Proctor, who had by no means earlier than completed within the high 4 in a BTCC qualifying session, moved again to the forefront with three minutes remaining on the wheel of his BTC Racing Honda Civic Kind R.
The Yorkshireman joined the 2021 sequence a spherical late after securing a last-minute deal, and isn’t carrying any success ballast, however neither is the same Staff Dynamics Honda of Shedden, who Proctor beat by 0.076 seconds.
Proctor was aggressive all through, and led the way in which on the half-distance stage from Oulton maestro Colin Turkington’s West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport.
However the occasions tumbled on the later runs, with Butcher placing his Speedworks Motorsport-tended Toyota Corolla to the highest of the occasions, after which Shedden pipping him to the highest spot.
Proctor had dropped out of the highest 5 by the point he unleashed his pole-winning flier.
“An enormous weight has been lifted off me there,” he mentioned. “It was a protracted wait from the tyre take a look at three weeks in the past the place I used to be P1, however we received the tyres on and I managed it – I’m over the moon.”
Butcher, who’s carrying 9kg of success ballast, gave credit score to the Speedworks workforce for serving to him become familiar with the Toyota in his first season within the machine. “The automotive is speaking in my language now,” he mentioned.
Rory Butcher, BTCC Oulton Park 2021
Picture by: Jakob Ebrey
One other pole contender was the second Dynamics Honda of Dan Rowbottom, which is on 27kg of ballast.
The Midlander continued his spectacular sophomore BTCC season and his finest lap was faster than Proctor’s pole effort over the primary two sectors, solely to lose time within the ultimate a part of the lap.
Jack Goff, on 15kg of ballast, adopted his free practice-topping effort by taking fifth place – the perfect qualifying efficiency but for the Staff Onerous SEAT Cupra Leon.
He narrowly headed Adam Morgan, the quickest rear-wheel-drive contender in his Ciceley Motorsport BMW, however who misplaced the rear finish on the Hislop’s chicane on what was shaping as much as a be a sooner follow-up lap.
Jake Hill, carrying 39kg of success weight on his Motorbase-run MB Motorsport Ford Focus, took seventh on the grid, earlier than repeating his free follow exploits by saving a large slide at Cascades.
Stephen Jelley beat his illustrious WSR team-mate Turkington (on 48kg) to eighth – the four-time champion by no means bettering on his earlier effort, not helped by a spin at Cascades that despatched him to the pits.
Championship chief Ash Sutton, carrying the utmost 75kg of ballast on his Laser Instruments Racing Infiniti Q50, rounded out the highest 10, however was higher off than the BTC Honda of third-in-points Josh {Cook}, who will begin thirteenth on 57kg.
And every faces a a lot simpler begin to Sunday than Tom Ingram, who enters the weekend second within the standings in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.
Ingram accomplished solely an out-lap earlier than retiring to the pits because of the turbo wastegate turning into indifferent from the downpipe – nestling because it does between the engine and bulkhead, it was too sizzling to alter, that means he faces a cost from twenty ninth on the grid with 66kg of ballast.