A hot and sunny Oulton Park saw some very competitive qualifying sessions for both the GT3 and GT4 classes.
It was the Barwell run Demon Tweeks Lamborghini Hurracan which took the race one GT3 pole with Jon Minshaw leading a Barwell one-two as Liam Griffin put his similar machine on the front row. In the second session Seb Morris took pole with a great lap in the impressive Team Parker Bentley.
Two sessions were held for each class with the sessions for the driver classed as the amateur in each pairing deciding the race one grid and the pro sessions deciding the race two grid. The corresponding driver will start that particular race before handing over to their team mate.
In GT4 PMW Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport did the double with Graham Johnson topping his Am session and Mike Robinson on top of the GT4 pro session.
Minshaw never looked in doubt for the GT3 Am pole setting the time of 1:35.579 on only his second attempt. The only driver that came close was Liam Griffin in the other Barwell car who was just 0.039 seconds off. The positions could be switched in the race as Griffin and team mate Adam Carroll have no “success penalty” in the race unlike the Demon Tweeks duo of Minshaw and Keen.
Rick Parfitt was just a tenth off the Lambrghini’s in third ahead of Derek Johnston who had been the only other driver to head the times briefly before Minshaw’s pole run.
Alisdair McCaig was a driver that improved though the session to take his Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren. Andrew Howard was a bit further down than he is used to in sixth. Will Moore did a great job to take a last minute seventh in the Optimum Motorsport Audi which hadn’t looked like getting anything close to that earlier in the session. Mark Farmer put the second TF Sport Aston into eighth.
The GT3 Pro session featured even more switching of positions and Seb Morris left it the latest of all to snatch the pole for the Team Parker Bentley. Morris was happy to come out on top;
“We didn’t quite get the tyres up to temperature so I actually think there’s a bit more pace in the car. I’m looking forward to taking my first ever start in the Bentley on Monday, provided of course Rick [Parfitt Jnr] keeps his nose out of trouble in the first race! It’s nice to reinforce what people saw at Brands and know pole there wasn’t a fluke. Three hundredths wasn’t much in the end, but it was just about enough!”
The session was extremely close with the entire top eight separated by 0.7 seconds.
It was the Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren that intitally led, but Rob Bell wasn’t able to improve and Morris then stole the pole position by 0.031 seconds. Phil Keen was another late improver to take third on the grid for the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini. He just beat Ross Gunn in the Beachdean Aston with the TF Sport Aston of Jonny Adam less than half a tenth further back. Adam is amazingly also taking part in the Nurburgring 24 hours and immediately left to get a plane back to Germany. He will return on Monday for the British GT races!
Adam Caroll had looked set to put the other Barwell Lamborghini at the front of the field but a track limits infringement saw his time taken away. His next best was only good enough for sixth. Seventh was Jody Fanin in the PFL Aston with the second TF Sport Aston of Jon Barnes in eighth.
Mike Simpson put the Tolman Ginetta in ninth with Joe Osbourne taking tenth in the AMD Tuning BMW Z3.
GT4 was, as mentioned earlier dominated by the PMW Expo Ginetta of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson but they hadn’t lead the whole session.
Jack Bartholomew’s Beechdean Aston ran them closest in the AM session with the Ginetta of Alex Reed ran by Lanan racing in third.
Fourth was the Ecurie Ecosse GT4 Mclaren with Sandy Mitchell looking quick all session. He looked set to complete an even faster lap on his final run only for traffic to spoil it. Fifth was Sen Byrne in the Century motorsport Ginetta.
William Philips in the RCIB Insurance Ginetta was sixth despite causing a red flag when he fired some marker tyres onto the track.
Anna Walewska was the only female driver out in this session taking seventh in her Century Motorsport Ginetta. Her and Nathan Freke will be hoping to win again as they did at Rockingham only this time, they’ll want to keep the win. The Rockingham victory was taken away due a flag infringement.
GT4: JOHNSON AND ROBINSON DOMINATE TO GIVE OPTIMUM DOUBLE POLE
PMW Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport dominated both GT4 sessions to secure its third consecutive pole of the season.
Johnson was first up in the Am segment but didn’t have things all his own way initially after Beechdean AMR’s Jack Bartholomew bumped the Brands Hatch race winner down to second after the first runs. But the Ginetta driver wasn’t to be denied and responded next time around to post a 1m43.866s lap.
A red flag with three minutes remaining did nothing for the drivers’ rhythm, and there were few improvements when the action resumed. Indeed, Bartholomew could nothing to bridge his 0.124s deficit and lines up second, one place ahead of Alex Reed’s Lanan Racing G55.
Matthew Graham’s Macmillan Racing Aston Martin was eighth ahead of debutant Aaron Mason in the other RCIB Racing Ginetta and Kieran Griffin in the JWB Aston.
In the Pro session Robinson was never headed. Scott Malvern came closest in the Simpson Motorsport Ginetta which had been rebuilt after an accident and fire in practice. Rachel Patterson, team Truckie, Mechanic and Grid girl was among the team members that did an excellent job getting the car back to working order and Scott’s second place was some reward. We’ll have an interview with Rachel in the near future.
Team mate Nick Jones could only complete one lap in the Am session as the car was only just finished in time so Malvern’s second was their only chance at a good grid position.
This left the Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren in third with Ciaran Haggerty at the wheel. Mathew George put the Generation AMR Super Racing Aston in fourth. Anna Waleswska’s team mate Nathan Freke, put their car in fifth this time just ahead of Jake Giddings in the JWB Aston.
Jack Mitchell put the Macmillan racing Aston in seventh ahead of Abbie Eaton. Eaton was without her team mate who had to leave to attend a family wedding. This means they will start Monday’s first race from last place but Eaton’s eighth gives the team a better starting position in the Maserati GranTurismo.
The two PMW drivers spoke about their respective session’s afterwards;
Graham Johnson was surprisingly unhappy with his lap; “I’m quite disappointed with the lap, actually. I got blocked and could have gone a lot quicker. It’s not often you’re on pole and feel disappointed but I would have liked to demonstrate our true pace. You always want to do your best and when you don’t there’s a competitive element that says ‘I could have done more’. But ok, after what happened at Rockingham, I guess it’s good that we were able to come here with a rebuilt car and underline our inherent speed.”
Mike Robinson was feeling very different “In stark contrast to Graham I’m very pleased! I got a little lucky with the traffic because I didn’t get out of the pits first, but still ensured I had enough room to set a decent time. I had no traffic at all. It’s good because we know this is going to be the last ‘Ginetta circuit’, and after what happened at Rockingham it’s important to score as many points as possible. I carried on pushing on my final lap because my engineer said I was two tenths off, which I thought meant we’d lost pole. The car feels great, which is just as well because there are plenty of guys out there who have the potential to do very well on Monday.”
Full times for all sessions are available on TSL timing;
Monday’s races start at 11:15am and 3:15pm. Tickets are available on the gate at Oulton Park. The weather forecast is currently very uncertain but hopefully we’ll get some hot weather to match the action on the track! By Marc Waller
