2 Seas Motorsport stormed to pole position as they upset the title contenders by snatching the top spot in an interrupted British GT Championship qualifying session at Brands Hatch.
Of the title favourites, it was Barwell Motorsport’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook who will take their points lead into a front-row start, as they took second.
In the GT4 class, Josh Stanton has kept his faint hopes of the title alive as he and George Gamble combined perfectly to put their McLaren Artura on the top of an Artura-dominated front row.
GT3
With five contenders all fighting for the GT3 title, and knowing how awkward it can be to overtake around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, a good qualifying session was crucial.
This being a two-hour race, the field was set by the combined times of both drivers and immediately it was an Optimum McLaren that was hitting the front of the times. But it wasn’t the machine of Morgan Tillbrook, instead it was Marc Warren who was setting blistering pace in his 720S GT3 Evo, with Rob Collard, Kevin Tse and Simon Orange also in front-running form as they set a base for their Pros to build from.
When the Pros got in the car it was Collard’s co-driver Hugo Cook who was to the top of the times first, just ahead of Ben Barnicoat who, despite setting the individual fastest lap in the opening minutes, couldn’t find the additional 0.014sec he needed to prevail on combined times and snatch pole.
That, for a time, went instead to Marcus Clutton who took over the Orange Racing by JMH McLaren from Simon Orange and set about doing what Marcus Clutton generally does; namely, use every inch of the track to ring out every ounce of speed he can from what ever vehicle he finds himself in. And it paid off handsomely as his 1m22.962sec gave the pair a combined time of 2m47.360sec and sat them on the top of the standings.
But then came drama. The first red flag in a qualifying session all season. Beechdean AMR’s Ross Gunn found himself in contact with the barriers having skittered through the Clearways gravel trap after losing the rear of his Aston Martin Vantage, not something entirely of his own doing, with replays showing the rear snapping away from him under braking.
That few minutes of pause allowed teams and drivers to reset and once the session got back underway with four minutes remaining, a thriller unfolded. First, Cook improved his time with a monster final sector to leap ahead by 0.104sec and then Chris Lulham, taking over from Tse, started to turn the timing screens green with personal best sectors and seemed to go fastest with a combined 2m46.888sec. But then drama, Lulham’s lap time was deleted due to cutting T6 and gaining an advantage. His final effort of 1m22.986sec was just about enough to steal pole – just 0.068sec ahead of Cook and Collard.
That front-row is a vital title boost for the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 racers, but it does mean the outside position going into Paddock Hill Bend. Could that be where Collard’s experience as a double British GT champion and Touring Car old hand pays dividends? Only tomorrow will tell.
Third went the way of Clutton and Orange, giving their own title hopes a boost as a team not under immense pressure, rather enjoying the chance of being able to snatch a maiden British GT crown. They will, though, be starting on the same row as Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat, in what could be a tasty couple of corners at the start.
Fifth is Warren and Jack Brown, the latter not quite able to match the pace of the more experienced Pros in GT3s, Brown is after all in his first season in the category. They did finish a decent margin ahead of Century Motorsport’s Jonathan Beeson and Charles Clark, who seemed to fade slightly in this qualifying session compared to the pace they showed in practice.
They did, however, finish ahead of two further title contenders as Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski couldn’t demonstrate the same pace as their fellow Barwell racers Collard and Cook, although they did qualify ahead of Beechdean’s Gunn and Andrew Howard after their curtailed session.
GT4
Josh Stanton will have known heading into this qualifying session that if he was to have any hope at claiming the GT4 title, being 30.5 points down with just 37.5 available, he needed to hope for drama for his rivals and maximise every opportunity he could to put himself in the frame come Sunday afternoon.
And that’s exactly what he did. From the very start of the opening qualifying session, Stanton was on flying form in his Optimum McLaren Artura, indeed his very first lap of the session was enough to put him on pole by more than half-a-second with a sensational 1m30.407sec, ahead of the fellow Artura racer Revie Lake and Innovation Racing’s Thomas Holland; the latter in a car co-leading the championship.
His quest for the top spot was helped no-end by James Townsend. Racing the Townsend Racing p/b Fox Motorsport Aston Martin by himself this weekend – the first time that’s ever happened in a two-hour British GT race – he came to an ignominious end as he lost it going into Paddock Hill and beached himself in the gravel trap, necessitating a gravel trap that denied the 11-car field the final three minutes of the session.
With top spot in hand, all Stanton needed was for George Gamble to do the same job again and that’s what he did. Just. His first lap was easily enough for pole, but was quickly deleted for exceeding track limits, thankfully his next lap was legal and he set a 3m00.939sec to take pole position.
Blake Angliss gave it a good go in the Paddock Motorsport machine he took over from Lake, setting an individual lap just 0.002sec slower than Gamble’s but it wasn’t enough to change the car’s position and they’ll start second in a McLaren lock-out of the front-row.
Third went to Toro Verde GT’s Luke Shaw and Jack Mitchell, the latter setting the fastest individual lap of the second session to put them 0.001sec ahead of championship leaders Branden Templeton and Jack Collins in their Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo.
Much like in practice, the title contenders seemed to be grouped together, with the exception of Stanton of course, as the BMW will start ahead of the Grange Racing and MK Racing Aston Martins, which are fifth and seventh respectively, whilst the Innovation Ginetta will take sixth. What could be more fun than seeing four title contenders having to battle in the mid-pack around a notoriously tight and challenging circuit?
The final round of the British GT Championship gets underway at 13.30 local time (14.30 CEST), and you can watch all the coverage live on the GT World YouTube channel.
