> RAM Racing and Barwell Motorsport start up front on Monday
> Maxwell and Priaulx unstoppable in GT4
> Results: Qualifying
RAM Racing’s Ian Loggie claimed his maiden British GT pole position at Oulton Park earlier today ahead of Easter Monday’s two season-opening British GT races. Phil Keen starts Race 2 up front for the second successive year, while Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx handed Multimatic Motorsport’s #15 Ford Mustang a double GT4 pole position.
GT3 Q1: LOGGIE UNTOUCHABLE IN OULTON’S SUNSHINE
RAM Racing’s Mercedes-AMG had looked fast in practice and Loggie converted that potential into a maiden British GT pole position during the first of today’s 10-minute qualifying sessions.
Team Parker Racing’s Ryan Ratcliffe made the early running but couldn’t respond to any of the three laps that were good enough for Loggie to seal pole. His best – set on the final tour – of 1m35.061s was ultimately sufficient to topple the Bentley driver by 0.597s.
Barwell’s Sam De Haan was just 0.041s behind after beating JRM’s Rick Parfitt Jnr to third by less than a tenth in the closing stages, while Dominic Paul was fastest of Century’s BMW continent in fifth.
The second Barwell Lamborghini completed the top-six courtesy of Adam Balon, who was just 0.006s behind Paul but another 0.3s clear of Adrian Willmott. Mark Farmer ended up fastest of the Aston Martin drivers in eighth.
GT3 Q2: KEEN DENIES RAM RACING A DOUBLE POLE
Phil Keen has always enjoyed Oulton. Three wins from the last four races attests to that. And Barwell’s Lamborghini factory ace put himself and co-driver Adam Balon in prime position to add to the tally by claiming pole position for Monday’s second 60-minute encounter.
Adam Christodoulou held the initial advantage thanks to Callum Macleod’s first flying lap being discounted for a track limits infringement. However, none of that mattered once Keen joined the party, his 1m33.541s comfortably good enough to secure top spot by 0.496s from Macleod, whose second lap vaulted RAM Racing’s Mercedes-AMG up to second.
ABBA Racing’s Christodoulou made it two Mercedes-AMGs in the top-three, while Seb Morris equalled the efforts of his JRM co-driver Rick Parfitt Jnr by completing row two. Barwell’s second Lamborghini driven by Jonny Cocker and TF Sport’s #2 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim finished fifth and sixth fastest.
GT4 Q1: MULTIMATIC SEAL FRONT ROW LOCK-OUT
Multimatic’s only previous British GT appearance came in 2007, while the Mustang makes its championship debut this weekend. However, the team – best known for its FIA WEC exploits with Ford – showed its class by claiming GT4 pole positions for both races.
Its #15 and #19 entries both start up front on Monday morning when Scott Maxwell leads away team-mate Jade Buford. The pair enjoyed a personal battle for pole throughout the first 10-minute session as the advantage swung this way and that. The Canadian ultimately triumphed, but only by 0.103s from his North American counterpart.
HHC’s McLarens start line astern behind after Dean Macdonald overcame Tom Jackson. The Scot finished 0.3s shy of pole and less than two tenths ahead of his team-mate. A 570S also occupies fifth courtesy of Tolman Motorsport’s Jordan Collard, who was less than 0.1s clear of TF Sport’s Patrick Kibble in the first of the Aston Martins.
Mark Kimber’s Century BMW, the Academy Motorsport V8 Vantage of Alex Toth-Jones and James Dorlin’s second Tolman McLaren finished seventh, eighth and ninth, while Kelvin Fletcher was the fastest Am in Beechdean AMR’s Aston Martin.
GT4 Q2: PRIAULX ENDS MULTIMATIC’S PERFECT DAY WITH LAP RECORD
Multimatic Motorsport didn’t have to wait long for its second pole position, and a record-breaking one at that thanks to Seb Priaulx who set a new British GT4 qualifying benchmark to secure Race 2 pole position ahead of Scott Malvern and Michael Broadhurst.
Priaulx, who set two times quick enough for pole, dipped under the previous record by 0.01s courtesy of his faster 1m42.384s. That was an impressive 1.1s up on Team Parker Racing’s Malvern who, along with Pro/Am rivals Fox Motorsport and Michael Broadhurst, helped Mercedes-AMGs finish second and third.
Less than three tenths covered positions third to 11th. Beechdean AMR’s Martin Plowman ended up best of the Aston Martin runners after lapping just 0.038s faster than Tom Canning’s TF Sport V8 Vantage. Matthew George wasn’t much further back in his Invictus Games Racing Jaguar, which maintained its encouraging start to the weekend, while Luke Williams was best of the McLarens in seventh.
Lewis Proctor (Tolman Motorsport), Angus Fender (Century Motorsport) and Josh Smith (Tolman Motorsport) completed the top-10 ahead of Multimatic’s Chad McCumbee whose qualifying was compromised by an ABS issue.
The first of Easter Monday’s two hour-long races begins at 11:15 BST. Watch it live on British GT’s website, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and SRO’s GT World Youtube channel.
