Walker takes Walter Hayes heat one pole, mechanical issue hits Foster

Photo: Ida Wood

Wayne Poole Racing’s Alex Walker topped qualifying for the first Walter Hayes Trophy heat on Silverstone’s National layout.

Saturday morning began with some twists, as it was drizzling on and off at different areas of the track immediately before and during the middle of the 12-minute qualifying session.

KMR Sport’s Andrew Rackstraw was at the front of the field as they left the pits, and was the benchmark driver at first. Walker was his closest rival initially, along with Swift Cooper’s Rob Hall.

On his third flying lap Rackstraw lowered the pace to 1m05.638s, putting him just 0.106 seconds ahead of team-mate KC Ensor-Smith, with Hall 0.2s back and Walker also breaking the 1m06s barrier. Four-time WHT winner Joey Foster was down in 12th, four seconds off the pace and failing to improve.

Next time around Walker shot to the top with a 1m04.359s putting him over 0.4s ahead of the improving Rackstraw and hall, while Ensor-Smith and Team Dolan’s Jonathan Kotyk were closely matched behind in fourth and fifth.

Walker found even more pace on his fifth lap, setting a 1m04.159s to pip Ensor-Smith by just 0.048s. Ammonite Motorsport’s Anthony Amato belied his inexperience to go third fastest, but then had his laptime deleted due to exceeding track limits, and Darwin Smith inherited fourth as Kotyk failed to improve.

Foster had dropped to 16th, and soon headed to the pits due to a carburetor issue that had plagued him in testing. He sat out the rest of the session in the pitlane, and the Pirate M-Sports team told Formula Scout the part should be fixable in time for this afternoon’s heat.

Rackstraw briefly reclaimed top spot on his sixth flying lap, his 1m04.090s swiftly being beaten by a 1m03.388s from Walker. Ensor-Smith demoted Rackstraw to third, and Amato failed to match his previous pace but still improved to fourth ahead of Smith. Hall and Kotyk set personal bests behind.

Walker came just short of improving on his next lap, but Rackstraw did go faster and slashed the provisional poleman’s gap to 0.281s. Amato consolidated his fourth place with another improvement, and Vertical Racing’s Ian Campbell then jmped up to sixth with a 1m04.439s.

The pace leveled out in the final two minutes for many drivers as they had to navigate rivals who had backed out of laps, but the top three did find clean air and continued their battle for pole. With two-and-a-half minutes remaining, Walker set a 1m03.279s to lead Rackstraw by 0.144s and Ensor-Smith by 0.205s.

On Ensor-Smith’s penultimate lap he came just 0.002s shy of Walker’s benchmark, before the WPR driver met the chequered flag with a 1m03.069s that earned him pole by 0.212s.

Hall, Kotyk and KMR’s Andrew Schofield and Souley Motorsport’s Nathan Ward all set personal bests on their final laps to slot into fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, while Foster ended qualifying down in 21st place, only ahead of B-M Racing’s Michael Fitzgerald.

After qualifying concluded, Walker had his fastest lap deleted but still clinched pole by 0.002s over Ensor-Smith.

Heat 1 qualifying results