British GT, Donington – Qualifying Report
Jelley On Top

A 45-minute qualifying session for a three-hour race, during which all drivers have to complete a minimum of three laps – and thus ensuring that there would be plenty of traffic about – didn’t sound the most thrilling way to round out the day; but it turned out to be one of the best sessions for quite some time as several drivers fought over pole.

Two dozen cars were ready to start the session - the Preci-Spark petition to use the spare SLS hadn’t been successful and the Century G55 was in the process of changing the engine – and it wasn’t long before we saw several teams getting their banker laps in.

Tim Bridgman was the first to show his hand in the #2 Trackspeed Porsche, by beating Matt Griffin’s Free Practice times within the first five minutes and setting a 1:30.849. Griffin was second at this point in the #21 MTECH 458, just ahead of Stephen Jelley in the #1 Porsche.

As he had been all day, Matt Bell was very much in the mix and went second a few seconds later. Almost immediately Jelley went quicker than the #23 Audi driver, and then Griffin went quickest of all with a 1:30.792.

While things were heating up at the front, two cars were already in trouble - the #49 Lotus Evora was slowly heading for the pitlane after a balljoint failure, while Ian Stinton found himself stranded out on track with driveshaft failure in the #25 Stark Racing Ginetta G55.

Alex Mortimer joined in the fun in the #11 CRS Ferrari 458 by going top with a 1:30.698 just before the ten minute mark, but a very quick lap from Bell – a personal best first sector and a fastest overall second sector – was scuppered by traffic and the Audi ended the lap in the pitlane.

In GT4, the Lotus #48 of Phil Glew and James Nash was heading the class with a 1:37.944, about half a second ahead of the KTM X-Bow of Marcus Clutton.

The track was suddenly a quiet place as the majority of the field headed for the pitlane to change drivers. The JRM Nissan GT-R GT3 was one of the few cars still out on track and Alex Buncombe was making quiet progress in 11th place. The car had been very inconspicuous throughout the day – seemingly content to rack up laps without setting the world on fire – and the suspicion was that it hadn’t yet shown its true pace.

John Bintcliffe had just set his fastest lap of the race – 1:32.050 – and had set another PB on the first sector of his next lap. Unfortunately, the #24 United Autosports Audi didn’t complete the second sector after it crossed the McLeans gravel at high speed and backed into the tyre wall. The car was recovered during a red flag period soon after (caused by Peter Belshaw dropping the X-Bow into the gravel in a dangerous place) and taken back to the pits. Only later did it become apparent that the car had struck a concrete post behind the tyres and incurred significant suspension damage – so bad in fact that the car was ruled out of the race. Bintcliffe was said to be devastated by the news, but happily unhurt by the impact.

The red-flag was out for about 20 minutes, so it wasn’t until about ten to six that the final 27 minutes of the session could begin.

Several cars, including the #20 MTECH Ferrari of David Back and Julian Draper and the #6 Speedworks Corvette of Ron Johnson and Piers Johnson, began to make progress up the timing screens in the opening minutes, but we had to wait almost ten minutes for anything significant to happen at the front; and when it did it was a big surprise.

Matt Bell had gone back out on new rubber, but didn’t seem to be able to string anything together. Suddenly, though, after two first sectors which weren’t even personal bests, the #23 shot to the top of the screen – 1:30.448 – after what must have been a phenomenal final sector.

Behind the Audi, Matt Griffin, Alex Mortimer, Tim Bridgman and Stephen Jelley were all back in their cars and on new rubber.

Bridgman was the first to improve, first to 1:30.767 and then to provisional pole once more with a 1:30.355 with 16 minutes to go.

But not far behind, Jelley was leaving behind green and purple dots as he scorched his way round the 2.5 mile circuit and ended the lap with a 1:30.315 and provisional pole.

As this was happening, Jonny Adam had just gone fifth fastest in the Beechdean Aston, but was soon bumped down two places. The big car ended the session in sixth, about two-thirds of a second off pole, which showed that the older DBRS9 should not be written off for the race.

Griffin’s final lunge for pole came with 12 minutes remaining, but his 1:30.320 was an agonising five-thousandths of a second shy of the top spot.

And that was largely it, as the session eventually died down. Several cars continued to improve – Aaron Scott hustling the GT3B Ferrari 430 up to 15th and Adam Wilcox claiming tenth in the sole remaining Ferrari Scuderia of 360 Vision – but the front rows were set.

The #48 Lotus hung on to pole in GT4, but the #50 Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta G50 had closed the gap to just over a tenth by the end. The X-Bow was third and the #49 Lotus – which returned to the track before the end – in fourth.

A highly entertaining session had ended with the top ten cars covered by less than a second and a battle royal looked to be in the offing.

MH