Flick Haigh will start from pole for tonight’s opening round of the British GT Championship at Oulton Park.
Haigh enjoyed a day to remember at Oulton Park after beating reigning champion Rick Parfitt Jnr to Race 1 pole position on her British GT debut.
“Yeah, it’s fantastic! But also gives us a lot of confidence going into Monday’s races. It’s supposed to be wet so we were focused on starting as near to the front as possible. Pole was just a bonus!” she said.
“The Aston’s very balanced in the wet and we’ve also done a lot of wet running during testing, so we’re prepared for whatever the weather throws at us. The hard work definitely starts on Monday.”
Parfitt Jnr’s Team Parker Racing Bentley set the pace initially but was beaten to top-spot by Haigh’s Aston Martin, which set a best lap of 1m34.769s. That was 0.130s faster than the Continental GT3, which finished two tenths up on Team Parker’s second entry driven by Ian Loggie.
Three more Aston Martins filled positions fourth to sixth, with Derek Johnston’s TF Sport V12 Vantage lapping 0.6s slower than Haigh’s pole time and just 0.017s quicker than returning double champion Andrew Howard. Jetstream’s example driven by debutant Graham Davidson originally took sixth ahead of Mark Farmer’s Vantage but now starts from the back as a result of speeding in the pitlane.
The first of Barwell’s Lamborghinis therefore lines up seventh with Jon Minshaw beating team-mate Sam de Haan.
Phil Keen set a new British GT3 qualifying lap record in the second of the afternoon’s senior class sessions to claim pole for Monday’s second race ahead of Jonny Adam and Marco Sorensen.
The same Barwell Lamborghini had topped final practice earlier in the day and made good on that promise by lapping in 1m32.869s. That was a tenth under Seb Morris’ previous benchmark and ultimately 0.159s faster than Adam, who secured Optimum’s second front row of the weekend.
The Scot’s AMR factory counterpart Sorensen was just 0.009s further back in the first of TF Sport’s Aston Martins, while the second – driven by Nicki Thiim – was another half-tenth behind.
Yelmer Buurman’s ERC Sport Mercedes-AMG took fifth but was less than 0.3s shy of Keen, and Callum Macleod backed up co-driver Loggie’s third place by claiming sixth for Race 2.
Darren Turner, Patrick Kujala and Maxime Martin completed a top-nine covered by a second, while Jonny Cocker bounced back from an accident in final practice to seal 10th after Barwell rebuilt their Lamborghini between sessions.
Source: British GT Championship Media.
