The first of the two 15-minute qualifying sessions began under leaden skies early on Saturday morning at Zandvoort, with the ‘Gentlemen’ drivers taking to the track first; and, as things turned out, it would be the early birds catching the worm on this occasion.
Marco Attard posted the first flying lap – 1:44.164 – but that time was soon bettered by Steve Tandy, David Ashburn and Ahmad Al Harthy in turn, the Omani racer topping the times with a 1:42.988 after five minutes of the session.
Declan Jones headed GT4 in the #43 Century Ginetta – 1:50.476 – some two seconds ahead of the best of the Dutch GT4s at this point.
Before the times could improve, however, rain began to fall – not heavily, but it wasn’t long before the track surface was too wet for slicks but not yet wet enough for grooved rubber and the majority of the field headed for the pits. Only a handful of cars stayed out – Lee Mowle in the #8 Optimum BMW, Mark Patterson in the #25 United Autosports Audi, Jason Minshaw in the #14 Fortec SLS and Andrew Howard in the #007 Beechdean Aston among them – but even though the rain soon abated, the session would end before the track dried enough; Minshaw reporting that his last lap was 4.5 seconds quicker than his previous one and that another lap would have seen him improve on his 14th place start.
So pole went to Motorbase, with the top-ten order being Al Harthy, Ashburn, Tandy, Attard Dryburgh, Eastwood, Johnston, Berg, White and Mowle. Jon Minshaw ended the session in 12th in the #33 Trackspeed Porsche, but his five-place grid penalty would see him starting the race behind the GT4 pole-sitting Jones; a fate shared by the GT3s of Andrew Howard and Ron Johnson. Rick Parfitt Jr was the second British GT4 runner, but would have several cars – including two Dutch GT4s, the GTC Ferrari and the aforementioned GT3s – between his #44 Optimum Ginetta and the #43 G50.
Even in such a short session there were casualties. The #406 Chevrolet Corvette C6 GT4 pulled off after just five minutes, while the WRT Audi of Rembert Berg arrived back in the pits without a right-rear tyre after a slow and smokey lap.
Update – following a lengthy review of this session, seven cars – #16 LNT Ginetta G55, #40 CWS Ginetta G55, #50 Redgate Lifetime Ginetta G50, #61 Horse Power Racing Ferrari 458 Challenge, #69 APO Ginetta G50, #406 HDI-Formido Corvette and #888 888Optimum BMW Z4 – were each handed a five place grid penalty for failing to complete the required qualifying laps as per Article 3.4.2 of the regs.
The second session started on time and with the track now once again almost dry. The first quick lap this time was set by Piers Johnson in the #78 Ecurie Ecosse/Barwell BMW – 1:43.587 – which interestingly was quicker than Olly Bryant’s first flier in the #79 Z4, but Phil Keen lowered that time to 1:40.194 after six minutes.
Joe Osborne was second on 1:40.879 in the #8, with Rob Barff holding third at the halfway point on 1:41.005 in the #18 FF Ferrari.
Dan Brown improved to third with seven minutes to go, with a time 12-thousandths slower than his teammate, but then Nick Tandy went half a second faster than Keen to set provisional pole at 1:39.661.
Jonny Adam went third in the #007 Aston, while Matt Bell was fourth in the #25 Audi.
Duncan Huisman headed GT4 in the #409 Las Moras Camaro – 1:47.699 – with Ryan Ratcliffe the quickest of the British runners fourth in class. Nathan Freke had dropped the #43 Ginetta into the gravel at Tarzan at the start of the session, which hampered his chances of challenging for pole, but he fared better than the #50 Ginetta of Dan Eagling, which suffered a gearbox failure on its first lap.
With three minutes to go, the timing screens were indicating that Rob Barff was on a quick one – fastest overall in Sector 1 and a PB in Sector 2 – and the FF Ferrari leapt to second with a 1:39.839.
And Aaron Scott (also racing in the Supercar Challenge this weekend) wanted a slice of the action in the #13 AF 458, going fourth quickest on 1:40.467.
As the session entered its final minute, Tandy, Adam and Bell had pitted – as had Stephen Jelley and Benji Hetherington – but there was still time for others to improve. Olly Bryant was the most successful of these, rising to sixth with a 1:40.761 on his last lap, while John Gaw rose to 13th with a last-gasp effort in the #6 PGF-Kinfaun Aston. Michael Caine could only manage 16th in the #1 Motorbase Porsche, meaning an 11th row start after his grid penalty was factored in.
Ricardo van der Ende took the Ekris BMW to GT4 pole, with Ratcliffe third at the end with a 1:49.156.
And that was that for the morning, as far as the British GT runners were concerned. Next up would be the first of the weekend’s two races, a full six hours later.
MH
