Downing digs deep at Donington as Fox returns with pole position

Qualifying for the first of this weekend’s GT Cup Championship races at Donington Park was a closely-fought affair as Gareth Downing took overall pole position after going back-and-forth with debutant Andrew Howard at the top of the times.

Howard, in his Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 set the initial pace before Downing got up to speed in the National Motorsport Academy Mosler MT900. The pair swapped fastest lap after fastest lap through the middle of the session, with Downing coming out on top, though the returning Nigel Hudson gave both a scare on his final run, setting the fastest time of anyone in sector one, but ultimately coming up just short.

“We don’t tyre warm,” said Downing. “Going out on new tyres, cold, on a damp track is entertaining. Those with warm tyres can put laps in early on but we get quicker and quicker. The engine was only put in yesterday, so fingers crossed that goes well. Andrew is running modern machinery and he is a quick driver, so it’s nice to be pushed and know that when I dig deep I can find the time.”

GT Cup returnee Fox Motorsport took the glory in Group GTH, Mark Murfitt putting his glorious Mercedes AMG GT4 on pole, though Adam Hatfield pushed him hard in the Whitebridge Motorsport Aston Martin GT4.

“There’s quite a lot of debris on the track,” said Murfitt. “The track is also a little bit greasy, but it is okay. We’re learning our way around the car, especially circuit to circuit. Pole is one thing, but the race is something very different, so we’ll see what happens. Ideally, we’d like one wet and one dry race, but it will be what it will be.”

Warren Gibert snatched an important pole in Group GTB, besting rival James Webb with a blistering lap in his Topcats Racing Marcos Mantis, though the gap was just 0.2s between the cars.

“It’s close at the top,” said Gilbert. “I’m dead chuffed. The car felt great – it was a second and a half quicker than I’ve ever been around here, so I’m stoked. We put new brakes on it for this weekend: it’s the first time it’s had discs and the car is on fire.”

Michael Igoe continues his remarkable run of form in GTC, taking the WPI Motorsport Porsche around ahead of the Ferrari duo of Paul Bailey and John Seale, though all three were covered by just over a second.

“It was very good,” said Igoe. “It didn’t make much sense having slicks on and the wiper going! They don’t really go together! I had a few slides here and there, but we got the result which is the main thing, so we’ll see what the weather does. It’ll be nice to try to hang on to the tail of the GT3 cars.”

Rounding off the pole sitters was James Reveler in GTA, making it a double for Topcats Racing, as he finished inside the top ten overall with his Ginetta G55 GT4.

“The track is very greasy,” said Reveler. “You have to feel where to put the power down, so you build lap on lap. It’s a fast track but the power deficit is almost less here so it is looking good. We’d love to see if we can beat the GTH cars, but we’ll see what happens in the race.”

Qualifying result

Group GTO

1) Gareth Downing, National Motorsport Academy – Mosler MT 900

2) Andrew Howard, Beechdean AMR – Aston Martin Vantage GT3

3) Nigel Hudson, HUD Motorsports – Aston Martin Vantage GT3

Group GTC

1) Michael Igoe, WPI Motorsport – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Gen II

2) Paul Bailey, SB Race Engineering – Ferrari 488 Challenge

3) John Seale, FF Corse – Ferrari 488 Challenge

Group GTB

1) Warren Gilbert, Topcats Racing – Marcos Mantis

2) James Webb, Team Webb – BMW M3 GTR

3) David Frankland – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Gen I

Group GTH

1) Mark Murfitt, Fox Motorsport – Mercedes AMG GT4

2) Adam Hatfield, Whitebridge Motorsport – Aston Martin Vantage GT4

3) David Holloway, Century Motorsport – Ginetta G55 GT4

Group GTA

1) James Reveler, Topcats Racing – Ginetta G55 GT4