Ben Pearson secured a last gasp pole position in qualifying for the Ginetta Junior Championship at Thruxton, snatching the best time late on from championship leader Jack Mitchell.
Mitchell topped the timesheets for almost the whole session, and although Pearson went on to take pole position for the opening race from him, the JHR Development ace posted the fastest second best time to secure pole for race two.
Pearson grabbed the top spot after latching onto the rear of a JHR trio, benefitting from their tow to set a best time of 1m 31.898 seconds, 0.239s ahead of Mitchell.
Behind Mitchell is his JHR team-mate Dan Zelos, the rookie putting in a superb performance to take third on his first competitive outing at the high-speed Hampshire circuit.
HHC Motorsport team-mates James Kellett and Lando Norris were next up, ahead of Donington Park podium finisher Jamie Caroline, while a frustrated seventh was Jamie Chadwick.
Former Ginetta Scholarship winner Chadwick looked set to hugely improve her time with five minutes to go when she was held up by a slowing Jonathan Hadfield at the final chicane.
Jack Rawles and Matt Chapman took eighth and ninth respectively, the latter sitting 1.058 seconds off the poleman, whilst rounding out the top ten was Billy Monger.
While Pearson took pole, it was a disappointing session for his team-mates. Ryan Hadfield took tenth, with the unfortunate J.Hadfield down in seventeenth after an excursion off track and a trip through the pits to remove grass from the back of his Ginetta G40J.
For race two, Mitchell will line up ahead of Pearson, Norris, Kellett, Caroline, Zelos, Rawles, Chadwick, Monger and R.Hadfield.
Full qualifying results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/toca/2014/141803gij.pdf
