Championship chasing TF Sport and Barwell Motorsport shared the GT3 qualifying spoils at Snetterton earlier today after Mark Farmer and Phil Keen prevailed in two hotly contested senior class sessions under sunny skies ahead of tomorrow’s penultimate British GT rounds.
Meanwhile, Alex Reed secured his and Lanan Racing’s maiden GT4 pole positions for the opening one-hour race before Ross Gunn put Beechdean AMR top of the pile for the start of race two.
GT3 Am: Dogged Farmer denies Minshaw
A month on from clinching his first series victory at Spa Farmer’s name was once again at the top of the timesheets after overcoming Jon Minshaw by just 0.075s in a titanic scrap to determine who would start tomorrow’s first one-hour race on pole.
The #33 Barwell Lamborghini, which goes into tomorrow’s two races just 8.5 points behind championship leaders Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam, twice set the fastest time only to be pegged back by Farmer. Indeed, TF Sport’s #11 Aston Martin V12 Vantage was only third fastest after its first run before claiming second and then finally top spot deep into the 10 minute session.
Minshaw therefore lines up one place ahead of his main rival Johnston who was another to improve his position late on, although the second of the TF Sport Astons was over four tenths shy of its pole-winning sister machine. He shares the second row with AmDTuning.com’s Lee Mowle, who remained a threat throughout, while Alasdair McCaig’s Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 650S starts fifth.
Another of the championship contenders, Rick Parfitt Jnr, was sixth in the Team Parker Racing Bentley after a late effort moved him above Liam Griffin’s Barwell Huracan by just 0.016s. Ian Stinton’s Tolman Motorsport Ginetta G55 completed the top-eight.
Mark Farmer, #11 TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3: “I’m absolutely delighted, especially coming off the back of our first win at Spa last time out. We had a test here so knew the car was good but, to be honest, I was hopeless in today’s first practice session! Jon pulled me in, told me off and from then on we were fine! The quali simulation went okay but, importantly, I didn’t make any mistakes when it counted in qualifying. We’ve always had the pace this year but it’s just been a case of stringing everything together.”
GT3 Pro: Keen resists Adam and Sims to seal race two pole
The Pro session began with all eyes on practice pace-setters Jonny Adam and Alexander Sims but ended with Keen making amends for co-driver Minshaw’s last gasp defeat by Farmer.
Keen had been there or thereabouts in practice and was immediately on the pace in qualifying by setting what would end up being the pole time on his first flying run. The Lamborghini’s 1m47.167s wasn’t just good enough to see off Adam by a meagre 0.051s but also eclipsed Sims’ 2015 British GT qualifying benchmark by 0.242s.
Adam likened a mistake on his second flying lap to that of a golfer missing a three-foot putt to win a Major, but will be content to at least start alongside his main championship rival after out-pacing Sims - whose Barwell co-driver Griffin also remains a title contender - by almost four tenths.
Jon Barnes starts fourth in the second TF Sport Aston after failing to replicate co-driver Farmer’s heroics. He was just 0.086s shy of Sims but two tenths clear of Joe Osborne who made it two fifth places for AmDTuning.com’s BMW. Rob Bell’s Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren ended up just three hundredths slower in sixth while Mike Simpson’s encouraging run put the Tolman Motorsport Ginetta within a second of the frontrunners.
PFL Motorsport’s Jody Fannin, who was also less than a second shy of pole, completed the top-eight.
Phil Keen, #33 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3: “I didn’t run a new set of tyres in practice, which maybe explains why we didn’t look as quick ahead of qualifying. But we had the data from Alex’s practice laps and it was a case of seeing where the grip was and applying it to our session. Barwell have also done a great job with the car; I feel like we’ve progressed quite a lot this year.”
Click here to see the full race one qualifying classification and here for race two's.