British GT, Brands Hatch – Qualifying Report Getting Close The clouds had well and truly parked themselves overhead by the start of qualifying, making it feel distinctly autumnal (it is supposed to be summer, isn’t it?). Happily, however, all 19 cars able to take part in the sessions did so and all survived. James Gornall was the early pace setter in the #40 Brookspeed Team Trimite Viper, with a 1:30.718 (his next lap being just three thousandths slower), with Steve Clark second in the #1 RPM Viper on 1:31.542; but with five minutes gone, Jeremy Metcalfe went a tenth quicker in the #16 CRS Ferrari. Michael Meadows emulated his team mate by first setting fourth fastest and then on his next lap, setting a second-fastest 1:30.800. But it was Paddy Shovlin who showed the CRS young guns how to do it, with a pole-setting 1:30.564 with six minutes of the session remaining. Ben de Zille Butler overcame a front right puncture to post a seventh-fastest 1:31.671 in the only Lamborghini, just a tenth ahead of Barrie Whight in the Cadena Aston. Nigel Redwood, meanwhile, fell a similar margin shy of claiming third in the #2 RPM Viper. In GT4, the #88 IMS Ginetta was fastest, ahead of the solo Nigel Moore in the #52 RPM G50, with Hunter Abbott third in the #55. Allan Simonsen was in the CiM Ferrari at the end of the pitlane within moments of the end of session one, indicating that he was keen on setting a time early in the session; and, indeed, his first flying lap was a 1:30.137. Ollie Bryant, however, had no plans to let the Dane walk off with pole and his first flier was a 30.154. And it got better; the Marlow driver confirming his earlier prediction of a sub-30 lap, moving to the top of the times with seven minutes gone with 1:29.939. Jon Barnes kept the Trimite Viper to the fore with 1:30.463 to cement a second row start, but Simonsen bit back with five minutes remaining to take pole by 22 thousandths. CR Scuderia had a mostly anonymous session, the three cars propping up the GT3 times for the first 14 minutes of the 15 minute session; but last minute efforts promoted #14 to seventh and the other two cars to 11th and 12th. Michael Bentwood was just a half second off the pole time in the #42 Aston, but had to settle for fourth at the end. Nigel Moore would be starting from pole in race two in GT4, sharing an all RPM front row with the #51 car. As an indication of how close the race might be, third to 11th in GT3 were separated by half a second and at one point, just before the end of the session, only 13 thousandths covered sixth to ninth. Despite the cloud cover, rain didn’t look imminent; which augured well for the first race, due to start at 16.45. | 
