British GT Championship

TF Sport And Barwell Motorsport Share GT3 Pole Honours for British GT At Snetterton (06.08.16)

In close-fought qualifying sessions, TF Sport and Barwell Motorsport battled for pole honours in GT3.

Mark Farmer, in the #11 Spa-winning TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3, took pole with a 1:49.422 in the GT3 Am ten-minute qualifying session to establish the grid for Race One. Farmer narrowly moved head of the #3 Barwell Motorsport Jon Minshaw – Phil Keen Lamborghini Huracán GT3 who held pole position for much of the session. The #33 Barwell Motorsport car, with Jon Minshaw at the wheel, set a 1:49.477.

Third on a the grid for race one will be #17 TF Sport Aston Vantage GT3 after Derek Johnston set a 1:49.839.

The GT3 Pro qualifying session to establish the grid for Race Two again saw a battle between Barwell Motorsport and TF Sport. This time Barwell Motorsport came out on top with Phil Keen in the #33 Lamborghini Huracán taking pole position with the narrowest of margins. Keen set a pole time of 1:47.167.

Second on the grid will be the #17 TF Sport Aston Martin in which Jonny Adam put in a 1:47.218, just .051 behind the #33 car. Barwell Motorsport had a solid qualifying session with Alexander Sims putting the #6 Huracán third on the grid with a 1:47.557.

Team Parker Racing, with its Bentley Continental GT3, had an uncharacteristically poor qualifying session with Seb Morris only managing ninth on the grid for Race Two and team mate Rick Parfitt qualifying sixth for Race One. After the session had ended, Parfit commented on social media that the car lacked straight line speed for this weekend.

In GT4 qualifying for the first race, with the Am drivers in the car, Lanan Racing took the honours with a delighted Alex Reed putting the #51 Ginetta G55 GT4 on class pole with a 1:57.809. Second on the grid for race one will be the Drivers Championship-leading #50 PMW World Expo Racing / Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 after Graham Johnson put in a 1:58.114. Third on the grid will be the #59 McLaren 570S GT4 in which Sandy Mitchell put in a 1:58.146.

Qualifying for race two was curtailed due a red flag with 90 seconds to go. However by that stage Ross Gunn, in the #407 Beechdean AMR GT4 car this round after the Beechdean GT3 car which he shared with Andrew Howard, was withdrawn following damage in Spa, had taken pole with a 1:56.710.

Matthew George, in the #44 Generation AMR Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4, qualified second with a 1:57.215 but it was he who also brought out the red flag due to an accident as the session drew to a close.

Third on the GT4 grid, and building on the success of the pole position for race one, will be the #51 Lanan Racing Ginetta G55 GT4 with Joey Foster driving. Foster put in 1:57.379, just .164 seconds behind the second placed car on the grid.

The lights go out for Round Seven of the British GT Championship at 11:50 on August 7.