Macmillan, Barwell Top Qualifying at Snetterton

Photo: British GT

A record lap time of 1:47.332 put Barwell Motorsport’s Phil Keen on pole for Race 2 at Snetterton, while Jack Mitchell will lead the grid in the first British GT Championship race of the weekend.

Keen secured pole position in the GT3 Pro session by 0.603 seconds, but went 1.24 seconds faster than the previous race lap record, set by him last year.

“One-lap pace is clearly there and we need to build on that for the race,” said Keen.

“We’ll see where we are at the end of Race 1 – we don’t have a success penalty so by starting second it’s reasonable to assume we’ll be somewhere near the front without any problems.

“But obviously that has a knock-on effect for me starting Race 2. We really do just have to wait and see.”

This came after co-driver Jon Minshaw put the No. 33 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 second on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race, missing out on the top spot to Mitchell in the Macmillan AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

The 19-year-old had also provisionally broken the lap record, with a time of 1:48.555. While he starts Race 1 from prime position, co-driver James Littlejohn could only manage ninth in the second session.

Rick Parfitt and Liam Griffin complete the second row for Race 1, in the No. 31 Team Parker Racing and No. 6 Barwell entries, respectively.

Sam Tordoff put the Lamborghini he shares with Griffin into second place for Race 2, while Jonny Adam and Seb Morris will start from third and fourth.

Alex Reed took GT4 pole for Race 1 in the Lanan Racing Ginetta G55 GT4, after Sandy Mitchell had his fastest lap time removed for track limits infringements.

Will Tregurtha will line up alongside him in the similar HHC Motorsport Ginetta, while Garage 59 driver Mitchell held onto third ahead of early pacesetter Adam Balon in the Track-Club car.

Joe Osborne was also able to set a new lap record, going 1.5 seconds faster than the previous best GT4 time with a Race 2 pole time of 1:57.225.

This gives Tolman Motorsport and McLaren their first GT4 pole of the season.

Stuart Middleton and Ciaran Haggerty put the HHC and No. 100 Garage 59 cars into second and third in a repeat of the previous sessions, while Lanan’s David Pittard will start Race 2 from fourth.

Race 1 gets underway at 11:40 a.m. tomorrow, and will be streamed live on the series’ Facebook page.

RESULTS: Am Qualifying (Race 1)
RESULTS: Pro Qualifying (Race 2)

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.