Four-time WHT winner Joey Foster on pole for first heat

Photo: Ida Wood

Pirate M-Sports’ Joey Foster claimed pole for the opening Walter Hayes Trophy heat on Silverstone’s damp National layout.

Tom Nippers was fastest at first, the privateer setting a 1m10.04s to lead KMR Sport’s Jacob Tofts by just 0.088 seconds.

Mann Motorsport’s Charlie Mann trailed by 0.513s, then John Svensson (John’s Racing Team) and Anthony Amato (Ammonite Motorsport) were the only other drivers within a second of their pace until three-and-a-half minutes into the 12-minute session when Foster a 1m10.354s to go third fastest.

Nippers lowered the pace to 1m09.097s four minutes in, with KMR Sport’s Brendon Leigh jumping up to third but over 1.1s off the pace. Foster’s next lap returned him to that position, 1.097s off Nippers’ benchmark, and approaching the halfway mark Tofts slashed Nippers’ advantage to 0.241s.

Amato went third quickest at the same time, lapping 0.943s slower than Nippers, then was swiftly shuffled down to fifth following improvements from Foster and Svensson.

Tofts topped Nippers as the session’s second half began, posting a 1m09.082s to narrowly put himself on provisional pole position. Amato also broke the 1m10s barrier in fourth, then Mann put a lap in that was 0.166s off the pace and put him third.

Foster was routinely quickest in sector one, and this led to him moving to the top with five minutes to go. He set a 1m08.711s, then red flags waved due to Oldfield Motorsport driver Nigel Thompson struck trouble.

Four-and-a-half minutes remained when green flags returned, but there were no improvements until the final 110 seconds.

A 1m08.244s from Foster put him way clear in first place, as Mann had his fastest lap deleted but remained fourth. Svensson set a personal best to rise to fifth.

On his next lap, Mann beat his previous best with a 1m08.778s and Nippers improved to 1m08.928s in third.

As the track dried even more pace was found after the chequered flag, and Foster secured pole with a 1m08.039s. Amato got within 0.366s of him, Svensson was just 0.026s further back in third and Nippers was demoted to fourth despite improving to 1m08.509s.

Tofts was 0.012s off him in fifth, and TM Racing’s Tom Hawkins completed a top six covered by 0.552s. Mann failed to improve so dropped to seventh, with Swift Cooper’s Luke Cooper a second off pole in eighth.

Just before the end, Klaus-Dieter Haeckel stopped at Copse with an issue but managed to get his car going again.

However track limit violations by the top eight meant the timing sheet changed, and Foster’s earlier 1m08.244s lap earned him pole.

Amato and Svensson’s final laps put them 0.161s and 0.187s behind Foster, while Nippers’ best lap that counted dropped him to fifth behind Tofts. Meanwhile Cooper rose to sixth ahead of Mann and Hawkins.

In an old Royale RP26 car, Joseph Ahrens was able to qualify 1.4s off pole in ninth and KMR Sport’s esports star Brendon Leigh was 10th fastest on his first race outing since 2021.

Heat 1 qualifying results