After an enjoyable qualifying session, the set-up for the final race of the season couldn’t have been scripted more favourably, with the two remaining contenders for the championship separated on the front row of the grid by just three-thousandths of a second.
The Pro drivers were out first in the two-part aggregated session, and we had the usual wait before times began to appear on the screens. When they did, it was the name of Jonny Adam that appeared at the top, with a 1:28.691 in the #1 Beechdean Aston. As things transpired, this time was to remain unchallenged for the remaining 11 minutes.
Tom Onslow-Cole was initially second with a 1:29.761 in the #21 Strata21 Aston, with Alex MacDowall third in the #6 PGF-Kinfaun Aston, but within seconds Joe Osborne had gone second in the #888 Triple Eight BMW. Michael Caine then took third in the #4 Oman Racing Vantage, but then lost that place to Phil Keen’s #63 Trackspeed Porsche.
Wolfgang Reip’s qualifying session lasted just two laps before being forced into the pits with a brake-bias problem on the #80 RJN Nissan GT-R – an issue that would take until the start of Q2 to sort – but Caine was having more luck and lowered his time to 1:29.304; still fourth. It was then the turn of Aaron Scott to shuffle the order – a 1:29.352 taking the #13 AF Corse 458 to fifth – but by now Nick Tandy was speeding up and had gone second in the #31 Trackspeed Porsche; demoting Rory Butcher’s #5 Oman Racing Aston to third in the process.
The session had by now reached its halfway point and Alastair Sims had just gone fifth in the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW. Three cars had only just ventured out from the pits, however, and the first of these – Steven Kane’s #17 M-Sport Bentley – appeared in sixth after his first flier. Benny Simonsen then went sixth in the #3 Rosso Verde Ferrari after his first lap, while Matt Bell began his session in 12th in the #23 United Autosports Audi.
As the final minutes ticked away, Sims improved to third and Simonsen managed to hang on to sixth. Kane briefly took that place away in the Bentley, but he was deemed to have exceeded the track limits and his time was taken away. The same penalty had also been served earlier to David Jones in the #22 Preci-Spark McLaren.
The order at the end of the session was thus:
1, 31, 79, 888, 5, 3, 17, 63, 4, 13, 21, 23, 18, 6, 29, 32, 8, 19, 88, 22 and 80.
Birthday boy Mike Simpson was ‘gutted’ after his session in the #32 (non points-scoring) LNT Ginetta G55 GT3, after the team made an error with the tyre warmers that resulted in his Avons failing to get any heat into them. He reckoned this had cost him a second.
After a ten-minute break, the second drivers took the cars back out for their attempts.
This time around, the first qualifying time was set by Marco Attard in #79 – 3:01.437 on aggregate – but this wasn’t going to last long and Derek Johnston usurped the championship leader with an aggregate time of 3:00.875 in the #888 BMW. Paul White was third in the Strata21 Aston.
Phil Dryburgh was briefly in second as he completed his first lap in the #6 PGF-Kinfaun Vantage, before David Ashburn went top in the #31 Trackspeed Porsche on 3:00.585. Attard then broke the three-minute barrier to lower provisional pole to 2:59.991.
But where was Andrew Howard while all this was going off? The answer was 16th, with the Beechdean Aston a long way off the pace in the early stages.
Gary Eastwood took the #18 FF Ferrari to fifth, before the session entered its decisive phase. This began when Jon Minshaw took second with a 3:00.038, but then Ahmad Al Harthy suddenly appeared in provisional pole with a combined time of 2:29.436. Attard reacted and knocked a further four-tenths off this time and it looked as though the BMW had nailed it.
But no – the Omani hit back with a lap of 1:29.714 soon afterwards to retake pole by the slimmest of margins.
Andrew Howard finally found the space he needed to string a quick lap together, but it came too late for him to get the best of his tyres and his car’s combined time of 2:59.251 left him third; and he was unable to find any more time in the remainder of the session.
Fourth went to the #5 Aston after a good lap of 1:30.304 from Liam Griffin, while a late lap of 1:30.501 from Mark Patterson promoted the Audi to fifth. The third row was completed by the #888 BMW of Johnston and Osborne.
“I’m chuffed, that was a good result all things considered,” said Johnston. “The traffic out there was ridiculous. I kept looking ahead and managing the gap, but another car would come out in front of me. It was frustrating, but I kept cool and waited. I fancy my chances of making up places before the pit stops and I think the team did a good job to overcome some of the issues we had in free practice.”
Jody Firth ended the second session third – his best of 1:30.122 in the #8 Z4 being just 0.028s slower than that of warren Hughes – but ended up 11th in the combined times.
The final order was 4, 79, 1, 5, 23, 888, 18, 63, 31, 21, 8, 29, 13, 6, 17, 32, 19, 3, 88, 22 and 80. However, the Beechdean Aston also had a three-place grid penalty to face after Brands Hatch and so the #5 Aston, #23 Audi and #888 BMW would all move up one place.
“I’m delighted by pole,” said a beaming Ahmad Al Harthy. “We just need to continue that now into the race. Michael did a mega job in the first session and I was really happy with my run; the team kept pushing me on over the radio.
“The guys gave us a really well-balanced car and we just have to do our best tomorrow. We have a 15s penalty to overcome, but it’s a long race and the pressure’s on them, not us!”
Sunday’s decider could not have been teed-up better, and all that was left was to wait and see how events unfolded.
MH
