British GT Championship, Thruxton – Qualifying Report

All To Play For

As expected, the two qualifying sessions for rounds nine and ten of the championship turned out to be very interesting, with an Aston Martin and a Ferrari sharing the front row for each race.

Only 23 cars started the first session, after things turned out to be not so straightforward for the Moore Racing Maserati Trofeo. “The hub has been repaired, but we need a wishbone,” explained George Mackintosh. “The problem is that there isn’t a spare anywhere in the UK; so we need to find a donor vehicle.”

Mike Gardiner set the early pace in Moore’s other car in the first session, before Steve Clark moved ahead in the #1 RPM Viper on 1:17.475 with five minutes gone. The positions then started to change rapidly, with Paddy Shovlin, Barrie Whight and Craig Wilkins each briefly occupying third place.

With eight minutes to go, local boy Jeremy Metcalfe demonstrated his circuit knowledge by leaping to the top of the screen with a 1:16.697. Anyone thinking of challenging this time, however, would have had to change their plans following the appearance of the red flag, after Peter Bamford shunted his #4 Chad Ferrari.

When the session resumed several minutes later, Barrie Whight was obviously giving himself space on track to go for a time. His approach to the Club chicane looked ragged, but he carried his momentum through and was rewarded with a 1:17.233; good enough for second place, and improved upon before the flag flew.

In GT4 Nigel Moore claimed pole for RPM with 1:20.939 in the #51 Ginetta, with Matt Nichol-Jones half a second behind in the #88 IMS car.

Things happened quickly in the second session, with Allan Simonsen throwing down the gauntlet on his first flying lap – 1:16.810 being lowered to 1:16.027 on his next. At the end of his fourth lap, the Dane decided that his work was done and pitted.

Michael Bentwood was at this point second fastest on 1:16.444, proving that his free practice pace was no fluke. This time improved to 1:16.438 at the five minute mark, but with six minutes remaining, Bentwood found a clear lap in the 22GTRacing Aston and set a 1:15.799; claiming his and the team’s first ever BGT pole.

Nigel Redwood was enjoying being back at the wheel of the #2 Viper and set the third fastest time, just ahead of Alex Mortimer in the Moore Viper. Gavan Kershaw meanwhile was klattering the kerbs in the Cadena Aston on his way to a sixth-fastest 1:16.650.

Joe Osborne made it a double-pole for the #51 RPM Ginetta in GT4, the car again half a second faster than the next; this time, the #55 Rob Austin G50.

With conditions not likely to change significantly before the race, the advantage would seem to lie with those teams that had two equally paced drivers; but it was also apparent that picking a winner would be no easy task.