British GT, Spa – Qualifying Report
Westbrook Shows His Class

The two 15-minute qualifying sessions took place in fine weather on Friday afternoon, and again it would be a combined grid of BGT, Aston Martin and Benelux GT4 runners – 55 in all. Given these circumstances, and the very limited number of laps that could be completed in the session, it was imperative that ‘banker’ laps be posted in the early stages while there was still a reasonably clear circuit available.

The opening laps saw the #1 Porsche of David Ashburn heading the timing screens, but he pitted after just four laps, meaning he was unable to respond to Michael Lyons’ 2:24.481 in the #5 Scuderia Vittoria 458; which would remain the fastest GT3 time of the session. The Preci-Spark SLS of David Jones was third in GT3 with 2:26.033, with Duncan Cameron fourth in the #21 MTECH Ferrari.

Not much else happened until close to the end of the session, when Gregor Fisken improved to sixth in the #2 Trackspeed Porsche and Mike Guasch improved to seventh in the #23 United Autosports Audi.

But Lyons was not destined to take pole position – that went to the Invitation class McLaren MP4-12C of Chris Goodwin who recorded a 2:23.479, which will start its first ever race from the result as a result. The orange car sports #59 this weekend, in honour of the Le Mans-winning McLaren GTR.

Dan Denis made it a Scuderia Vittoria double, by setting the fastest GT4 time in the #50 Ginetta G50 – 2:34.651 – with the two Lotuses of Ollie Jackson and Freddy Nordstrom second and third.

The GT3B Ferrari 430 of John Dhillon ended its qualifying session in a sorry state following a collision with a non-BGT Aston, leaving the MTECH mechanics facing a lengthy rebuild.

After a short gap the second session started at 16.27 with the second drivers aboard.

Richard Westbrook was clearly not in the mood for hanging around and set a 2:23.233 on his first flying lap to set provisional pole, with Allan Simonsen second on 2:23.561, Glynn Geddie third on 2:23.990 and Matt Griffin fourth on 2:24.272.

Very few improvements were noted on the next lap – Geddie went faster, but stayed third – but Westbrook broke the 2:23 barrier for the first time on his next lap; 2:22.648 securing pole.

Nobody else was able to challenge the #1 Porsche’s improved time as the session was red-flagged even as Westbrook crossed the line. Two cars (one from the Aston Martin Challenge and one from the Benelux GT4) had had a significant coming together at Raidillion and would require recovery. The session was not restarted.

This curtailment perhaps left the starting positions a bit awry, but should make for an interesting race. The McLaren, for instance, ended up only eighth after Andrew Kirkaldy bided his time before joining in and only had chance to set one fast lap.

The Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta again took GT4 pole, this time courtesy of David McDonald, while the Lotuses were again second and third. Marcus Clutton could only manage fifth in the surviving X-Bow, with a time 3.2 seconds off pole; a sure sign that the various measures taken against the car to slow it have worked, but also that they were perhaps a touch draconian.

The first race was scheduled to start at 09.40 on Saturday.

MH