The Beechdean AMR of Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard has claimed pole position for the Avon Tyres British GT Championship’s Two Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Adam, who went out in the first Pro only session, set the fastest time in Qualifying One – 2:20.340 – and when combined with Howard’s 2:24.809, they secured pole with a 2:22.574.
Behind them came the #6 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin V8 Vantage of Liam Griffin and Rory Butcher. They ran the Beechdean crew close – a 2:22.862 meant that with only a three-tenth gap they could have claimed pole if only both drivers improved by a tenth around the circuit.
The same could be said for the Demon Tweeks BMW of Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw, except they were arguably even closer to moving up to second. They were only half-a-tenth behind so any slight improvement could have seen them start on the front row.
Fourth went to another Barwell entered BMW – the Ecurie Ecosse car of Marco Attard and Alexander Sims. The first of the cars that couldn’t break into the 2:22s, Attard was a fraction slower than the other Am drivers out in his session so they had to settle for a 2:23.174.
Lucky to be in fifth was the #27 TF Sport Aston Martin of Jody Fannin and Andrew Jarman. The car stopped out on track during Qualifying Two but thankfully had a time put in the bank so at least they can start in a good position.
A car that didn’t live up to the pace it showed in the two free practice sessions earlier was the #32 Team LNT Ginetta of Steve Tandy and Michael Simpson. Tandy had a disrupted qualifying session and his 2:28.473 pushed the pair’s average up to 2:24.928 and position 13 on the grid in GT3
One team equally unlucky was the #49 GT4 Porsche 911 of AmDTuning.com. The very first lap out of the pits, Jake Hill had a very scary moment as the bonnet came loose, smashed into the windscreen, and the scrutineers thought better than let the car go out with the windscreen the way it was. They’ll start at the back.
ISSY Racing had a typically strong run during qualifying (Credit: British GT)
The car that will start at the front of GT4 is the always pacey ISSY Racing Lotus of Gavan Kershaw and Oz Yusuf. Their pace was so strong that they finished more than 1.5 seconds ahead of near rivals Ross Gunn and Jamie Chadwick with a 2:36.216 compared to the Lotus’ 2:34.460.
Third place will be a car that has been strong all day – the #43 Century Motorsport Ginetta of James Birch and Aleksander Schjerpen – which clocked an average time of 2:36.717.
Not too far behind them was another car that has been on the pace all day, the #48 Fox Motorsport Ginetta of Jamie Stanley and Paul McNeilly which set a time of 2:37.132.
All the times are provisional, with a number of appeals and incidents set to be considered by the race officials after an often frenetic qualifying session,
The race itself will take place tomorrow at 12.15pm CET with two punishing hours in store for the field.
