Turkington, whose previous pole position in the series came back in August 2022 at Snetterton, ended up in a fight with the sister West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Adam Morgan, whose only BTCC pole was at Rockingham in 2018 in his Ciceley Mercedes days.
With just seven seconds of additional hybrid and turbo boost allowed due to his pre-weekend championship position of fourth, and with Morgan outside the top seven so allowed the full 15s, Turkington was up against it – especially with a doubling in the boost surge for 2024.
Both had topped their respective Q1 sessions, before Josh Cook leapt to the fore in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport in Q2.
But Cook didn’t have enough when it mattered, and it was Morgan who led the way early doors, before Turkington eclipsed the red-headed Lancastrian by 0.050 seconds.
“It was quite unexpected,” said Turkington. “I was thinking if I made it into the fast six for Q3, I’d be fairly happy with that.
“We took the five minutes in between each session to keep nudging the car to where we want it.
“It’s great to have two BMWs on the front row – it bodes really well for tomorrow.”
The new boost regulations appeared to have worked a treat in Q1, with championship leader Tom Ingram, on one second of hybrid, and runner-up Ash Sutton, on three, both squeaking through their groups on the bubble in sixth position.
But somehow reigning champion Sutton stomped in an astonishing time in Q2 to take his NAPA-liveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST into the Quick Six in third place.
Sutton could only repeat that time in the final shootout, where he was leapfrogged by team-mate Dan Cammish, who took third place on 13s of boost and finished just 0.066s away from Turkington’s pole time.
Cook ended up fifth, while Dan Rowbottom was the third of the Alliance Fords in the shootout in sixth.
Ingram fell at the second hurdle in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, ending up eighth in Q2 and pipped in the final stages of that session by the Speedworks Toyota of Andrew Watson.
Ingram was immediately followed by team-mates Ronan Pearson and Tom Chilton, who rounded out the top 10.
The other drivers to make it into Q2 were Rob Huff (Speedworks Toyota) and Jake Hill (WSR BMW), who finished up at the foot of the times, Hill on just 5s of boost.
BTCC Brands Hatch - Qualifying results
| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  C. Turkington Team BMW |
20 | BMW 330e M Sport | 11 |
47.875 |
90.829 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | A. Morgan Team BMW |
33 | BMW 330e M Sport | 11 |
+0.050 47.925 |
0.050 | 90.734 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK |
27 | Ford Focus ST | 11 |
+0.066 47.941 |
0.016 | 90.704 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK |
1 | Ford Focus ST | 9 |
+0.166 48.041 |
0.100 | 90.515 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ |
66 | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 9 |
+0.210 48.085 |
0.044 | 90.432 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK |
32 | Ford Focus ST | 9 |
+0.333 48.208 |
0.123 | 90.202 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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