Ollie Chadwick became the first Ginetta GT5 Challenge pole sitter of the new season, with his time, a 1 minute 40.866s almost a second quicker than the opposition. He spent much of the qualifying session on top, proving he’s lost none of his speed that was seen last season.
As the session got underway, over 30 cars streamed onto the Brands Hatch track. With space very much limited, it was all about a drivers ability to keep his cool and negotiate the slower cars while maintaining their pace. Chadwick was the first to set the benchmark, making the most of the clear track in the early part of the session to set a 1 minute 48.591s.
Not all drivers were using their machines to full potential in the early half of the session as Matt Chapman spent much of the qualifying behind the Am drivers.
Instead, it was Nick Zapolski who took provisional pole by four-hundredths of a second, before quickly being pushed down the order by Chadwick and the rest of the front runners, including the Hadfield pairing of Ryan and Jonathan. The R+J Motorsport drivers were quick during the chaotic middle part of the session managing to remain within a few tenths of each other, but failed to improve at the death, pushing them back down.
It was Andrew Richardson and the #22 machine of Jack Minshaw who broke into the top three as the session counted down, but neither were able to close on Chadwick who extended his lead at the end of the session to 0.820 seconds.
As the flag dropped, some of the front runners, including Richardson, had already peeled into the pits with Chapman managing to claim third, but was later disqualified from Qualifying for receiving outside assistance to rejoin the track after an earlier spin.
That resulted in the Got Boost machines lining up on the second row, while Jonathan Hadfield beat his team-mate to line up fifth.
In the GT5 Am class Mark Davenport ended up on top, after his closest rival Ian Robinson was forced to end qualifying early. Meanwhile Richard Evans in the Quattro Motorsport machine dominated the GRDC+ class to take pole by one and a half seconds.
