Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Hillspeed’s points leader Daniel Guinchard prevailed in a close qualifying battle with Alex Kattoulas to seal his first two GB4 poles at Oulton Park.
Guinchard set his quickest lap in the session’s first half to edge out Elite Motorsport’s Kattoulas to race one pole by 0.039 seconds, and his second-best time was enough to deny Kattoulas again by 0.066s to race two pole.
Arden’s Leon Wilson led the way after drivers had completed their first timed laps, his 1m38.800s benchmark putting him 0.631s clear of his team-mate Ava Dobson.
Wilson improved to 1m36.469s on his next attempt, though his advantage was slashed to 0.187s by Kattoulas. Fortec Motorsports’ Jack Taylor briefly took over top spot by 0.011s, only for Guinchard to lap even faster with a 1m35.491s.
Taylor eclipsed that time by 0.374s on his next lap, but he was soon beaten by both Guinchard and Kattoulas – the latter going quickest as 0.087s separated the top three.
Guinchard improved on his fourth tour to lead once more with a 1m34.806s, a time which would remain unbeaten. Kattoulas made two further improvements but only enough to maintain second.
Kattoulas’s team-mates Ary Bansal and and Isaac Phelps made late gains to qualify third and sixth respectively for race one, and the duo are provisionally set to share the second row of the race two grid.
Hillspeed’s Leandro Juncos qualified fifth for both contests, while KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady managed seventh for race one and one place better for race two. Wilson slipped back to eighth, as one second covered the top 15 drivers.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Daniel Guinchard Hillspeed 1m34.806s
2 Alex Kattoulas Elite Motorsport +0.039s
3 Ary Bansal Elite Motorsport +0.296s
4 Jack Taylor Fortec Motorsports +0.311s
5 Leandro Juncos Hillspeed +0.345s
6 Isaac Phelps Elite Motorsport +0.463s
7 Alex O’Grady KMR Sport +0.642s
8 Leon Wilson Arden +0.692s
9 Callum Baxter Graham Brunton Racing +0.750s
10 Stefan Bostandjiev Pace Performance +0.768s
Race 2 grid
1 Guinchard 1m34.837s
2 Kattoulas +0.066s
3 Bansal +0.279s
4 Phelps +0.498s
5 Juncos +0.550s
6 O’ Grady +0.672s
7 Taylor +0.714s
8 Wilson +0.729s
9 Luke Hilton Douglas Motorsport +0.780s
10 Baxter +0.827s