BRITON Jake Dennis will be the last car to hit the track in this afternoon’s top ten shootout after taking a late provisional pole in the Class A-only qualifying session.
Coming in to the session knowing his #62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin entry would be hit with a two-place grid penalty after a pit lane speeding violation in the opening qualifying session, Dennis put it all on the line to take provisional pole in the dying moments of the session.
His time of 2:02.4127 around the Mountain saw him go just 0.0122 seconds ahead of David Reynolds in the #777 Mercedes-AMG GT3, both drivers putting in their quickest laps after the chequered flag had dropped.
Proving how close the Class A cars are, all cars in the top four were split by less than a tenth of a second with Maro Engel (#77) and Yelmer Buurman (#19) coming up just shy of the provisional pole time.
All drivers in the top ten recorded laps within four tenths of Dennis’ effort with Matt Campbell (#912) lining up as the sixth car out this afternoon after being on top for a majority of qualifying.
Stephen Kane (#107), Kelvin van der Linde (#22), Christopher Haase (#2), Raffaele Marciello (#999) and Alex Imperatori (#18) will all feature in the shootout, the latter less than a tenth clear of 11th placed Vincent Abril (#108).
The big names who missed out on making the top spots included reigning Allan Simonsen Pole Trophy winner Chaz Mostert, only managing 15th in the BMW Team Schnitzer #42 entry.
Struggling all throughout the session, Supercars powerhouse team Triple Eight could only manage 19th place with Jamie Whincup behind the wheel, only a second off the pole time in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 but well down the order from where the team would want to be.
Nick Foster in the #27 HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 will line up last out of the Class A machines, staying in the garage for most of the session due to a problem.
The top ten shootout will see cars sent out in reverse order from where they qualified, starting at 4:40pm local time to finalise the grid for tomorrow’s race.
Words: Jordan Mulach
