British GT

TF Sport & HHC Motorsport claim British GT pole positions at Rockingham

2 Mins read
Credit: Nick Smith/TheImageTeam.com

TF Sport and HHC Motorsport have secured pole positions in the GT3 and GT4 classes respectively as lap times tumbled in the British GT Championship qualifying session at Rockingham.

First up was GT3 and initially it was the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mark Farmer who was fastest after setting a 1:17.704. With times combined with the pro drivers to get the final grid, there was still scope for Farmer’s final position to change but early doors they set a warning shot to their rivals that the TF Sport crew meant business.

For a number of laps, it appeared that the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Jon Minshaw lowered the fastest time down to 1:17.126 but he had this lap, and another fast lap, disqualified for disrespecting track limits.

Benefitting greatly from that was Derek Johnston, in the eventual pole-sitting #1 TF Sport Aston as his 1:17.808 ended up being good enough for third as the Am session ended.

That time gave Jonny Adam a great basis to build on in the second part of GT3 qualifying and his 1:16.542 combined for a 2:34.350 – two-tenths faster than the second Aston Martin as Jon Barnes set a 1:16.891, not able to get down to the levels of the reigning champion to try and pinch pole.

Third place would be the #33 Barwell Lamborghini of Minshaw and Phil Keen, the latter setting a 1:16.448 but with Minshaw’s slower time they could only combine for a 2:34.660. Their team-mates in the second Lamborghini Huracan GT3 – Liam Griffin and Sam Tordoff – will start fourth after their combined time put them a tenth behind the Keen/Minshaw entry.

Behind them is Oulton Park pole-sitters Team Parker Racing with Rick Parfitt and Seb Morris finishing in fifth place.

HHC claimed pole in GT4 (Credit: Nick Smith/TheImageTeam.com)

GT4 went the way of HHC after two mega stints from the all-silver pairing of Will Tregurtha and Stuart Middleton saw them both log times in the 1:22s to combine for a 2:45.465, seeing them finish half-a-second ahead of another Ginetta G55 GT4 this one at the hands of Lanan Racing. They would lose the chance at pole as David Pittard couldn’t make it into the 1:22s and would finish with a 1:23.298.

Third place would go to another Ginetta as reigning class champions PMW Expo Racing finished with a 2:45.919 for Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson – only 0.016s behind second place.

The fastest McLaren 570S would finish in fourth place as Ciaran Haggerty couldn’t match the initial pace of Sandy Mitchell in the #100 Black Bull Garage 59 car to finish with a 2:46.031.

Like in GT3 there were a number of cancelled laps for track limits and falling foul of that was the fifth place starters Sam Webster and Matt Chapman in the AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing Ginetta, the cancelled lap saw them finish almost a second behind Haggerty and Mitchell with a 2:46.998.

The two-hour British GT race at Rockingham gets underway at 1.10pm tomorrow.

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3rd Year Multimedia Journalism Student at Teesside University, interested in motorsport and writing about it as well. I'm also a qualified pilot but I don't mention that much.
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