Redline Racing driver Meadows climbs Hailwood Hill
Michael Meadows took pole position for the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season opener at Brands Hatch in his SAS backed Redline Racing entry. Meadows' time of 46.006 was good enough to take pole position by 0.121 seconds, with Richard Plant in second place for Team Parker Racing.
Meadows also set the best second fastest time, used to set the grid for Sunday's race, with Lloyd lining up second in his first race weekend in Porsches.
The order at the top remained relatively set after the early exchanges, Meadows emerging on top after he, Jonas Gelzinis, Plant and scholarship recipient Daniel Lloyd has swapped provisional pole as they got up to speed.
The foursome were covered by just seven hundreths, with Parr Motorsport driver Ben Barker and series returnee Glynn Geddie slotting to fifth and sixth.
Meadow's improvement from 46.116 stretched out the margin at the top a little with none of his immediate chasers able to improve in the final ten minutes, Sam Tordoff's move into sixth between Barker and Geddie the highest mover in the Pro category. Barker will head Tordoff on the third row for this afternoon's race but the pair will swap places for the second race, their second best laps split by just 0.002 seconds in favour of Yorkshire-based Tordoff.
Lithuanian Jonas Gelzinis, moving into the Pro class having dominated ProAm1 last season, will start an impressive fourth fastest for both races.
Ahmad Al–Harthy will led the ProAm1 runners on the grid for both races. The Oman driver took the class pole from Michael Leonard just six minutes into the session with a 46.585 second lap, which stayed unbeaten for the rest of the session. Leonard and Derek Pierce will line up second in class for races one and two respectively with former Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge frontrunner Ollie Mortimer fourth for both races.
Mortimer, driving for GT Marques, ended his session in the gravel on the approach to Druids, bringing out a red flag with just six minutes remaining. Once restarted the session was uneventful, many of the top runners opting to stick with their earlier times.
Tania Mann – the first female racer to enter the full Carrera Cup GB season – got her ProAm2 campaign off to the best possible start, taking the category double pole, besting Belgian Jean Glorieux shortly before Mortimer's off brought the session to a halt.
