In the first of the two 15 minute qualifying sessions it was Gavan Kershaw who set an early benchmark, his 1:36.906 an improvement over the ISSY Racing Lotus’s times in Free Practice and remaining the time to beat for the whole of the session for the ‘faster’ of the driver pairings.
Dan Cammish posted second quickest, just 0.266 seconds adrift of Kershaw’s time for the #44 Team Parker Porsche, as 2007 Champ (in GT3 no less..) Bradley Ellis set the quickest time for the Ginettas, third overall. Championship hopeful Jake Giddings settled down behind, less than half a second covering the top four, times generally slower in this cooler session than in the warmer morning Free Practice conditions.
With most cars heading to the pits with time to spare the initial order set out as:-
77 Kershaw; Lotus
44 Cammish; Porsche
46 Ellis; Ginetta
407 Giddings; Aston Martin
42 Oliphant; Ginetta
48 Stanley; Ginetta
43 Dons; Ginetta
86 Hodgetts; Toyota (Invitation)
49 Jarman; Aston Martin
69 May; Porsche.
Session two commenced with the two Aston Martins on fliers to post the quickest of the combined times, the APO Porsche of Alex Osborne also showing its nose for third. This wasn’t to last however as Oz Yusuf reclaimed provisional pole, wringing a 1:39.120 out of his Evora. Ross Wylie and Devon Modell though trading times between them had no answer to this in second and third respectively, as Rick Parfitt Jr pushed the #42 Century Ginetta to fourth, displacing Osborne to fifth.
Modell and Parfitt were pushing hard and improving their sector times, Modell setting his best time with five minutes to go, but could not find the half a second needed to catch the Beechdean Aston still sitting on the first row of the GT4 grid. The #407 Aston’s times were still half a second shy of that of the Lotus; perhaps the Beechdean team were saving themselves for the bigger job in hand?
With four minutes of the session left to run these four headed to the pits, job done.
The biggest displacements in the final combined times were the Twisted Team Parker and Fox Motorsport Ginettas, plus the Team Parker Porsche, the latter two forming the back row of the grid.
Combined qualifying times:-
1. 77 ISSY Racing Lotus Evora; Kershaw / Yusuf 3:15.709
2. 407 Beechdean Aston Martin; Giddings / Wylie 3:16.193
3. 49 TF Sport Aston Martin; Jarman / Modell 3:16.691
4. 42 Century Motorsport Ginetta; Oliphant/ Parfitt 3:17.098
5. 69 APO Sport Porsche; May / Osborne 3:17.530
6. 43 Century Motorsport Ginetta; Dons / Schjerpen 3:17.700
7. 46 Twisted Team Parker Ginetta; Ellis / Barwick 3:17.871
8. 86 GPRM Toyota GT86; Hodgetts / Fletcher (Inv) 3:18.082
9. 48 Fox Motorsport Ginetta; Stanley / McNeilly 3:18.647
10. 44 Team Parker Porsche; Cammish / Baxter 3:19.533
ML
