BGTC: Snetterton qualifying summary

Kinch & Kirklady Dominate GT Front Row

Nathan Kinch and team-mate Andrew Kirkaldy took both pole positions for rounds five and six of the British GT Championship at Snetterton in Norfolk this afternoon (June 5).

The Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 360 GTC was the class of the field in both qualifying sessions. Kinch set a time of 1m08.813s in the opening 15-minutes to take pole position. Mike Jordan went out late in the session to try and snatch the top spot but was only able to get within 17-thousandths of a second and had to settle for the other front row slot.

"I had a lot of traffic, but so did everyone else," said Kinch. "There were no problems with the car, it felt great. We have a very good race set-up for later today now," he added.

Jonathan Cocker could only manage third on the grid for race one this afternoon, after his double race win at the previous round in Ireland. Godfrey Jones took fourth place, just ahead of Rob Barff, who is substituting for Chris Niarchos in the second Suderia Ecosse Ferrari.

Alan Bonner put in a superb lap to put the Master Motorsport Ultima into sixth place for race one, just ahead of Neil Cunningham in the Embassy Motorsport Chevrolet Corvette.

In the second session Andrew Kirkaldy showed the pace of the Ferrari, setting a scorching time of 1m07.603s to clinch pole position early on. The former FIA GT racer stayed out on the circuit in case he needed to respond, but was never troubled for pole.

"The car was really well balanced, it just had a small hint of understeer," said Kirkaldy. "I only did two flying laps and then cruised round in case Sugden went for a time, but he didn't so we managed to pick up some good race data too," he added.

Sugden was almost a second off Kirkaldy's time, while his Ferrari team-mate Tim Mullen took third place. Nigel Greensall put in a fantastic effort in the RSR TVR T400R to take fourth place. An overheating differential was causing problems in the car but his time still kept him in front of the JW Racing Porsches of Mark Sumpter and David Jones.

In the Dailysportscar.com Cup Class Gavan Kershaw kept up his race winning momentum from the previous round to put the little Lotus Elise on pole for race one this afternoon. However, electrical problems for the team in the second session put them out of contention for a top grid position.

Jonathan Rowland and Adam Sharpe managed to uphold the honours for Porsche to take pole for race two tomorrow afternoon. Adam Wilcox and Ni Amorim will start from second place in both races in the DRM Motorsport Ferrari 360.

British GT Championship -- Rounds 5 & 6

Qualifying - Race One

1 Kinch/Kirkaldy Ferrari 360 Modena 1m08.813s
2 Jordan/Sumpter Porsche 911 GT3-RS 1m08.830s
3 Sugden/Cocker Porsche 911 GT3-RSR 1m09.237s
4 Jones/Jones Porsche 911 GT3-RS 1m09.388s
5 Barff/Mullen Ferrari 360 Modena 1m09.75s
6 Brady/Bonner Ultima GTR 1m09.789s

Qualifying -- Race Two

1 Kinch/Kirkaldy 1m07.603s
2 Sugden/Cocker 1m08.566s
3 Barff/Mullen 1m09.044s
4 Tomlinson/Greensall 1m09.299s
5 Jordan/Sumpter 1m09.376s
6 Jones/Jones 1m09.673s

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