Team Pyro pairing Ash Hand and Ashley Sutton shared the Renault UK Clio Cup pole positions in qualifying at Rockingham, with a close fought session seeing the four title contenders split by less than quarter of a second.
Hand set the fastest time of the session with a 1m 29.259s lap to take pole for the opening race by 0.198s, in the process breaking Jack Goff’s existing qualifying record by nearly seven tenths of a second.
Behind, Sutton, Paul Rivett and Ant Whorton-Eales were split by just two hundredths of a second in a close fought fight for the other front row spot.
For the second race, Sutton’s second best effort of 1m 29.588s gave him pole for race two by just 0.018s from Whorton-Eales, with Hand down in third ahead of Rivett – the results being Hand’s eighth and Sutton’s third pole of the season.
Charlie Ladell was best of the rest outside the title contenders once again, with fifth on the grid for both races, while a seasons best session for JamSport Racing saw newbie Luke Kidsley take sixth ahead of Tom Grundy for race one – those two switching positions for race two.
Team Cooksport’s Rory Collingbourne posted the eighth fastest time overall, with debutant Josh Price in ninth ahead of George Jackson and Masters Cup leader Peter Felix, with Rory Green, Mark Howard and Graham Field completing the grid for race one.
For race two, Jackson will line up eighth with his team-mate Collingbourne behind him. Green is a seasons best tenth ahead of Price, Felix, Howard and Field.
Full qualifying results can be found here.
