Ross Wylie was in a class of his own during qualifying for the final two races of the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup at Donington Park, beating the top two championship contenders to pole position.
The Slidesports driver was a threat throughout the half-hour session to decide tomorrow’s grid, trading the top spot with the returning Chris Levett in the early minutes.
Stewart Lines, the fourth man still in contention for the 2013 title, also joined in the battle for the early advantage, his time of 1m47.223s moving him 0.5s quicker than Sam Morgan who joins Lines at the KPM squad for the final two races of the year.
A time trial developed between Wylie, Lines and Levett at the halfway stage, Wylie beating fellow Scirocco driver Lines to return to the top before Levett lowered that benchmark by 0.177s.
Lines then took another turn at the head of the times by over three tenths, until Wylie smashed that effort by almost a second, eventually sealing pole with a lap time of 1m45.418. The lap proved to be 0.953s quicker than Joe Fulbrook, who put himself on the front row ahead of championship leader Aaron Mason.
Mason – lying 64 points ahead of Fulbrook heading into the deciding double-header – recovered to the second row after a quiet start to the session, joined by Martin Depper who ended as top KPM driver ahead of team-mate Morgan.
The third KPM car of Lines could only finish seventh behind JWB Motorsport‘s Levett, Josh Caygill eighth ahead of David Sutton and Phil House, another man who could win the championship should the cards turn in the former double champion’s favour.
Henry Gilbert could only manage 12th position behind Kieran Griffin, while former British Superbike champion Tommy Hill qualified a satisfactory 13th place for JWB on his debut.
Tony Gilham returned to the wheel of a VW Cup machine for the first time since July 2012, ending the session down in 24th place. Cameron Thompson had a more eventful session, his boot lid offering an unwanted downforce aid when it popped open early in the session.
