James Dorlin has continued his great start to the 2016 Michelin Clio Cup Series season with a pair of pole positions at Pembrey, though Sam Randon was able to pip him to race three pole.
Dorlin led the way with two poles and two wins in the Oulton Park season opener last month, and the Westbourne Motorsport ace has carried that form across for the trip to Wales.
The championship’s first ever visit to Pembrey featured two qualifying sessions, the first setting the grid for the opening two races, with the second session focusing on race three.
Dorlin set the tone in the first outing with both poles, but it wasn’t plain sailing as his Westbourne team-mate Randon pushed him close, just 0.125s separating them at the end.
Brett Lidsey and Luke Pinder were over half a second further back, the final two drivers within a second of the pole time, with Ben Palmer, Ben Colburn and Tyler Lidsey completing the Race Class runners.
Remarkably, the drivers’ second fastest time in that session produced the exact same order for the grid for race two, with Dorlin’s pole margin this time an extended 0.456s.
It was all change in the second session however as Randon topped the timesheets, 0.232s ahead of Dorlin, with Pinder just seven hundredths of a second further back.
Brett Lidsey put himself on the second row of the grid once again with fourth ahead of his brother Tyler, with Ben Palmer
In the Road category, Sarah Franklin produced a perfect start to the weekend with a treble pole position, with Nic Harrison second for each ahead of Jack Fabby.
Full qualifying results can be found here.