After a strong showing in practice, Tolman Motorsport’s trio of McLarens all looked capable of challenging for GT4 pole. However, three quickly became two when David Pattison’s #56 570S hit the tyre barrier at Raidillon.
Fortunately, Pattison was able to climb clear of the car unaided, but the team now faces a race against time to be ready for tomorrow’s race.
Significant repairs were also required for the tyre wall and, once the action resumed, only six minutes remained on the clock, leading to some fast and furious action. The Century Motorsport duo of Ben Tuck and Dean Macdonald set the initial pace before the #4 McLaren of Michael O’Brien, one of two Tolman Motorsport machines left to battle it out, assumed top spot.
The #10 Equipe Verschuur McLaren with Finlay Hutchison at the wheel subsequently moved up to second, with Tuck holding third, Lewis Proctor’s other remaining Tolman 570S fourth and Callum Pointon fifth in HHC’s championship-leading Ginetta.
Charlie Fagg then wasted no time in confirming the #4’s position at the head of the GT4 field as the Pro session got underway, posting a 2m31.941s to put the McLaren 0.192s clear of the #10 car now piloted by Daniel McKay. Fagg’s Tolman stablemate Jordan Albert moved the #5 McLaren up to third with the #42 Century Motorsport BMW, now in the hands of Ben Green, assuming fourth place.
“It’s really nice to get pole position, and also great to have extracted the maximum from the car after a slightly disappointing Silverstone”, said Fagg.
“We needed to bounce back, and that’s what we did so I’m delighted with that. Michael did an excellent job too, so we need to keep pushing on, and we will see you all tomorrow for the race, which hopefully we can win.”
Mike Robinson, at the wheel of the #501 Balfe Motorsport McLaren, set the fastest time of any driver in the session and that was good enough to put him and Graham Johnson into fifth. Pointon and Patrik Matthiesen rounded out the top-six.
Starting in seventh position tomorrow will be Macdonald and Jack Mitchell in the second Century Motorsport BMW, ahead of Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman in the UltraTek Racing Team RJN Nissan 370Z.
