Scuderia Vittoria, Trackspeed Share Oulton Park British GT Poles

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Category: British GT

Saturday, 23 April 2011

Scuderia Vittoria and Trackspeed took a pole apiece today in qualifying for the opening two races of the new Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Oulton Park.

Michael Lyons secured top spot for Scuderia Vittoria for round one of the new campaign after beating defending champion David Ashburn to pole position, but it was Ashburn’s team-mate Richard Westbrook who then came out on top in the second session to put Trackspeed’s Porsche on pole for race two.

In the first 15 minute session, Lyons was the first driver to lap quicker than 1m 40s at the wheel of the new Ferrari 458 Italia and the 20-year-old eventually posted a best time of 1m 38.757s, which saw him secure pole by 0.167s ahead of Ashburn’s Porsche 997 GT3 R.

“It was difficult with traffic and the lap was scrappy, but it was enough,” Lyons said afterwards. “It was tight with the Porsche and that is where the big fight is.”

Behind the top two, the new Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 was third quickest in the hands of David Jones while Mike Guasch’s Audi and Andrew Howard’s Aston Martin ensured there are five different marques filling the top five places on the grid for the opening 60 minute encounter on Easter Monday. Jim Geddie’s CRS Ferrari 430 Scuderia rounded out the top six.

On the home weekend for the Speedworks Motorsport team, Ron Johnson put the new Corvette Z06 R into the top ten with the tenth quickest time, while Mtech’s new Ferrari 458 Italia turned its first laps in the opening session but will start from the back of the grid in the hands of Duncan Cameron.

The second session went the way of Trackspeed after a storming lap from Westbrook was good enough to put the #1 Porsche into pole position. Four laps was all that were needed for the 35-year-old to secure his spot at the front of the field with a lap of 1m 36.505s putting him well clear of the chasing pack.

Allan Simonsen in the Rosso Verde Ferrari 430 Scuderia was Westbrook’s closest challenger, but his best time was some six-tenths of a second slower than the poleman.

“I really had to push,” Westbrook said. “David did a superb job to get second on the grid for race one and the car felt really good when I went out. The tyres came in on the second lap and I knew I had to push. I really hit the sweet spot with the tyres on my best lap and there was some luck in that respect, but you have to take any luck that comes your way. We’ve got to stay out of trouble and get a good points haul on Monday.”

Behind the top two, Charles Bateman was third quickest in the Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari ahead of Matt Bell’s United Autosports Audi and series debutant Jonathan Adam in the Beechdean Aston Martin. Sixth quickest was Matt Griffin in the Mtech Ferrari, despite the car having failed to run in either free practice session earlier in the day.

“I’ve got to say big congratulations to the team as this was the first time the car had run,” Griffin said. “To come out of the box and get sixth on the grid is a massive achievement. We’re not on pole but we’re happy with sixth as there is a lot more to come. We haven’t even taken the lid off the bottle yet.”

The lone GT3B car, Mtech’s Ferrari 430 GT3 will start the two races from 21st and 15th on the grid for the two races.

In GT4, pole for the opening race went the way of the KTM X Bow of Peter Belshaw who beat the Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta G50 of Dan Denis to class honours by three-tenths of a second in 16th overall. That result went some way to making up for the fact that the sister KTM was forced to miss the session with mechanical issues, although the team remains hopeful of two cars taking part in Monday’s races.

The Lotus Evoras of Freddy Nordstrom and Ollie Jackson were third and fifth quickest, sandwiching the Century Motorsport Ginetta of Jake Rattenbury.

“It’s a good result for the team,” Belshaw said. “I felt I could have gone quicker but its good to be at the front of the GT4 class. I struggled to get a clear lap but when there was some space, I had to push. With the traffic, it was a bit of a lottery.”

The second session saw the roles reversed as David McDonald put the Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta into top spot ahead of the KTM, now in the hands of Marcus Clutton. Leyton Clarke and Jack Drinkall then followed in the two Evoras with Jack Drinkall fifth in the Century Ginetta.

“I’m very pleased with that,” McDonald said. “I’ve not had a lot of time in the car and the first chance to test was only last week at Spa, so we weren’t sure where we would be. The car was fantastic and we’ve got good race pace so hopefully we can do a good job on Monday.”

The GTC Chevron GR8 impressed in both qualifying sessions, and will line up 14th and 16th for the two races having outpaced a number of the more powerful GT3 machines.

The British GT Championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.