Rain had been forecast for the vicinity of Swanley around the time that Qualifying was due to start on Saturday afternoon, and indeed Brands was surrounded by dark, foreboding clouds as the first session approached. As the cars began to leave their garages, however, it remained dry.
The format for this session would be the new-for-2014 enduro version, whereby the fastest laps from each car’s drivers would be combined to form an aggregate qualifying time. Therefore, the Am’s contribution was likely to be more important than that of the Pro half of the pairing.
There was drama even before the pitlane opened for the first session, as Rory Butcher somehow managed to hit the #888 BMW Z4 of Joe Osborne as the #5 Oman Racing Aston left its garage. The front-right of the Aston was gaffer-taped up, while the Triple Eight car looked to be okay apart from a scuff behind the driver’s door. “Totally our fault!” said Oman Racing team boss David Bartrum later.
Alexander Sims led the field around, but aborted his first flier which left Jonny Adam on provisional pole on 1:25.538 in the #1 Beechdean Aston, but only until Nick Tandy completed his first flier; 1:25.257 being the new benchmark.
Sims improved to third on his next lap, but Phil Keen pushed the #79 BMW back down to fourth just a few seconds later. Rory Butcher was fifth, with Tom Onslow-Cole sixth in the #21 Aston, Alex MacDowall seventh in the #6 Vantage and Joe Osborne eighth.
Adam Carroll was the quickest of the Ferrari runners when he went eighth after eight minutes in the #18 FF Corse. Tom Sharp also went quicker than the #888 Z4 to go ninth in the #38 Aston.
As the clock ticked down to five minutes remaining, the majority of the GT3 field had pitted, leaving plenty of space for those few cars still out. Matt Bell took advantage in the much-repaired #23 United Autosports Audi to go 14th on 1:26.260 and improved again to 12th (1:26.173) with just over a minute to go.
And that was that – the Audi being the last car to pit as the clock ran out.
In GT4, Dan Cammish put the first marker down, the #44 Porsche posting a first flying lap of 1:33.331, followed closely by Jamie Stanley’s Ginetta; the #48 Fox Motorsport car then going fastest. A 1:33.218 was evidence of an encouraging weekend so far for the Essex based team, with the car clearly improved. This was not to last, however, as Brad Ellis established the #46 Twisted Team Parker Ginetta back at the top of the timing screen, half a second quicker on 1:32.787.
As the energy of the opening laps settled down, Ellis led Stanley, from Cammish, and Jake Giddings’ Beechdean Aston Martin finding its feet, just over half a second covering these cars.
The order as the first session closed was:
46 Ellis / 48 Stanley / 44 Cammish / 407 Giddings / 42 Oliphant; Ginetta / 77 Kershaw; Lotus / 49 Jarman; Aston Martin / 45 Jones ; BMW / 43 Schjerpen; Ginetta.
The #86 Toyota of Stefan Hodgetts completed the session, the ‘invitation’ entry 30th overall, splitting the last two GT4 places.
But this session was only half of the story, and it would be down to the Ams in both classes to set the grid.
The second session began on time at 16:35 and we awaited the shuffling of the timing screens as the combined times started to appear.
It was Andrew Howard whose name was alongside the first aggregated time, with the two Beechdean pilots producing a 2:52.661 between them. Second was Phil Minshaw in the #63 Trackspeed Porsche, with a combined time of 2:53.711, but he was soon sliding down the screen as Colin White (#38 MP Aston), Ahmad Al Harthy (#4 Oman Racing Aston) and David Ashburn (#31 Trackspeed Porsche) went quicker. Jeff Smith in the #5 Oman Aston then improved to fifth, but Ashburn then went second; 0.642s off pole.
As the halfway point was reached, Al Harthy took his Aston into second – still four tenths off Howard’s time – while we had Whites (Colin and Paul respectively) in fourth and fifth. But this was a long way from being settled, as Smith went third briefly before Minshaw retook second. Marco Attard was only eighth at this point.
With four minutes remaining, Howard, Al Harthy, Ashburn, Paul White and Marco Attard had all pitted, and more and more joined them in the garages as the seconds ticked away.
No further improvements were made, so pole went to the Beechdean Aston. In terms of marques, the GT3 grid would be Aston, Porsche, Aston, Aston, Porsche, Aston, Aston, BMW, Ferrari, BMW, BMW, Aston, Bentley, Ferrari, Ferrari, Nissan, BMW, Aston, Ferrari, McLaren and Audi. Despite their extra 75kgs, Jody Firth and Warren Hughes were the quickest of the three Triple Eight BMWs in tenth, while the M-Sport Bentley was 13th and the RJN Nissan was 16th.
Ross Wylie and Rick Parfitt Jnr. got the hammer down early in GT4, their familiar duel topping the aggregate time sheets; Parfitt’s 1:34.034 a couple of tenths better than Wylie’s but not enough to take pole.
Adrian Barwick seemed happy to settle for Row 2, the Twisted Team Parker Ginetta circulating comfortably in the 1:36’s – this an indicative race pace – while Devon Modell found some speed in the TF Sport Aston Martin to go fourth initially; though the white #49 car would drop back as the session progressed.
Ossy Yusuf was steady in the #77 Evora, while Paul McNeilly held the #48 Ginetta ahead of Morten Dons’ #43 Century car. The Fox Motorsport team had looked confident all day and the second row of the GT4 grid seemed fair reward.
With a minute to go Wylie and Parfitt were sat in the pits, their 1.5 second advantage over the third placed Ginetta seemingly enough to be beyond threat.
As the chequered flag was shown the top six for the combined grid was as follows:-
1. 407 Wylie / Giddings; Beechdean Aston Martin – 3:07.438
2. 42 Parfitt / Oliphant; Century Ginetta – 3:07.506
3. 46 Barwick / Ellis ; Twisted Team Parker Ginetta – 3:08.966
4. 48 Stanley / McNeilly; Fox Motorsport Ginetta – 3:09.285
5. 77 Yusuf / Kershaw; ISSY Racing Lotus Evora – 3:09.421
6. 49 Modell / Jarman; TF Sport Aston Martin – 3:09.462
So a very good day for Beechdean AMR, with pole in both classes, while there’s plenty to do for Ecurie Ecosse tomorrow; even without the extra 20 seconds they’ll have to serve at the driver-change. It’s all about points now!
MH/ML
