Adam and Griffin take opening British GT poles

Ex-British Touring Car drivers Jonathan Adam and Liam Griffin set the pace in their respective classes to secure the first pole positions of the new British GT season at Oulton Park.

Adam, driving Beechdean Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3, led the way in the quick-fire 10-minute session for professional drivers, beating last year’s pole benchmark around the Chesire circuit with a best effort of 1m33.877s.

Adam Carroll’s FF Corse Ferrari 458 looked like challenging late on with a quickest first sector, but the Ulsterman was unable to topple Adam, the former A1GP champion forced to settle for second place ahead of the BMW Z4s of Phil Keen and Alexander Sims.

Mike Simpson was fifth fastest in the LNT Ginetta G55, with Joe Osborne’s Triple Eight BMW, Matt Bell’s TF Sport Aston and Rory Butcher’s Motorbase Aston all lapping within a second of the pace.

In the session for amateur drivers, it was another ex-BTCC driver who was quickest, as Griffin set a pace three tenths clear of his nearest rival Gary Eastwood (FF Corse Ferrari) to take pole position for himself and team-mate Butcher in the opening race.

Adam’s team-mate and 2013 series champion Andrew Howard was third quickest, with Alistair MacKinnon (RAM Mercedes), silver-rated McLaren junior Andrew Watson and Griffin’s team-mate Ahmad Al Harthy all lapping within a second of the pace to secure top six grid slots.

In the GT4 class, Luke Davenport’s Ginetta G55 went quickest in the Pro session to secure race two class pole for himself and Tolman Motorsport team-mate David Pattison, while Lotus Evora driver Oz Yusuf was the quickest of the amateurs, giving himself and Gavan Kershaw the top GT4 grid slot for the opening race.