Team Parker Narrowly Takes Pole at Spa

Photo: British GT

Team Parker Racing will start the British GT Championship race from Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday from pole position, after a strong qualifying performance from Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt Jnr.

Morris set a lap time of 2:18.782 around the Belgian circuit; just enough to secure pole position once it had been added to Parfitt’s time.

This gave the No. 31 Bentley Continental GT3 an overall average time of 2:21.348, just 0.042 seconds clear of second place.

“It’s a bit strange because no-one seemed to nail their laps first time around, so when I managed to improve on the second before the rain hit there wasn’t much chance for them to respond,” said Morris.

“I definitely wasn’t nine tenths quicker on raw pace. Rick’s not been entirely happy with the setup today so we’ll spend some time tonight looking into it and hopefully find a good compromise. Pro-Am’s all about a happy balance.”

The car in question, that will line up alongside the Bentley for the race, is the No. 79 McLaren 650S GT3 of Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse. Alasdair McCaig and Rob Bell set the times in that car.

Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes will start third for TF Sport, while the sister car that leads the championship is down in seventh.

Derek Johnston had a crash in Free Practice in the No. 17 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which put the points leaders out of the running while the car was repaired.

European GT stalwarts Black Falcon qualified fourth, with the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Dani Juncadella and Oliver Morley, on the team’s one-off championship outing in preparation for the Total 24 Hours of Spa later this month.

Liam Griffin and Alexander Sims will start from fifth for Barwell Motorsport, while Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn will be sixth in the Beechdean AMR car.

Ciaran Haggerty and Scott Mitchell will lead the GT4 field from pole position, in their No. 59 McLaren 570S GT3.

In the GT4 Am session, Mitchell set a time 3.1 seconds quicker than anyone else, and although others did improve, no-one would be able to top the McLaren, with an average time of 2:47.453.

Racing Team Holland by Ekris Motorsport, the highest of the GT4 European entries, will start from second on the grid, with its No. 108 Ekris M4 GT4 driven by Rob Severs and Simon Knap.

RYS Team Hohenberg is third on the grid, in the No. 184 KTM X-Bow GT4 of Mads Siljehaug and Maciej Dreszer, while the second Ekris M4 is fourth, driven by Bernhard van Oranje and Ricardo van der Ende.

The next British GT4 entry, second amongst the British runners, is sixth in GT4. The car in question is the No. 51 Lanan Racing Ginetta G55 GT4, driven by Alex Reed and Joey Foster.

The two-hour race gets underway on Saturday at 12:25 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

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