Championship leader Mike Robinson has taken what could be a decisive pole position at Croft Circuit in the Michelin Clio Cup Series.
In conditions that would be best described as soaking, it was clear that to get the best lap time a fine balance had to be found between all out and attack and knowing when to back off and not push as hard through the corners.
For Total Control Racing’s Robinson, his time of 1:38.510 was the best of a ten lap qualifying session that saw a number of cars spinning, and nearest rival David Dickenson unable to get within touching distance – he ended up finishing with a time of 1:38.805 – a testament to how much control the championship leader had in the glum conditions.
In third place behind the pair, was Brett Smith for Team Pyro who was six tenths of a second back from Dickenson but was two tenths clear of Westbourne Motorsport’s Luke Herbert.
In the Race Sport Class, Ollie Pidgley was the pace setter but will be grateful to have set his lap when he did – towards the end of the session he lost control going into the complex and ended up making a heavy impact with the tyre barriers. Thankfully the damage didn’t look too major and with their first race starting tomorrow the Team Pyro mechanics should have enough time to repair the damage.
Behind him in the class was Peter Bennett and – with only one tenths difference between them – will have been kicking himself for not being able to capitalise on his rival’s mistake.
Into the road class for cars adapted from road going machines, Jake Honour is starting from poll in the Expert class with the pole position man in the sport class – Luke Pinder – starting directly behind.
