Team Dolan’s Jason Smyth dominates WHT heat two qualifying

Photo: Ida Wood

Team Dolan’s Jason Smyth dominated qualifying for the second Walter Hayes Trophy heat at Silverstone, taking pole by 0.815 seconds.

The National layout was wet but drying, and KMR Sport’s Andrew Rackstraw was fastest at first. He, Smyth and B-M Racing’s defending winner Rory Smith each lapped in the 1m09s on their first attempt, which took far longer to achieve for the drivers in heat one qualifying.

Rackstraw lowered the pace to 1m07.740s three minutes in, with Smith 0.662 seconds behind in second. But when Smyth crossed the line he went fastest by 0.669s, and it left Ammonite Motorsport’s Hugh Esterson 1.575s off the pace despite being in fourth place.

Dolan’s Megan Gilkes soon went fourth fastest, 0.028s quicker than Esterson, and at the four-minute mark improvements from Rackstraw and Smith meant they moved to within 0.56s and 1.085s of Smyth’s benchmark.

They both set personal bests again on the lap after, meaning they were now 0.286s and 0.522s off pole respectively, with B-M Racing’s David McArthur a further 0.176s behind in fourth while Gilkes and Esterson also improved.

Paul Unsworth had a spin exiting Becketts that did not disrupt proceedings, and with just under six minutes to go Rackstraw usurped Smyth by 0.048s. Smith got within 0.389s of the new laptime to beat, but Smyth then finally improved again and reclaimed first place by 0.424s.

Rackstraw was committed to beat him, and on his next lap came 0.067s shy of Smyth as Smith and Gilkes set personal bests to be 0.628s and 0.714s off in third and fourth.

Dolan driver Jonathan Kotyk entered the fight for pole with four minutes to go as he lapped 0.086s off Smyth, but he then set the fastest splits in all three sectors and with a 1m05.938s grew his gap at the top to 0.728s.

Smith improved with two minutes remaining but remained fourth, 1.141s off, then a minute later Gilkes edged ahead of him by a small 0.057s margin. The response from Smith was a new personal best, putting him back ahead by 0.061s with a minute left of qualifying, and he improved on the lap after that too.

Rackstraw had reduced Smyth’s pole advantage to 0.631s with 80s left on the clock, but Smyth had posted an unbeatable 1m05.625s after that and set to improve again on his final effort with purple sector splits before encountering traffic.

His rivals were more fortunate after the chequered flag, but still far slower than him and Rackstraw’s fastest lap was 0.815s off Smyth’s.

Gilkes was just 0.067s behind Rackstraw, with Smith taking fourth from non-improver Kotyk.

“We’ve shown our form again into the Hayes now. We knew we were strong in testing,” Smyth said of pole.

“We know we’re very, very quick in both [dry and wet] conditions,” he added. “I could see I was eating everybody out in nevery corner.”

Unable to set a flying lap was Simon Hadfield, who suspected a fuel-related issue was hampering his Van Diemen RF94.

Heat 2 qualifying results