SV Racing narrowly missed out on pole position for Rounds 9 and 10 of the 2014 Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup at Croft Circuit (28 June), Bristol’s Josh Cook lighting up the timing screens in free practice and qualifying a close second.
Championship leader Cook looks set to extend his points advantage at Croft Circuit, dominating the top of the timesheets in Friday’s UK Clio Cup free practice sessions.
Conditions were unsettled in FP1 and the SV Racing with KX stable took a tentative approach to the session, but all four drivers – Cook, Alex Morgan, Ant Whorton-Eales and Ash Hand – felt comfortable with their respective setups straight out of the blocks.
Bristol’s Cook was half a second to the good in first practice but went a full 1.3s quicker in the second session to have three tenths over the rest of the competition with what he described as a less than perfect lap.
Both Morgan and Whorton-Eales felt that small changes to their approach to particular corners or stringing together their best sectors would result in significant improvements in lap time.
Morgan was sixth fastest, just a tenth off fourth-placed James Colburn at the end of practice, and only 17 thousandths of a second split him and his fellow KX Akademy recruits Whorton-Eales and Hand.
Cook appeared to be hooked up from the outset of qualifying on Saturday afternoon (28 June) and provisionally held pole position when Croft specialist Jordan Stilp demoted him.
Tyre wear was prominent, giving drivers a very narrow window in which to make an impact on the pointy end of the leaderboard and there was a lull in on-track activity while drivers swapped their Dunlops midway through the session, sparking another spate of improvements and a reshuffle in the order during the concluding moments of the session.
Cook recorded a 1m32.212s and Stilp’s pole position all of a sudden looked vulnerable, with the slenderest of margins splitting the top two and less than a second covering the first 11 runners.
However, tyres were soon past their best, tightening Stilp’s grip on P1, and an eerie silence fell on the circuit even before the chequered flag was waved, but not before Nuneaton’s Hand responded to having his previous best time disallowed for exceeding track limits by going third fastest.
Whorton-Eales, meanwhile, ended up in eighth and Morgan had two of his times removed for track limits infringements, wrestling a baffling case of oversteer to qualify tenth.
Cook said: “I’m a little disappointed not to have taken pole position after setting the pace throughout free practice, as I made a couple of mistakes on a circuit that has evolved dramatically since Friday. We anticipated those changes and I used my first qualifying run to identify how it had altered and subsequently made a few tweaks to my car’s setup. It’s quite difficult because there’s such a narrow window with the tyres here at Croft and I lost one lap on my final set while searching for some clean air, but there was only 16 thousandths between Stilp and I in the end and what I have to keep in mind is that he isn’t a championship contender. He’s very quick here and I identified him as a threat before the weekend. I need two podiums at the very least, while making sure I bring the car home without damage.”
Hand added: “Free practice didn’t go well at all, as the weather was varied in FP1 and I only completed a few laps, opting not to risk my car in dangerous conditions. I then lost time with engine and fuel issues at the start of FP2 and I only completed four laps during the afternoon, which is nothing at all. With hardly any miles under my belt, I’m more than happy to qualify third, especially as I lost free practice time at Oulton Park too. SV Racing has given me a great car and it felt really good out there. We have a few tweaks to make but I think my race pace will be better and more consistent than over a single lap and I’m looking forward to showing that tomorrow here at Croft, a circuit I really enjoy.”
The intermittent drizzle that had affected almost every session on Saturday morning had dissipated for the start of Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup qualifying and KX Akademy’s David Pittard opened his account with a 1m24.531s to provisionally hold P7.
However, the abrasiveness Croft Circuit dramatically narrowed the Michelin tyres’ operating window and it was up to the drivers to maximise their first three flying laps before degradation set in and the grip decreased.
Red flags marked a brief interval halfway through the 20-minute session but, while there were small improvements in lap time thereafter, the order remained static and a best time of 1m24.394s was only good enough for seventh on the grid for Pittard.
The start to Saturday’s Ginetta GT Supercup race was incident-free and the SV Racing with KX driver used a clean getaway from the fourth row of the grid to tuck himself under sixth-placed Tom Oliphant’s rear wing on the opening lap.
The Letchworth Garden City driver steadily lost touch with the Century Motorsport driver but maintained a comfortable gap to the chasing Jamie Orton and Sean Huyton until the chequered flag fell on the 10-lapper.
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