Colin Turkington claimed his first British Touring Car Championship pole position for almost two years with a brilliant performance in qualifying at Croft.
The WSR BMW driver stormed to the top of the timesheets with a 1m26.006s a third of the way through the 30-minute session, knocking Mat Jackson off the pole spot, and stayed there until the end.
The bonus point that Turkington gained for his pole means that his deficit to championship leader Matt Neal is reduced to just one point.
Jackson was unable to threaten Turkington for the rest of the session, although his RML Chevrolet team-mate Jason Plato did, the 2001 champion closing to within 0.196s of the Northern Irishman to secure the remaining front row spot on the grid.
Turkington's team-mate Stephen Jelley put in his best qualifying performance of the year and will start third, alongside Adam Jones, who shot up from 12th to fourth place in the final minute of the session in his Clyde Valley Racing SEAT.
Jackson fell to fifth by the end, alongside the similar Tempus Sport-run Lacetti of local driver Harry Vaulkhard.
Andrew Jordan was the best of the Vauxhall drivers in seventh, one spot better off than Neal, who was carrying the full 45kg of success ballast. James Thompson and Rob Collard completed the top 10 for Team Dynamics Honda and Motorbase BMW respectively.
Double champion Fabrizio Giovanardi could only manage 13th on the grid in his Vauxhall, the Italian encountering traffic on his final flying lap.
More unfortunate though, was series returnee Tom Onslow-Cole. He was unable to improve on 18th place when he parked his Arena Ford with smoke pouring out of the back of it with eight minutes to go.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1. Colin Turkington BMW 1m26.006s
2. Jason Plato Chevrolet 1m26.202s + 0.196s
3. Stephen Jelley BMW 1m26.372s + 0.366s
4. Adam Jones SEAT 1m26.387s + 0.381s
5. Mat Jackson Chevrolet 1m26.400s + 0.394s
6. Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet 1m26.407s + 0.401s
7. Andrew Jordan Vauxhall 1m26.591s + 0.585s
8. Matt Neal Vauxhall 1m26.674s + 0.668s
9. James Thompson Honda 1m26.676s + 0.670s
10. Rob Collard BMW 1m26.733s + 0.727s
11. Jonathan Adam BMW 1m26.735s + 0.729s
12. Dan Eaves SEAT 1m26.760s + 0.754s
13. Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall 1m26.769s + 0.763s
14. James Nash Chevrolet 1m26.961s + 0.955s
15. Paul O'Neill Honda 1m26.969s + 0.963s
16. David Pinkney Honda 1m27.612s + 1.606s
17. Tom Chilton Ford 1m27.781s + 1.775s
18. Tom Onslow-Cole Ford 1m28.033s + 2.027s
19. John George Honda 1m28.202s + 2.196s
20. Martyn Bell Honda 1m28.656s + 2.650s
21. Martin Johnson Vauxhall 1m28.882s + 2.876s