Mike Bushell produced a pair of lap times over seven tenths of a second quicker than anybody else as he utterly dominated Renault UK Clio Cup qualifying at Snetterton.
Bushell would set the pace in both wet and dry conditions across the thirty minute session, with a downpour of rain just as the session began presenting a unique challenge to the drivers in the early stages – though the rain soon stopped and the track dried quickly.
As the times began to tumble at the top of the timesheets, the man at the top remained the same. Smashing the existing qualifying lap record, Bushell posted a best effort of 2m 06.570s, which was 0.817s quicker than anybody else.
Bushell’s closest competition came in current championship leader Ant Whorton-Eales, who led a JamSport Racing two-three finish on the timesheets – however a grid penalty carried over from Croft drops him to fourth for race one.
That means Kidsley will line up on the front row for the first time in his Clio career, with Whorton-Eales lining up alongside Senna Proctor behind, the latter securing his third top three qualifying result out of the last five.
While Bushell may have been clear at the front, it was much closer behind with two tenths of a second splitting the next six drivers – Paul Rivett and championship debutant Chris Smiley completing the top six ahead of Max Coates.
David Dickenson, Anton Spires and Ollie Pidgley rounded out the top ten for race one, the latter matching his best qualifying performance of the season so far, while Josh Price, Lee Pattison and Dan Zelos just missed out.
Shayne Deegan had been threatening for the top six on his championship debut, but the Cooksport man eventually had to settle for fifteenth behind Paul Streather, but crucially ahead of team-mates Rory Collingbourne and George Jackson.
Impressively, Kidsley will also line up on the front row for the second race of the weekend courtesy of his second fastest time of the session, with a mixed up grid seeing Coates and Smiley together on row two ahead of Rivett and Whorton-Eales.
Spires, Zelos, Streather and Pattison complete the top ten, with Proctor and Dickenson left to settle for twelfth and thirteenth respectively behind Ladell.
Full qualifying results can be found here.
