Photo: Ida Wood
Ammonite Motorsport’s Anthony Amato claimed pole for the third Walter Hayes Trophy heat at Silverstone.
It was the most closely contested session of the morning, and Oldfield Motorsport’s Maris Schulte led the way after the first laptimes were set.
There was a more representative pace next time by, and KMR Sport’s KC Ensor-Smith posted a 1m03.3s to lead TM Racing’s Cody Hayhurst by 0.693s. Hayhurst could only improve by 0.6s over the rest of qualifying (after his fastest lap was deleted), meaning he ended the session in 14th while other drivers made far bigger gains.
Amato went fastest with his third lap, a 1m02.258s, and that put him 0.675s clear of Schulte and one second up on B-M Racing’s Tom McArthur as Ensor-Smith failed to improve.
Schulte got within 0.407s of Amato when he next crossed the line, as privateer racer Tom Nippers entered the fight for pole with a lap that put him into third ahead of Ensor-Smith and Team Dolan’s Megan Gilkes.
Half a second split the top five with five minutes remainiing, and Ensor-Smith was briefly down to fifth behind TM Racing’s Felix Fisher before posting a 1m02.608s to jump up to second.
Amato lowered the pace to 1m02.231s next time by, with Nippers getting within 0.334s of that benchmark and Gilkes improving in fourth when they completed their seventh laps.
Ensor-Smith ran with a different gaggle of cars as he sought a slipstream, and that resulted in a lap just 0.158s shy of Amato’s.
The first sub-1m02s lap of the session came from the provisional poleman, and the 1m01.904s he set with three minutes to go would not be beaten.
Nippers trailed him by 0.386s at that point, and Shaws Motorsport driver Harrison Morrow impressed to get his Reynard 92FF up into fourth for a short period.
Ensor-Smith reclaimed second two minutes from the end, and improved again on his penultimate effort to qualify 0.154s behind Amato.
Schulte climbed from seventh to third in the final minute with a 1m02.244s, and ended qualifying in fourth as Nippers got within 0.193s of Amato on his final lap.
Gilkes and Fisher could not find more pace late on and qualified fifth and sixth, as a second split the top 10.
Heat 3 qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthony Amato | Ammonite Motorsport | 1m01.904s |
| 2 | KC Ensor-Smith | KMR Sport | +0.154s |
| 3 | Tom Nippers | +0.193s | |
| 4 | Maris Schulte | Oldfield Motorsport | +0.340s |
| 5 | Megan Gilkes | Team Dolan | +0.605s |
| 6 | Felix Fisher | TM Racing | +0.637s |
| 7 | Harrison Morrow | Shaws Motorsport | +0.746s |
| 8 | Tom McArthur | B-M Racing | +0.758s |
| 9 | David Parks | Vertical Racing | +0.862s |
| 10 | James Clarke | Enigma Motorsport | +0.997s |
| 11 | Arnaud Dousse | Dousse Int. Sanglier | +1.017s |
| 12 | Ben Tinkler | Ecurie Hinxton | +1.074s |
| 13 | Richard Tarling | Oldfield Motorsport | +1.244s |
| 14 | Cody Hayhurst | TM Racing | +1.415s |
| 15 | Lewis Fox | Team Fox Racing | +1.528s |
| 16 | Jaap Blijleven | +1.555s | |
| 17 | Cal Bennett | +2.321s | |
| 18 | Ben Hadfield | Shaws Motorsport | +4.308s |
| 19 | Alan Crocker | Team Black Magic Motorsport | +4.483s |
| 20 | Colin Lewis | +5.198s | |
| 21 | Alan Slater | Swift Cooper | +5.375s |
| 22 | Mark Charteris | Neil Fowler Motorsport | +5.711s |
| 23 | Stephen Daly | +6.521s | |
| 24 | Andy Clark | +6.734s | |
| 25 | Duncan Ross | +8.101s |