Ross Martin claimed pole position for the BRSCC National FF1600 season finale on Silverstone’s International layout, while title rival and team-mate Chris Middlehurst was absent.
Team Dolan’s Middlehurst and Ross Martin were the outsiders for the five-way title fight being decided on Saturday, but 2013 Formula Renault BARC champion Middlehurst is now out of contention due to clashing work committments.
Martin, the reigning National FF1600 champion, set the pace at the beginning of the 15-minute qualifying session, but he was soon topped by B-M Racing’s Rory Smith – who sits second in the points – as he lapped half a second quicker before improving by a further 0.1 seconds on his next effort.
Provisional pole went back to Martin halfway through qualifying with a 1m10.470s lap that would not be beaten, and Smith’s later improvement put him 0.168s behind.
Swift Cooper’s Luke Cooper won a tight battle for third place against B-M’s Jamie Sharp and Dolan’s Morgan Quinn.
It was actually Kevin Mills Racing’s championship leader Neil Maclennan who sat in third early on, before Cooper and then Sharp went third fastest. Cooper then put in a couple of quick laps late on to secure third, with Quinn leaping up to fourth and Sharp ending up in fifth.
Team USA scholar Bryce Aron was sixth for Low Dempsey Racing, while Maclennan slipped back to seventh.
Souley Motorsport’s Ollie White was eighth, ahead of Dolan’s Matt Cowley and returning FF1600 icon Joey Foster, making his first appearance of 2020 for Don Hardman Racing.
White’s team-mate Samuel Harrison pipped BM-run Classic FF1600 rival Cameron Jackson to 11th spot, with Jackson fastest of the Clubman class runners.
Jonathan Browne, third in the point, qualified a lowly 15th for LDR and his debuting team-mate Jackson Lee – another of the Team USA scholars – down in 18th on his first sight of a British circuit.
BRSCC chairman Peter Daly took BRSCC Northern FF1600 pole in 23rd place, 4.266s off the pace in his 32-year-old Van Diemen RF88.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ross Martin | Team Dolan | 1m10.470s |
| 2 | Rory Smith | B-M Racing | +0.168s |
| 3 | Luke Cooper | Swift Cooper | +0.377s |
| 4 | Morgan Quinn | Team Dolan | +0.636s |
| 5 | Jamie Sharp | B-M Racing | +0.706s |
| 6 | Bryce Aron | Low Dempsey Racing | +0.721s |
| 7 | Neil Maclennan | Kevin Mills Racing | +0.763s |
| 8 | Ollie White | Souley Motorsport | +0.791s |
| 9 | Matt Cowley | Team Dolan | +0.832s |
| 10 | Joey Foster | Don Hardman Racing | +0.861s |
| 11 | Sam Harrison | Souley Motorsport | +0.896s |
| 12 | Cameron Jackson | B-M Racing | +0.948s |
| 13 | Grant Palmer | Low Dempsey Racing | +1.009s |
| 14 | Reece Lycett | Kevin Mills Racing | +1.034s |
| 15 | Jonathan Browne | Low Dempsey Racing | +1.076s |
| 16 | Alex Walker | PWR1 Racing | +1.145s |
| 17 | Horatio Fitz-Simon | Kevin Mills Racing | +1.499s |
| 18 | Jackson Lee | Low Dempsey Racing | +1.536s |
| 19 | David McArthur | B-M Racing | +1.587s |
| 20 | Pascal Monbaron | John’s Racing Team | +1.781s |
| 21 | Tom Ward | B-M Racing | +2.129s |
| 22 | John Svensson | John’s Racing Team | +3.318s |
| 23 | Peter Daly | +4.266s | |
| 24 | George McDonald | +4.669s | |
| 25 | Jason Cheetham | +5.270s | |
| 26 | Paul Tucker | Tucker Motorsport | +5.580s |
| 27 | Stuart Kestenbaum | +5.598s | |
| 28 | Neil McArthur | B-M Racing | +6.168s |
| 29 | Lorna Vickers | +6.869s |