ALAN Blencowe was within a whisker of taking pole position for the opening race at Croft on Sunday during the latest rounds of the British Touring Car Championship.

The Tisbury scaffolder had to settle for second place on the starting grid for round 11 after holding pole for much of the qualifying session.

Blencowe, who has been getting quicker and quicker all season, was edged out by a few hundredths of a second in the dying moments of Saturday's session.

Sunday's opening race proved a frantic affair with Alan slipping off the track because of an oil spillage following a Touring Class engine blowing up.

Relegated to fifth spot, Blencowe eventually forced his way back up the field and seized his moment after the late re-appearance of the safety car and re-passed team mate Luke Hines to claim second place.

For much of the second race Blencowe was in a four car tussle for the lead.

No mistakes were made for a further 12 laps until Michael Bentwood's Peugeot 307 succumbed to the Croft kerbs and broke a driveshaft.

This happened through the first high-speed chicane and led to a hairy moment as the three cars following had to fan out in different directions to avoid the rapidly slowing Boardman. Hines took the lead while Blencowe craftily out-foxed Bentwood to sneak into second.

What should have been another Barwell one-two finish, was marred when Blencowe was forced to slow down dramatically after a front tyre shredded. He was overtaken by Bentwood, but with constant encouragement via his in-car head set, Blencowe attempted to limp the car home.

There was further drama when the rest of the pack eventually caught up with him on the final hairpin on the last lap.

However, Blencowe was not about to relinquish a podium place and he held on to take third.

The scaffolder, who was back at work early on Monday, just hours after arriving home from the north-east, said: "It was another great weekend for the team. I was so close to getting my first pole position, but I missed out by the narrowest of margins.

"The first race was relatively incident free for me, but I was lucky to limp home in the second."

He added: "I'm still third in the championship standings, but I was hoping to close the gap."

The tour now moves to Snetterton on August 9. High-lights of Sunday's races will be shown on ITV on Saturday.