Andrew Jordan claimed pole for Sunday's British Touring Car Championship races at Thruxton.
The Pirtek Racing driver took top spot on a drying track after posting a time of one minute 16.983 second to edge out the challenge of championship leader Jason Plato, whose cause was not helped by an accident that brought out the red flags.
"That was a proper pole position lap - to do it around Thruxton which is an 'old school' circuit with no margin for error makes it extra satisfying," Jordan said on btcc.net.
"Even when I knew it was probably in the bag I still wanted to test the car and myself so pushed again and to get beneath the 1min 17secs mark here is a really big effort."
The high-speed Thruxton circuit in Hampshire is a favourite for many drivers but also one of the most unforgiving, as Plato found out when his Momentum Racing MG got away from him on one of his flying laps.
"I'm a lucky lad to still end up second but that could have been a very big accident," said the two-time BTCC champion.
"The car swapped ends on me as I went into Church Corner at about 140mph, but I managed to get it pointed in a straight line before it left the track. That helped and it was a fairly soft landing all things considered.
"A shame, though, because I was up on my best lap at that point."
Frank Wrathall took third in his Toyota, while Mat Jackson (Redstone Racing), Dave Newsham (Team ES Racing.com) and Robert Collard (eBay Motors BMW) rounded out the top six.
It was a miserable session for factory Honda drivers Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal.
After a strong showing in practice, luck deserted the pair when it mattered most as Neal suffered a crash that left him 19th on the grid, while Shedden, having set the fastest time of the session, was denied pole when all his times were wiped due to his car's turbo boost exceeding permitted limits.
The problem resolved, he managed one more lap before the end of the session but could manage no better than 18th place.
