Race Report for Qualifying Two
REVELER RETURNS TO POLE AS TOPCATS EMERGES FASTEST AT SNETTERTON
James Reveler returned the Topcats Racing Ginetta to pole position in Group GTA and an impressive fourth overall in qualifying for the GT Cup Championship endurance race at Snetterton. With rain falling at the start of the session competitors were caught whether to stay on slicks on change to wets.
As the rain held off the drivers built up temperature in their slick tyres and Reveler put in an excellent lap to go into the top four. “It was nice to be on pole in Group GTA,” said Reveler. “It’s been a few races now. It looked like it was going to be wet but it’s helpful that it’s dry as we had the running yesterday and couldn’t test on Friday.
James Reveler - Topcats Racing (10)
“I’m looking forward to the race now. We have a longer pit stop than Tom Hibbert does, so we’ll see what happens. It’ll be nice to battle again today after finishing second yesterday.”
In the competitive Group GTH Adam Hatfield emerged quickest ahead of the returning Ross McEwen in his KTM X-BOW GT4. “One minute we went for new tyres, then we put scrubbed ones on, but we went new in the end,” said Hatfield. “There were some damp patches, but it was dry most of the way around, so we put the hammer down. We were ok in the wet on Friday so we’ve got a good base set up but we’ll take it as it goes. We have the second highest pit stop success penalty, so we’ll have to push through it in the race.”
Fastest overall once again was the Group GTC WPI Motorsport Porsche of Michael Igoe. “It was quite difficult because we were sat in the car and had lost temperature on the slicks,” said Igoe. “We had that much of a lead that the guys came over the radio and told me not to push and save the tyres for the race instead. I haven’t had massive amounts of practice in the wet in this car. If it rains later I’m not fazed by it, so I think it’ll be an interesting race.”
One place behind Igoe was the Group GTB pole sitter of Tom Webb, taking over from brother James who raced yesterday. “We couldn’t find the pace in warm up this morning,” said Tom. “The car felt a bit strange, so I brought it into the pits and Nathan from Pirelli found we had a slow leak. Realistically we couldn’t improve on our time, but it would have been nice to have beaten Jim’s lap from yesterday.”
Rounding out the pole sitters was Gareth Downing in the National Motorsport Academy Lotus Evora GTE, which is still clearing problems after it’s rushed introduction on Saturday morning. “It’s been a long weekend!” he said.
“We’re still struggling with water temperature and we’re trying to bleed the system. The ultimate high temperature is reducing and as it is reducing the computer is giving us more pace to use. That was the quickest lap we’ve done so far but it’s still playing safe and holding back at the moment. We were hoping it would have cleared so far by now, so fingers crossed for the race.”
Results
Group GTO
1) Gareth Downing, National Motorsport Academy – Lotus Evora GTE
Group GTC
1) Michael Igoe, WPI Motorsport – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Gen II
2) Paul Bailey, SB Race Engineering – Ferrari 488 Challenge
Group GTB
1) Tom Webb, Team Webb – BMW M3 GTR
2) Jon Harrison / Warren Gilbert, Topcats Racing – Marcos Mantis
3) David Frankland – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Gen I
Group GTH
1) Adam Hatfield, Whitebridge Motorsport – Aston Martin Vantage GT4
2) Ross McEwen, Track Focused – KTM X-BOW GT4
3) Steve Ruston, JMH Automotive – Ginetta G55 GT4
Group GTA
1) James Reveler, Topcats Racing – Ginetta G55 GT4
2) Tom Hibbert, Harlaxton – Ginetta G55 GT4
3) Andy Robey, Gemini Cars – BMW M3 GTR
Fastest overall once again was the Group GTC WPI Motorsport Porsche of Michael Igoe. “It was quite difficult because we were sat in the car and had lost temperature on the slicks,” said Igoe. “We had that much of a lead that the guys came over the radio and told me not to push and save the tyres for the race instead. I haven’t had massive amounts of practice in the wet in this car. If it rains later I’m not fazed by it, so I think it’ll be an interesting race.”
One place behind Igoe was the Group GTB pole sitter of Tom Webb, taking over from brother James who raced yesterday. “We couldn’t find the pace in warm up this morning,” said Tom. “The car felt a bit strange, so I brought it into the pits and Nathan from Pirelli found we had a slow leak. Realistically we couldn’t improve on our time, but it would have been nice to have beaten Jim’s lap from yesterday.”
Rounding out the pole sitters was Gareth Downing in the National Motorsport Academy Lotus Evora GTE, which is still clearing problems after it’s rushed introduction on Saturday morning. “It’s been a long weekend!” he said.
“We’re still struggling with water temperature and we’re trying to bleed the system. The ultimate high temperature is reducing and as it is reducing the computer is giving us more pace to use. That was the quickest lap we’ve done so far but it’s still playing safe and holding back at the moment. We were hoping it would have cleared so far by now, so fingers crossed for the race.”
Results
Group GTO
1) Gareth Downing, National Motorsport Academy – Lotus Evora GTE
Group GTC
1) Michael Igoe, WPI Motorsport – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Gen II
2) Paul Bailey, SB Race Engineering – Ferrari 488 Challenge
Group GTB
1) Tom Webb, Team Webb – BMW M3 GTR
2) Jon Harrison / Warren Gilbert, Topcats Racing – Marcos Mantis
3) David Frankland – Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Gen I
Group GTH
1) Adam Hatfield, Whitebridge Motorsport – Aston Martin Vantage GT4
2) Ross McEwen, Track Focused – KTM X-BOW GT4
3) Steve Ruston, JMH Automotive – Ginetta G55 GT4
Group GTA
1) James Reveler, Topcats Racing – Ginetta G55 GT4
2) Tom Hibbert, Harlaxton – Ginetta G55 GT4
3) Andy Robey, Gemini Cars – BMW M3 GTR
