British GT Rockingham – Qualifying Report
Double Top For Tech 9

GT3 Qualifying

Leo Machitski and Jason Templeman overcame the dreadful conditions to claim pole in both of the two 15-minute qualifying sessions in the #9 Tech 9 Lamborghini Gallardo; the Russian driver’s time being all the more impressive as it was beaten only by his (A-rated) team mate.

With the rain not having let up even for a second, there was plenty of standing water around the infield; especially at the exit to Brook (a very apt name in the circumstances).

Hector Lester delayed his exit from the pitlane to give himself a clear track – a tactic repeated by Allan Simonsen at the start of the second session – while David Ashburn joined in after two minutes, after late changes to the car.

Machitski was the first to set an at-speed lap, setting the bar at 1:37.470. Had he left it at that, he would have been starting fifth on the grid for the first race; but he had no intention of leaving it at that and immediately lopped 1.3s off his time. His next lap (1:35.803) cemented pole and seemed to take the driver by surprise; “I’m very excited by pole [his first],” said Machitski. “I didn’t push for the lap and the time just came. I’m really chuffed.”

Oliver Morley rounded off a good quarter-hour for Phil Hindley by sewing up the front row in the #8 Tech 9 Gallardo. “We made a few changes from the morning,” said a smiling Morley. “It was slippery out there, but it’s the same for everyone. Anyhow, coming from the North West, I’m used to the conditions.” 

James Gornall claimed third for Team Trimite, while alongside him will start Ollie Bryant in the #2 RPM Viper.

CR Scuderia’s fortunes improved somewhat, with Jeremy Metcalfe and Michael Meadows filling the third row, but the session was disastrous for championship leader Paddy Shovlin, who could only manage 19th fastest.

The Preci Spark Ascari only left the pits with less than five minutes remaining, but a trail of gearbox oil (spotted by Graham Tyler – here on pitlane duty for the commentary team) indicated trouble; and indeed the car returned to the pits without setting a time. It stayed in the garage for almost the whole of the second session, but Godfrey Jones had just enough time to complete two slow laps. Rockingham does not like this car.

Conditions had progressed from dreadful to bloody awful by the time the second session started and several drivers were beginning to voice doubts after the session that a race would be possible. The sight of F3 and FF single-seaters being almost brought to a halt by the water at Brook illustrated the point.

Tom Ferrier was the fastest in the early part of the session in the #8 Gallardo, with Adam Wilcox briefly second in the VRS Ferrari from Paul O’Neill in the #1 RPM Viper; but Adam Jones leapfrogged all three to go fastest on 1:36.014.

Jason Templeman was at this point plum last, having briefly stopped for adjustments. However, on his fourth lap, he reached into the hat and pulled out a 1:35.489 to claim pole.

The three Lamborghinis retained their places, with James Sutton claiming fourth in the #14 CRS Ferrari; while Anthony Reid announced his arrival in the series with fifth in the Chad Racing Ferrari. 

The expected challenge from Allen Simonsen never materialised; the Dane being all but anonymous in possibly his worst qualifying session in BGT and managing only eighth.

And the rain kept falling.

Tom Ferrier
“You had to do it in the first couple of laps really as it just kept getting wetter and wetter.  I didn’t quite manage to do that so I think there was some more time in it.  Still, we’re at the right end of the grid, the car is good and it is a long race.”

Luke Hines
“I’ve not done many laps in the wet in a GT3 car, but I’m just struggling with the balance of the car in the wet.  In the dry we were there, it was fine.  For sure we’ll work at it and get the set-up better but without the balance you just can’t feel confident.”

Jeremy Metcalfe
“The Lamborghinis seem to be quicker in the wet, I drove to the best of my ability and did the best time the car seemed to have in it but I would have needed to be over a second quicker to move up a place.  If it was dry I think we’d have been on pole, but the weather has been to our disadvantage here, no doubt somewhere else in the season it will be to our advantage.  All I can do is drive to the best of my ability and the car’s ability in the race and we might end up with a result.”

Michael Meadows
“I think the aim has to be to be the fastest Ferrari, and I think we will be.  I think a podium could be difficult because the Lamborghinis are going very well but we might be aiming at fifth or sixth realistically.  The puddles were a lot bigger in qualifying than they were in practice and I’m not even sure if they can start the race if it gets any worse.  It’s not so bad in qualifying because you can often put the car exactly where you want it but in the race you can’t really do that and might be forced through the puddles.”

GT4 Qualifying

Joe Osborne spent the majority of the first qualifying session with provisional class pole until Matt Nicholl-Jones took advantage of Osborne having pitted at the end, pipping his time by a tenth.  The IMS Motorsport car starts from second in class in race two, so a successful afternoon’s work from the boys in the blue car.  Nigel Redwood claimed pole for RPM in race two and the Rob Austin car starts third in both races, some consistently improving times from both drivers throughout their sessions suggesting this car could be one to watch.

One not to watch appears to be the Stark Racing Ginetta.  Not present in the warm-up, it has been in the garage with the engine cover off (and the garage door down) all day, but with no-one tending to it presumably it won’t make the race either.

Things were looking up for the Beechdean Aston Martin early on in both sessions but both Howard and Smyth will start from fifth out of six.  Given the atrocious track conditions it is hard to see what the effects of the equalisation measures applied to the Ginetta are but given the depths of some of the puddles, particularly at the appropriately named ‘Brook’, they might even appreciate running a little higher.  One Ginetta that was slower than the Aston Martin, actually quite a lot slower in both sessions, was #50, the car not responding at all well to anti-roll adjustments and new tyres, undoing the great progress that Richard Evans and Phil Bailey had been making until qualifying.

Fourth place will be occupied by RPM’s Colin Wilmott in #52 for race one and Fulvio Mussi in #51 for race two.

MH&PS