Andrew Howard's Beechdean Aston Martin and Allan Simonsen's Rosso Verde Ferrari shared the pole honours this afternoon (Sat) at Brands Hatch in qualifying for the concluding rounds of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.
Howard's 1m 31.393s lap of the Brands Grand Prix circuit was more than a tenth of a second fastest than anyone else could manage in the first qualifying session, and brought Howard his first-ever British GT pole. It was a double celebration for the Barwell Motorsport team, for their Invitation Class Ginetta G50Z, in the hands of Leo Machitski, went second fastest.
"The Aston was made for this circuit," said a delighted Howard. "It's an Aston track and the car is just awesome around here..."
Simonsen's 1m 29.512s, with which he claimed the round 14 pole, was the quickest time of the day but was still four-tenths shy of the best pre-event testing time, established yesterday by the ABG Viper of Aaron Scott and Craig Wilkins. The Viper will start from fourth on the grid for this afternoon's 13th round, and from fifth tomorrow.
GT4 Champion-elect Jody Firth, and his Team WFR co-driver Nigel Moore, were comfortably the faster car in their class in both sessions today.
Qualifying, Brands Hatch, 19/9/2009
Sunny, dry
Round 13
1 GT3 Beechdean Aston Martin DBRS9, Andrew Howard 1m 31.393s
2 INV Barwell Ginetta G50Z, Leo Machitski 1m 31.528s
3 GT3 Preci-Spark Ascari KZR1, David Jones 1m 31.640s
4 GT3 ABG Dodge Viper, Craig Wilkins 1m 32.008s
5 GT3 Chad Ferrari 430, Paul Warren 1m 32.072s
6 GT3 VRS Ferrari 430, Phil Burton 1m 32.324s
7 GT3 Rosso Verde Ferrari 430, Hector Lester 1m 32.409s
8 GT3 MTECH Ferrari 430, Duncan Cameron 1m 32.666s
9 INV KTM X-BOW, Reinhard Kofler 1m 33.442s
10 INV MBR Morgan Aero 8, Howard Spooner 1m 35.173s
11 GT3 RPM Ford GT, Philip Walker 1m 35.489s
12 GT4 WFR Ginetta G50, Jody Firth 1m 38.249s
13 SS Piranha Motorsport Lotus 2-11, Chris Bialan 1m 39.070s
14 INV Moore Racing Mosler MT900, Dave Shelton 1m 39.756s
15 GT4 Stark Ginetta G50, Ian Stinton 1m 39.952s
Round 14
1 GT3 Rosso Verde Ferrari 430, Allan Simonsen 1m 29.512s
2 GT3 RPM Ford GT, Alex Mortimer 1m 29.89s
3 GT3 VRS Ferrari 430, Adam Wilcox 1m 30.118s
4 INV Barwell Ginetta G50Z, Phil Quaife 1m 30.336s
5 GT3 ABG Dodge Viper, Aaron Scott 1m 30.438s
6 GT3 Preci-Spark Ascari KZR1, Godfrey Jones 1m 30.591s
7 GT3 Beechdean Aston Martin DBRS9, Jamie Smyth 1m 31.033s
8 GT3 Chad Ferrari 430, Chris Hyman 1m 31.544s
9 GT3 MTECH Ferrari 430, Mike Edmonds 1m 32.546s
10 INV KTM X-BOW, Reinhard Kofler 1m 32.998s
11 INV MBR Morgan Aero 8, Howard Spooner 1m 34.099s
12 GT4 WFR Ginetta G50, Nigel Moore 1m 37.031s
13 SS Piranha Motorsport Lotus 2-11, Simon Mason 1m 37.140s
14 INV Moore Racing Mosler MT900, Dave Shelton 1m 37.747s
