Mills edges Smith and Cooper to pole for Walter Hayes Trophy heat two

Photo: Ida Wood

Tom Mills edged Rory Smith and Luke Cooper to pole in qualifying for the second Walter Hayes Trophy heat.

The trio fought to be quickest throughout the session, and Smith was first to the top with a 1m04.994s that put him 0.049 seconds ahead of Mills.

On his second flying lap, Mills improved to 1m02.950s to lead Smith by 0.137s, with Cooper failing to find more pace and dropping to 10th. David McArthur (B-M Racing) and Chris Middlehurst (Team Dolan) sat third and fourth at that point.

Cooper rebounded with a 1m02.775s next time by, snatching top spot by 0.126s over Smith (B-M) as Mills (KMR Sport) and McArthur did not improve.

Another improvement to 1m02.291s on his fourth lap grew Cooper’s advantage at the top on his fourth lap, with Middlehurst now second and 0.527s behind as the other contenders went slower.

Mills moved back into provisional pole at the halfway point of qualifying, lowering the pace to 1m02.149s and leading Smith by 0.111s. Smith’s sixth lap, a 1m02.053s, later put him on top and he moved 0.226s clear when he improved further to 1m01.923s.

Middlehurst reclaimed second with four minutes to go, 0.199s behind, but was shuffled down to fourth as Mills lowered the paced to 1m01.506s and Cooper set a new personal best to snatch third.

Smith and Cooper got within 0.117s and 0.275s of Mills respectively two minutes from the end of qualifying, and they could not get any faster before the end.

McArthur remained within a second of the pace in fifth, and Benn Tilley topped the classification for older cars in seventh.

Heat 2 qualifying results