Dempsey pips Murray by 0.032s in fight for WHT heat three pole

Photo: Ida Wood

B-M Racing’s Jordan Dempsey pipped Team Dolan’s Niall Murray to pole for the Walter Hayes Trophy’s third heat race.

Dempsey laid down a 1m08.209s benchmark early on, as fellow Irishman Lee Newsome struggled to get his car going and onto a drying Silverstone track.

Callum Grant, in a Van Diemen RF91, was briefly on top with a 1m07.343s lap before Dempsey improved to 1m06.742s three minutes in to lead Vertical Racing’s Ian Campbell by 0.012 seconds.

A minute later Dempsey made a 0.145s gain, and team-mate Tom McArthur jumped up to second with a laptime 0.121s off the new benchmark.

Murray was in seventh, but with his next lap moved to the top by a huge 1.148s as he set a 1m05.449s.

Grant reduced Murray’s advantage to 0.879s with seven minutes to go, then Dempsey went fastest by 0.108s and McArthur edged ahead of Grant by 0.061s.

Team Fox Racing’s Lewis Fox was the next driver to enter the top four, lapping 0.714s off Dempsey. He was soon 1.039s off pole though as Murray snatched back first place with a 1m05.016s, then Dempsey lowered the pace further to 1m04.597s.

Some drama at Brooklands prevented Murray from improving with his next lap, then AF Racing’s Adam Fathers had an off at Copse that also briefly led to yellow flags.

Campbell rejoined the fight for pole with five minutes to go, trading third place with McArthur as Murray got within 0.147s of Dempsey.

The next change at the top was with less than three-and-a-half minutes left of qualifying, as Campbell posted a 1m04.39s to go fastest by 0.142s over McArthur. Murray failed to improve when he crossed the line, and Dempsey did but was 0.405s off pole in fourth.

Dempsey lapped 0.055s slower than Campbell a minute from the end, climbing two spots on the grid, and Murray’s new personal best meant 0.286s split the top four with 48s to go.

Campbell proved his earlier effort was no fluke as he improved to 1m04.191s, which Dempsey immediately got within 0.021s of as Grant demoted Murray to fifth.

McArthur improved in third, then with the drying track it meant the last to complete their final flying lap had the best conditions.

Murray was the very first driver to meet the chequered flag, and set a 1m03.937s that provisionally earned him pole. But Dempsey, one of the later drivers to cross the line, managed to outpace him by 0.032s.

McArthur found even more pace but remained fourth, 0.454s off pole.

“It was very close. I don’t think we ran the ideal se-tup there, but we made it work,” said Dempsey afterwards.

He was “glad to keep it on the blacks tuff” as the track dried, avoiding a spin at the end and noting the “track[is] still really slippy” and there is “a lot more time to come”. He also reckoned a “tow [was] probably worth 0.4s to 0.5s on your lap”.

Heat 3 qualifying results