Rivett Lays Down The Marker In Qualifying
Bouncing back from a disappointing weekend at Rockingham, Double Clio Cup Champion Paul Rivett laid out his stall in the title fight by dominating in qualifying to take a pair of pole positions around the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
Rivett’s time of 1:39.906 was by far the quickest of the weekend. The closest challenge came from Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn, and Scuderia Vittoria’s Luke Wright who both claimed a front row start apiece.
Colburn’s front row would come for the first race, where he would line up side by side with his Championship rival with whom he entered the weekend tied on points in the overall standings. Unfortunately for the young driver from Worthing, his second fastest time was almost four tenths slower than his best, which put him back on the third row for the second race on Sunday.
The Team Pyro pairing of Aron Smith and Jack Goff, also both in the title race, were right in the mix as well. Smith faired slightly better with some consistent low 1:40 lap times which were good enough to take third on the grid for both races. For Goff, his target time of 1:40.292 he hoped would be good enough for the front row was only good enough for sixth, three tenths back on Rivett. Somewhat of a story of the 2011 season, where the times have been incredibly tight through qualifying.
The final title contender, local favourite James Dixon would have been confident of a good qualifying time around the track at which he works in his day job. The TCR man twice had his quickest lap time removed early in the session for exceeding the track limits. As the session progressed he had no answer for the pace of the front runners, and found himself languishing with a ninth for race one, and an eighth for race two.
Dixon was not the only man adjudged to have exceeded the track limits, as all teams were handed an official warning on the matter. The common areas; Paddock Hill Bend, and Graham Hill Bend. The ruling is set that two wheels should remain on the track at all times. Should more than this go out onto the runoff areas, then the laptime was scrapped.
Other strong qualifying performances came from Team Pyro’s Adam Bonham, and Get On Track Developments Jake Packun. Bonham recorded a couple of strong laps to claim an eighth and a seventh for the two races. Packun however was planting himself firmly amongst the title fighting front runners, qualifying inside the top six for both races. Packun was strong around the Indy layout at Brands in the first meeting of the season, so was not to be underestimated as he carried over his good practice pace into Saturday.
Over at JHR Developments, Rob Boston continued his impressive showing at Rockingham on his return to the Championship with a top ten grid slot for the first race, starting alongside James Dixon on the fifth row. Speaking to us before the session, Boston described how lack of experience on the GP loop section of the circuit, was potentially costing him upto half a second over the course of the lap. With his sights set on returning full time in 2012, he is already proving his worth, and his fastest lap of 1:40.586 was only a tenth shy of Dixon.
Dixon’s TCR teammate Nicolas Hamilton on Friday enjoyed some of his most competitive laps to date. Hamilton, who has steadily improved throughout his rookie season, has qualified for both races comfortably under a second back from the pole position time. Being in the middle of the pack, Hamilton can expect to find himself in some good battles during the two races.
For full classification, please see below.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Richard Devine
