Tricky conditions for the Gentlemen drivers’ qualifying session as the rain returned half-an-hour before the first set of drivers were due out. The initial heavy shower lightened to a steady rain and eased as the session began.
With a damp line emerging over the course of the fifteen minute session the times steadily fell. Jon Minshaw #33 Demon Tweeks Porsche 997GTR3 set the initial pace maintaining P1. United Autosports’ Jody Fannin’s Audi spoilt a potential Trackspeed 1-2 as David Ashburn put in a 2:07.853 to go third in the #31 Porsche. That is until Gregor Fisken in the #32 Tartan Trackspeed entry took over the P1 mantle with a storming 2:06.821; a feat made remarkable after alternator failure, an oil leak, and damage associated with an off in Free Practice earlier in the day. But it was immediately bettered by the #7 Aston of Howard and a flurry of final minutes’ action saw the Poole’s Aston, Brown’s 888Optimum BMW Z4, and Rembert Berg’s Msport Audi push the Trackspeed Porsches down the order to finish the session Minshaw/Fisken/Ashburn in 6th, 7th, and 14th respectively.
Speaking after his qualifying run in the rain Gregor Fisken said “Really enjoyed it. We were P1 for a while before I got tied-up with an Aston that decided to race me as the track was clearing and I missed the best of it as a result. Maybe I should have backed-off for half a lap, but it felt good. The Trackspeed Porsche is great in the wet and I’m looking forward to tomorrow, as well as to what Simon can do in the next session.”
The second qualification session for the Pro drivers was delayed by nearly an hour for barrier repairs, the result of Zak Brown’s McLaren getting airborne in a shunt at Williams. This allowed for the light but steady rain to more than cover the dry line that had emerged on the track in the first session and, as a result, when Nick Tandy took over from David Ashburn the spray was pretty solid and lap times much slower. Nevertheless, the rain appeared not to phase the fearless #31 Porsche driver because on his first flying lap he went quickest, 3 seconds ahead of Glynn Geddie who was the fastest man out of the pits. Tandy improving with a 2:07.481 was then joined by team-mate Stephen Jelley in the #32 Trackspeed Porsche with a 2:07.757, a Trackspeed 1-2 with Tom Sharp in the CWS Ginetta G55 GT3 in third with a 2:09.456. Ten minutes of GT3s thundering round Snetterton saw a damp line develop and manic action at the top of the timesheets. Nick Tandy banged in a polka-dotted 2:06.022 to go P1 and hold-off Bell, Brown, Osborne, before Stephen Jelley’s ‘Tartan Monster’ terrorised the tarmac with a 2:04.526 with a couple of minutes left on the clock. The final 2 laps saw the Top Ten cars all swap places but the #32 car has done enough to take P1. Brown, Osborne, and Bell, conspire to demote the #31 Nick Tandy car to 5th place, and Bryant’s last ditch 2:06.359 was enough to pip the #33 Demon Tweeks Porsche of Phil Keen to 10th place.
Shortly after returning to the garage Stephen Jelley said “The car was well set-up, the team brought a good idea of what wet was like here and tweaked it for us. Gregor drove a great first session and we carried that. It was tough, the track was like glass off-line, and hard to push but it worked for us. Tomorrow we have to finish the race, hopefully at the front, a strong performance is needed to get Gregor right back in the Championship hunt.”
An ebullient Gregor Fisken remarked “Stephen’s done a great job to put us on pole for the second race.”
Source : Trackspeed Racing