Championship leaders Phil Keen and Stuart Middleton paced their respective GT3 and GT4 classes under sunny skies at Snetterton during this morning’s opening practice session.
Keen and his Barwell Motorsport co-driver Jon Minshaw scored a memorable double victory in Norfolk last season and were immediately on the pace again aboard their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 during this morning’s 60-minute session.
The current championship leader’s early best of 1m49.072s remained untroubled throughout and ultimately proved 0.621s faster than the next best set by Callum Macleod in the first of Team Parker Racing’s Bentleys.
Barwell initially ran one-two before Sam Tordoff was knocked back to third, a tenth behind Macleod’s time, while Jon Barnes ended up fastest of the Aston Martins despite co-driver Mark Farmer causing a brief red flag period after clouting the Riches’ barriers.
TF Sport team-mates and reigning champions Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam made a low-key start en-route to fifth fastest, 1.5s adrift of Keen’s time. That was less than a tenth clear of AMDtuning.com’s Mercedes-AMG driven by Lee Mowle and Ryan Ratcliffe.
GT4 was exceptionally close, with just over a tenth separating first-to-fourth and less than a second covering the top-nine.
HHC and Ginetta’s championship leader Stuart Middleton ultimately set the session’s fastest time, his 2m00.155s posted midway through practice enough to pip Tolman Motorsport’s McLaren driven by Joe Osborne by just 0.005s.
Scott Malvern’s Team Parker Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 made it as many different manufacturers in a top-three covered by just 0.073s, while reigning champions Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson were less than half a tenth further back in fourth.
Dean Macdonald put the first of Black Bull Garage 59’s McLarens fifth ahead of Lanan Racing’s Ginetta and track-club’s 570S.
Second practice begins at 12:15.