Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
KMR Sport’s Brandon McCaughan was fastest in the opening GB4 qualifying session of the season at Oulton Park.
The Formula Ford 1600 graduate edged pre-event test pacesetter Alisha Palmowski by 0.07 seconds to take pole for race one on Saturday, and he also beat the Elite Motorsport driver to pole for race two – decided by drivers’ second-best laptimes – on Monday by an even smaller margin of 0.049s.
KMR’s Harry Burgoyne Jnr posted an opening gambit of 1m42.421s in the 15-minute session and he improved on his next two laps to lower the pace to 1m36.695s.
Palmowski took over the top approaching the halfway mark by 0.075s, with Burgoyne responding with a quicker effort of 1m36.205s before McCaughan beat the pair with a 1m36.181s.
Burgoyne went fastest again on his next lap with a 1m35.886s but, following close behind, McCaughan then beat the Scottish driver’s effort by over 0.4s, while Elite’s Finn Harrison and Fortec Motorsports’ Linus Granfors demoted Palmowski to fifth.
Palmowski then responded to go second quickest and just 0.028s shy of McCaughan, who improved on his final lap with a 1m35.419s to fractionally extend his advantage.
Burgoyne was not able to improve further in the final minutes and ended up almost half a second off the pace in third, where he will start both race one and two.
Harrison edged Graham Brunton Racing’s Callum Baxter, who improved as the chequered flag fell, to fourth by 0.019s for race one and he will also start from that position in race two. Granfors took sixth for race one, and will start one place ahead of Baxter in fifth in the sequel.
Fox Motorsport’s Branden Templeton was seventh fastest ahead of Arden’s Leon Wilson and KMR’s Chloe Grant – the trio all within 1.5s of the pace – and Jack Taylor rounded out the top 10 for Fortec.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Brandon McCaughan KMR Sport 1m35.419s
2 Alisha Palmowski Elite Motorsport +0.070s
3 Harry Burgoyne Jr KMR Sport +0.467s
4 Finn Harrison Elite Motorsport +0.571s
5 Callum Baxter Graham Brunton Racing +0.590s
6 Linus Granfors Fortec Motorsports +0.635s
7 Branden Templeton Fox Motorsport +1.317s
8 Leon Wilson Arden +1.341s
9 Chloe Grant KMR Sport +1.481s
10 Jack Taylor Fortec Motorsports +1.896s
Race 2 grid
1 McCaughan 1m35.461s
2 Palmowski +0.049s
3 Burgoyne +0.489s
4 Harrison +0.537s
5 Granfors +0.688s
6 Baxter +0.703s
7 Wilson +1.317s
8 Templeton +1.389s
9 Grant +1.582s
10 Taylor +2.039s