Kevin Tse and Maxi Götz converted a great run of form that has kept them towards the front of the field all day at Spa into pole position for the first British GT Championship race in Belgium in two years.
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In GT4, a crash for Ravi Ramyead in the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 resulted in a red flag and the cancellation of the session because of barrier damage – the grid has been set by the Pre-Qualifying times, meaning in theory Zac Meakin & Jack Brown will be starting on pole for Optimum Motorsport.
GT3
In typical Spa fashion, an afternoon of dry weather quickly turned to rain not long before the GT3 machines were due out onto the track, but was in a particularly isolated spot – with the bulk of the wetness isolated mainly around the Bus Stop Chicane up to La Source.
With everyone electing to go on slicks, it was mainly a case of who had the most bravery to brake as late as possible in the tight right-hander and then it was just as per usual around the rest of the circuit – although that requires a strong dose of bravery too.
With the sessions broken down into 10 minutes for Ams and 10 for Pros, there wasn’t much time to be hanging around – especially with lap times in the rough 2m20sec range – and one man who was really going all in from the start was Blackthorn’s Giacomo Petrobelli who was absolutely flying in the Aston Martin Vantage. He was setting a number of fastest laps, but potentially had one potential flyer cut short as he was blocked by the two Barwell Lamborghinis which were doing nothing wrong, but didn’t seem to have the same speed on the straights as the Vantage.
He still had time to keep things going though, and as the chequered flag started to fly, it looked as though Petrobelli was going to be on for a great lap, but a slight mistake in sector three meant he didn’t improve and allowed others – namely Barwell’s Rob Collard and 2 Seas’ Kevin Tse to leap ahead, with Collard topping the times.
Handing over to the Pros, the times were starting to really drop, with the last bit of water burning off the more laps were completed.
Immediately, Götz was on a charge and his initial effort of a 2m16.334sec vaulted him to the top of the times and with constant improvements as the lap went on it seemed very unlikely that he was going to be pipped – especially as Sandy Mitchell, a man so quick in the Barwell Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, couldn’t quite make up the deficit from co-driver Alex Martin’s time in the first session, despite being so strong in his section of qualifying.
Instead, it was left to Ricky Collard, taking over from Dad Rob, and Petrobelli’s team-mate Jonny Adam to see if they could unseat the Mercedes-AMG GT3 from the pole position.
Ricky was putting in great laps in the sister Barwell Huracán, but ironically it was more than likely Adam who denied anyone a chance of disturbing the times as he had a very rare spin at Campus and got the Blackthorn machine beached on the kerbs – bringing out yellow flags that neutralised the efforts of everyone following in the final two minutes.
The Collards won’t be too displeased, with a front-row start and the opportunity for Rob to take the fight to Tse on the run into La Source for the first time in Sunday’s two-hour race. Petrobelli and Adam, meanwhile, will start third – six-tenths ahead of Mitchell and Martin, who’ll join them on the second-row.
It was a good day for Blackthorn all round as Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge combined for fifth, a quarter of a second ahead of Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton who both put in solid laps behind the wheel of their Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3.
Phil Keen and Ian Loggie will start seventh, beating out the effort of Mark Radcliffe and Tom Gamble – the latter pair not really getting much of a reward for the fact that Gamble obliterated the old lap record behind the wheel of the Garage 59 McLaren.
Even more McLarens round out the top 10, with Grarage 59’s Shaun Balfe & Adam Smalley and Team RJN’s pair of brothers, Alex & Chris Buncombe, completing the first half of the field. fastest with a 2m16.334!
GT4
GT4 barely had a chance to get going before the action was curtailed for a crash involving Century Motorsport’s Ravi Ramyead. While there’s been no location confirmed, with the coverage not showing the accident, British GT said on social media: “The #71 Century Motorsport BMW has had an off and driver Ravi Ramyead is being helped from the car before being checked over. Due to the resulting barrier damage, GT4 qualifying will not restart and the grid will be set from Pre-Qualifying.”
Prior to the stoppage, with about six minutes completed, it had been a great performance from the two Academy Motorsport Ford Mustangs with Will Moore initially setting the pace, before being pinged for track limits, meaning it was team-mate Erik Evans who lying in top spot – benefitting from Optimum’s Jack Brown also having had a lap deleted after initially setting a quick time.
With the session unable to resume, thanks to a tight schedule of racing at Spa which includes Porsche Carrera Cup France, French GT4, French Touring Cars and French F4, the decision was made to use Pre-Qualifying times.
You can use the link above to read a full overview of the action that took place in the session, but having a fast lap deleted for Gordie Mutch – having initially taken the chequered flag fastest – has big ramifications for the Mahiki Racing driver who will start his Lotus Emira ninth.
At the top, it’s Zac Meakin and Jack Brown, the men who are very much continuing on their rapid pace from 2023 in the Optimum Artura, but they’ve got a DTO Motorsport Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo alongside them that’s proved pretty handy under the supervision of Stuart Middleton and Freddie Tomlinson, so they might not have it all their own way.
Third will be Paddock Motorsport’s Alex Walker and Adam Hatfield, while Academy Motorsport do get some reward for what was looking like good qualifying pace as Will Moore and Matt Nicoll-Jones get set to start from the second-row.
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