Two Contrasting Grids for GTs at Brands

There will be two very different looking grids for Round 11 and 12 at Brands Hatch tomorrow in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship. Last season's champions, David and Godfrey Jones will take pole for the first race in the Ascari KZ1R whilst Allan Simonsen and Hector Lester will start from the front in race two in their Ferrari 430 Scuderia.

Qualifying for the first race had to be halted half way through after Archie Hamilton, behind the wheel of one of three Chad Racing Ferrari 430's, lost control at Paddock Hill and hit the Armco barrier on the inside of the track before impacting heavily with the outside wall. Although disappointing for the youngster who has been competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, as he had set the second quickest time up to that point in his first GT outing he was lucky to walk away from the accident. With the car unrepairable and the advise of doctors Hamilton headed home but will be back out on track for Donington Park in a few weeks time.

As the session got back under way, David Jones was fighting hard with championship leader David Ashburn in his Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3R partnered by Glynn Geddie. The pole time switched between the two a couple of times before Jones stole the quickest time in the dying moments to claim pole by just 0.084 of a second over Ashburn. A super drive from Andrew Howard gave the Beechdean Aston Martin DBRS9 third place. Behind the Aston Martin came a gaggle of five Ferrari 430 Scuderia's headed by the Mtech run car driven by Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin.

The blue and red Chad Racing Ferrari was fifth with Chris Hyman and Dan Brown behind the wheel whilst the Hector Lester and Phil Burton cars took sixth and seventh respectively. Despite his off, Archie Hamilton's time was good enough for eighth ahead of the second Aston Martin DBRS9 of Paul Whight and Michael Bentwood. Paul Warren took tenth place for the remaining Chad Racing Ferrari and the second Trackspeed Porsche of Philip Walker and Richard Westbrook rounded out the GT3 class.

In the G4 class it was the Ginetta G50 of Jamie Stanley and Christian Dick who took the honours of the fastest time ahead of the two Hetheringtons of Freddie and Benjie. GT newcomers Daniel Lloyd and Julian Draper were third quickest of the G4 class in the Barwell Motorsport run G50.

Qualifying in session two was a totally different affair as it was four Ferrari's locking out the top four places. This time it was Allan Simonsen and Hector Lester taking pole ahead of the Mtech car of Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron.

The third Ferrari was that of Adam Wilcox and Phil Burton. An impressive run after the team had a vital laptop stolen from their base earlier this week and without it, the car couldn't be started. However, a new laptop was set up in time to get the car ready and thanks to the power of facebook, the thief has been identified so hopefully the original will be recovered. Fourth place on the grid will be the Chad Racing Ferrari of Tom Ferrier and Paul Warren.

Amazingly the gap between the fifth on the grid Ascari of the Jones' and the sixth placed Aston Martin of Bentwood and Whight was absolutely nothing. Both cars setting identical times of 1:27.937. Glynn Geddie bought his Porsche 997 round for seventh on the grid ahead of the Ferrari of Brown and Hyman and the second Aston Martin.

Thanks to the damage to the Ferrari of Hamilton and Ryan Lewis and problems with the second Trackspeed Porsche, only 9 GT3 cars participated in the second qualifying session meaning both the Ferrari and Porsche will start from the back in race two.

Nathan Freke set the quickest G4 time in his Century Motorsport Ginetta G50 in which he is partnered by Vibe Smed, whilst the Dick and Stanley G50 was less than half a second behind. Third in the class was the Piranha Motorsport Lotus 2-Eleven thanks to a super run by Simon Mason who is paired with Chris Bialan after some mechanical trouble with the car meant shortened practice sessions for them.