Adam Carroll has ended his first British GT Championship session in the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 fastest leaving it until the dying minutes of the session to fly himself to the top of the times.
The first competitive session of the Rockingham weekend saw Jonny Adam set the first decent time, with a 1:17.495 in the #17 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage on a track that still has scope to develop once it is rubbered in.
No sooner had the Scot set the first fastest time, than we had the first mechanical problem of the weekend as the #32 Tolman Ginetta G55 GT3 stopped on the inside of turn one with Mike Simpson behind the wheel. He managed to limp it round to the pits but wouldn’t be seen again for the remainder of the sixty minute session.
After the white flags went away, Joey Foster in the Lanan Racing Ginetta G55 GT4 climbed to the top of the GT4 Class – which is two cars light this weekend after Stratton Motorsport pulled both their entries for this round – with a 1:24.419.
Not to be outdone in the boasting stakes, the GT3 leaders improved their times once again with Phil Keen in the Demon Tweeks liveried Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan recording a 1:17.477 to push himself up to top of the time sheets. Not long after though, he pitted for bodywork issues which disrupted a bit of their running in the middle of the session but thankfully it was nothing major.
With twenty minutes gone, Nathan Freke showed the #73 Century Motorsport Ginetta still has the great pace it had at Brands Hatch by going first in GT4 with a 1:23.626 – a time that would keep him top for the remainder of the session.
Nathan Freke carried on the University of Bolton backed car’s blistering pace (Credit: Nick Smith/TheImageTeam.com)
With half the session gone, the timing screens seemed to settle down a touch with the ‘Am’ drivers more focussed on putting in consistent laps rather than outright pace. That said, most of the grid got done for track limits at turn eight with Ross Gunn in the #1 Beechdean AMR Vantage a regular culprit.
Times stayed generally static until the final ten minutes of the session, when Adam Carroll got in the Irish TV liveried Huracan for the second time in the session on brand new tyres where he proceeded to blitz the circuit and end the session with a 1:17.359 – a gap of just under one tenth to Keen in the sister Lambo.
Adam would finish third with the PFL Motorsport Aston Martin finishing fourth with Jody Fannin setting a 1:18.033 to go ahead of Rick Parfitt in the Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 who hit the barriers coming out of Gracelands to end the session with 50 seconds to go. The Bentley suffered substantial damage with chassis issues meaning it will be hard work to get the car repaired for tomorrow, with the car already set to miss qualifying.
In GT4, Freke would stay top with Graham Johnson in the #50 PMW World Expo Racing Ginetta going second with a 1:24.048 to put him ahead of Scott Malvern in the Nick Jones entered Ginetta G55.
