British GT: TF Sport Lock Out Classes for Silverstone Qualifying

It was TF Sport who dominated Saturday qualifying for the British GT Championship, taking pole position in the GT3 and GT4 classes for the Silverstone 500. The session came after a dogged morning for many as the rain poured down in practice.

In GT3, it would be the #47 Aston Martin V8 Vantage who topped the timesheets with a combined lap of 4min 02.881, securing Graham Davidson’s first GT pole, with Jonny Adam. The result will be a fantastic opportunity for the pair, who have recorded just a single podium from the four races this season.

GT4 would see an even more unlikely protagonist, with Patrick Kibble leading the #95 Aston Martin crew, as he and Josh Price put together a combined lap of 4min 25.285. Like the #47, they’ve had a torrid season up to this point, failing to even score a point last time out. The three hour spectacle starts at 12:35 on Sunday.

Dark memories of previous Silverstone appearances would have been on the mind of many early Saturday morning. While 2018 had been run in perfect conditions, there was nothing so idillic about practice, with a red flag seeing Jack Mitchell in the #9 BMW and the #61 Aston Martin towed back to the garage. Even the front runners weren’t immune, with Mark Farmer ending the session on top, yet also on a truck, after crashing with three minutes to go, causing a red flag. Second practice remained dried rapidly in the closing stages with Ben Green’s Century Motorsport GT3 on top by 2.475 seconds, with a time of 2min 10.361.

GT3’s First to Venture Out

With virtually no meaningful dry running for the teams, set up proved to be tricky. Setting a fast time proved difficult, but for some just staying on the track proved hard enough. Championship leader Adam Balon spun at Becketts, with Glynn Geddie losing it at Village, leaving both with just two laps. Instead it was Ian Loggie in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG that took the pole time for the AMs. Shaun Balfe could have beaten him, but was held up on the final lap by the #33 Porsche. Instead Balfe was 0.034 seconds down in third, with Graham Davidson’s #47 TF Sport just 0.022sec slower than the Mercedes. Eight cars would finish the session within a second.

The gap between the AM and PRO session was so short, that the Lamborghini’s were still making their way into the pits before the lights went green at the opposite end of the pit lane. Qualifying positions was to be organised by a combined lap from the Pros and Ams, with Jonny Adam setting the overall and Pro fastest lap early on. It would be a time he’d hang on to. Topping qualifying with a 2min 00.327 lap individually.

Callum MacLeod lined up second for the #6 Mercedes but an investigation after qualifying could see the team demoted. The #22 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 720S remained third at the end of the group and will be hoping to continue the momentum after the third place at Snetterton. Rounding out the top five will be the #2 TF Sport Aston, recovering after missing second practice, and the #99 Beechdeen AMR, with all five teams within a second on their combined times.

GT4’s Pack Field with Record 26 Entries

The GT4’s were no strangers to early mistakes either as Chad McCumbee, the first driver on track for #19 Multimatic Motorsport lost control temporarily into Becketts. Jordan Collard would go one better and spin his Tolman Motorsport McLaren at the same corner. Patrick Kibble continued the run of form for TF Sport in the early part of qualifying, pulling out a gap over half a second quicker than those around him.

It would be a time that stuck around with Kibble’s 2min 12.642 a shock to those around him. Angus Fender had spent part of the morning stuck on circuit, but it clearly didn’t slow his pace much, finishig second ahead of Matt George in a surprise for the Generation AMR SuperRacing Aston AM.

Josh Price did little to disprove that the #95 Aston’s pace was due to the car, quickly becoming one of the fastest Pro’s in the field, setting a time 0.001 seconds slower than his teammate. It would be enough to give the TF Sport a double pole with Senan Fielding in the #29 Stellar Performance Audi R8 in second. Despite Price’s pace, it would be Scott Malvern who ended up with the fastest individual lap in GT4, a 2min 11.568, bringing the #66 Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG up to third overall. The result was made more notable by the fact Nick Jones had been 1.8 seconds behind the polesitter at the end of the AM’s run.

Fourth in class was the highest placed championship contender, as the #4 Tolman Motorsport McLaren was 1.095 seconds down on the polesitter. Lining up just behind them would be their fellow factory rivals, with the #57 HHC Motorsport points leader setting off from the third row.

The Mustang’s had been the class of qualifying in the last two rounds, but failed to show their worth this week. The Multimatic Motorsport pair would line up sixth and fifteenth as the #23 RACE Performance Mustang concluded qualifying by stopping on the Wellington Straight as the field was making their way back to the pits.

For the endurance race tomorrow, there will be slight changes to the regulations, as teams are expected to make three manditory pitstops, and no driver should race more than 100 of the 180 minute feature.