British GT: Beechdean claims double pole in GT3 while GT4 is split by the two Ginetta entries

Aston Martin’s Beechdean Motorsport claimed pole position in both of the GT3 qualifying sessions ahead of the bank holiday Monday action while Toro Verde GT and Innovation Racing share GT4 poles.

Beechdean take double pole in closely fought GT3 Qualifying

GT3 Qualifying one saw a great battle for race one pole position between the Barwell Lamborghini’s of Rob Collard and Alex Martin as well as Andrew Howard in the Beechdean Aston and the Optimum McLaren of Marc Warren. On the first laps, Warren would go fastest before being toppled by Collard and then Howard with just four minutes to go.

Howard’s 1:34.098 would be enough to secure the team pole in race one ahead of Collard and Warren while Kevin Tse would put the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes ahead of the second Barwell Motorsport car of Martin who completes the top five. Simon Orange would qualify ahead of Johnathon Beeson and Mark Smith while Morgan Tillbrook and Ian Loggie would complete the top ten. Duncan Cameron, Cameron Campbell and Matt Topham would complete the grid for race one.

Race two qualifying would see the drivers change over for the second session with Optimum Motorsports Ben Barnicoat take the top spot in the opening runs before Ross Gunn’s Aston Martin promptly made his way to provisional pole position. The McLaren would bounce back with another fastest lap jumping the Beechdean car by two tenths of a second with less than five minutes on the clock. Gunn would fire back with an excellent lap just minutes later to claim the fastest time by a thousandth of a second before going even quicker the following lap. Barnicoat would try again on the following lap but would just miss out by 0.019 of a second leaving Beechdean Motorsport to claim two pole positions.

Behind the two protagonists sat the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini of Hugo Cook while Ben Green would claim another fourth place qualifying for the 2 Seas no.18 car. Marcus Clutton in his Orange Racing McLaren would complete the top five ahead of Jarrod Waberski in the no. 78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini. Rodin Motorsport would qualify seventh with Josh Buchan and ahead of Century Motorsport Charles Clark. Ian Loggie and Martin Plowman would complete the top ten ahead of Jack Brown, Matt Griffin and Luke Garlick.

Innovation and Toro Verde GT make it a double Ginetta pole position

Jack Collins would start off the session with the fastest time ahead of the two Ginetta entries before MK Racing’s Jessica Hawkins briefly snatched it away. Collins would get provisional pole back for race one shortly after before Hadley Simpson would claim fastest for Innovation Racing with just a minute to go in the session. Simpson would stay there despite tough competition from rivals claiming pole position in GT4 for race one for the championship leading Ginetta. Collins would qualify second ahead of Hawkins and Luke Shaw in the Toro Verde Ginetta while Daniel Lavery would complete the top five. Josh Stanton and James Townsend would qualify sixth and seventh while Ian Duggan, Ernie Graham and Blake Angliss would complete the top ten. John Hartshorne would complete the GT4 grid for race one in eleventh.

Race two qualifying would see Ronan Pearson take the top spot for GBR Stratton before Jack Mitchell stole it from him only moments later with a blistering first lap. Will Orton would be the next to top the timesheets for MK Racing before the Toro Verde GT Ginetta claimed it back with less than four minutes to go. A 1:40.875 would be enough to claim pole position for race two for Toro Verde GT Ginetta ahead of MK Racing. Innovation Racing’s Thomas Holland would claim third ahead of Grange Racing’s Darren Turner and the sole Porsche of Tom Bradshaw. Pearson would end the session in sixth ahead of Luca Hopkinson and Colin Turkington while Branden Templeton would qualify ninth. Joe Wheeler and Steven Lake would complete the classification for GT4 race two qualifying.