Jonny Adam and TF Sport suggested they might be a force to be reckoned with in this afternoon’s British GT qualifying session after topping second practice at Rockingham, while Century Motorsport’s Nathan Freke was once again the class of GT4.
Reigning champion and Brands Hatch race winner Adam, who shares the #17 Aston Martin with Derek Johnston, had been content with third in the morning’s session, but turned up the wick over lunch to lower Adam Carroll’s FP1 benchmark by just 0.043s.
His 1m17.316s was almost 0.3s faster than fellow Scot Ross Wylie whose Motorbase Performance V12 Vantage GT3 had occupied top spot for much of the 50-minute session.
Phil Keen ended FP1 second fastest and was only one place further back in the second session aboard the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini he shares with Jon Minshaw. Rob Bell once again helped the Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 650S GT3 to finish inside the top-five, albeit a second shy of Adam’s leading time, while an excellent lap from Will Moore and the Optimum Motorsport Audi made it four different manufacturers inside the top-five.
Ross Gunn’s fastest time saw his Beechdean AMR Aston finish just 0.002s behind the R8 LMS GT3, ahead of Jody Fannin’s PFL Motorsport Vantage and Joe Osborne’s AmDTuning.com BMW Z4 GT3.
Morning pace-setter Carroll was only ninth, while an unspecified engine issue once again prevented the second TF Sport Aston Martin driven by Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes from completing a lap. It was a similar story for the Team Parker Racing Bentley, which won’t qualify this afternoon following Rick Parfitt Jnr’s accident after spinning on oil in FP1.
It was also a bittersweet session for Freke and co-driver Anna Walewska who once again topped the GT4 category before a reported fuel delivery issue sidelined their Century Motorsport Ginetta in the closing minutes.
Freke’s 1m23.185s lap was still half a second quicker than his FP1 best and four tenths up on Mike Robinson and Graham Johnson’s PMW World Expo/Optimum Motorsport G55, which again finished second in class.
Nick Jones and Scott Malvern ensured the same three entries finished in the same order as FP1, although the latter’s time was only 0.067s shy of second, while Generation AMR Macmillan Racing’s Aston Martin - completely rebuilt in just six days following its Brands Hatch shunt - was fourth in the hands of Jack Mitchell and Matty Graham.
Aleksander Schjerpen and Ian Byrne made it two Century Ginettas inside the top-five, while Jake Giddings again underlined his pace with sixth for JWBird Motorsport.
Qualifying gets underway at 15:35 this afternoon.