Brands Hatch

[Speedworx]

Ian McKellar set the pole position time at Brands Hatch today for the opening round of the BRDC British GT Championship in the Dunlop Superpole qualifying session.

McKellar set the fastest lap time on his fourth lap of Superpole and was confident enough to sit in the pit lane before the chequered flag flew.

"The car is great," said McKellar. "We are going to have to work hard to beat the Lister Storm of Mike Jordan/David Warnock but it should be a great race."

Reigning champion Mike Jordan was second fastest despite using a new set of tyres and having a last lap charge to try to beat McKellar. He ended the session three-tenths of a second shy of McKellar and appreciating that the race would be tough.

"We are going to have to work very hard to beat the Saleen," he said. "This is going to be a very tough race."

Third fastest was the TVR Cerbera Speed 12 piloted by Michael Caine which needed two new left-hand tyres during the session, whilst fourth was the Stealth of Nigel Greensall which suffered yesterday from an ECU problem in free practice.

The GTO class was headed by Martin Short in his TVR Tuscan R although he was pushed hard by ex-Formula 3000 racer Jamie Davies in the Ferrari UK/Veloqx Motorsport Ferrari 360NGT. However, Tim Sugden banged in a stunning lap in the last few minutes of the session to go second fastest in GTO in his Porsche 911 GT3-R.

Top times

1 Ian McKellar/Thomas Erdos Saleen S7R 1m 23.200s

2 Mike Jordan/David Warnock Lister Storm 1m 23.584s

3 Michael Caine/Rob Barff TVR Cerbera Speed 12 1m24.866s

4 Nigel Greensall/Terry Pudwell Stealth B6 1m26.365s

5 Martin Short/Simon Pullan TVR Tuscan R 1m27.745s

6 Tim Sugden/Steve O’Rourke Porsche 911 GT3-R 1m 27.968s