared to sit back and let his rivals take the upper hand though, extracting the most out of his Hyundai to provisionally put him on the second row. It was not enough to keep him behind his rival though as Max Hart, with his final lap leapfrogged the Essex & Kent Motorsport driver to take third, with Lewis and Bradley lined up just behind.
In sixth for the opening race will be Bruce Winfield. The Area Motorsport driver has been famed for his launches this season and will be eager to once again mix it with the front-runners as he battles for second in the standings.
Another driver in that points squabble is Dan Kirby. The Power Maxed Car Care Racing driver could only put his Cupra TCR in eighth, behind teammate William Butler, who has been making steady progress this season. Rounding out the top ten will be Darron Lewis in the Mercedes and Alex Kite, now driving the Opel Astra TCR, that prior to this weekend had been competing in hill climbing events in Italy.
You can watch all the sessions live over on the Goodyear Touring Car Trophy and TCR UK YouTube and Facebook pages. Keep up with our social media for further championship updates and driver interviews from our Oulton Park stars. Race one starts at 13:35 UK time on Saturday 17th July 2021.
Results can be found on TSL Timing
