Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes have taken the GT3 and overall pole for tomorrow’s final British GT race of the season at Donington Park.
The TF Sport duo were dominant and never looked like being beaten as the other duos attempted to beat their combined time. Jonny Adam in the other TF Sport car took the fastest time of the day but when combined with Derek Johnston’s time it wasn’t enough for pole. But the two TF cars filled the front row. Barnes was pleased;
“It feels really good! That’s my first pole in GT racing. To do it with Mark [Farmer] combined today was mega. I was only a couple of tenths off Jonny [Adam] which is always good as he is super-fast.
Overall, both me and Mark are really happy and in a good position for tomorrow.
“We’ve got a 10-second success penalty from Brands Hatch which is going to be difficult to overcome but Mark has had really good pace so if he can pull out three-tenths a lap on the other guys, and there are no safety cars, we might just get the gap that we need. Fingers crossed, we’re going to shoot for a win.”
The two cars going for the title, the Demon Tweeks Barwell Lamborghini and the Team Parker Bentley start alongside each other on the second row. The Lamborghini has an advantage in the pitstops with Rick Parfitt Jr and Seb Morris having a longer success penalty. But anything can happen as shown last year when Jon Minshaw spun the Lamborghini out of contention in the race. He and Phil Keen will be hoping to make up for that this year and take the title.
In GT4 the pole went to Matt Nicoll-Jones and Will Moore in the academy Aston, their second pole in a row after Brands Hatch. They lost out on the win at Brands Hatch due to a driveshaft failure so they will be hoping their luck holds this time;
“It feels great. We’ve just come back from the Nürburgring with two second places so hopefully we can go one better tomorrow. It was disappointing at Brands Hatch, we had pole position and had a driveshaft failure so we need to try and rectify that and get on the top step.”
Said Will Moore after qualifying. He continued;
“I had my fastest lap disallowed for track limits which I think a lot of people did. I was pleased with my lap though. I think I left about half-a-second in the last corner because I was so pleased I was matching my lap time again that I didn’t concentrate into the final corner and lost five-tenths. Me and Matt are a really good pairing, really consistent, that’s what we pride ourselves on. We’ve got an extra 14-second stop being a Silver/Silver crew but we should be somewhere near the front.”
The GT4 title favourites, Will Tregurtha and Stuart Middleton start third on the GT4 grid in their Ginetta G55 just behind the second placed Mclaren of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson. The other title contenders in Gt4, David Pittard and Alex Reed start seventh in their Ginetta, giving their rivals an advantage in the title battle. If Tregurtha and Middleton do take the GT4 title, they will beat Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn’s record of being the youngest ever British GT champions.
Anna Walewska and Abbie Eaton didn’t have very successful sessions with both starting outside the top ten. Walewska starts ahead of Eaton after her rapid team mate, Mike Simpson gave them the edge over Eaton’s still quick team mate Jake Giddings. Eaton and Gidding’s cause wasn’t helped by losing two of their best laps due to track limit’s infringements.
Sunday’s race, the tenth and final round, gets underway at 13:30 but before and after there is a full timetable of support races including the Mini Challenge JCW class and the GInetta GT5 Challenge. You can watch much of the days racing, including the Gt race on the Frontrunner TV channel and it’s also streamed on Youtube. Tickets are available on the gate if you want to attend in person.
PITSTOP SUCCESS PENALTIES
GT3
20s – #31 Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 – Parfitt Jnr/Morris
15s – #6 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 – Griffin/Tordoff
10s – #11 TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 – Farmer/Barnes
GT4
15s – #56 Tolman Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 – Pattison/Osborne
10s – #55 HHC Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 – Tregurtha/Middleton
Full results are available on TSL Timing
http://tsl-timing.com/event/173805 By Marc Waller
