Saturday, October 15 2022

Father and son team Sam and Richard Neary will start tomorrow's championship deciding Intelligent Money British GT Championship race at Donington Park from pole position after topping the combined times in a weather affected split qualifying on the Grand Prix circuit.

The Team Abba Racing Mercedes was one of the few teams to set a representative laptime in the Am qualifying session with a 1m30.026s from Richard Neary before a flash rain shower soaked the circuit. On the damp track in the following Pro session, Sam Neary mastered the conditions to put them nearly a second ahead when the times were added.

It's a McLaren two, three and four with the Orange Motorsport powered by JMH of Simon Orange and Michael O'Brien in a comfortable second place. Six tenths back are the Fox Motorsport McLaren of Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley and in fourth, Mark Smith and Martin Plowman's Paddock Motorsport entry.

The Century Motorsport BMW topped the first session with Darren Leung the only driver into the 1m29s but Alexander Sims' attempt in the second session was over three seconds slower than Sam Neary's which moved them off provisional pole.

Championship leaders RAM Racing will start in 11^th after Ian Loggie was unable to set a lap in the dry.

The fight for GT4 pole was as tight as it can get with the Toyota GAZOO Racing UK of Tom Edgar and Jordan Collard beating the Steller Motorsport duo of Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding by only 0.017 seconds after times were combined. The combined pole time was 3m12.529s. Tom Rawlings and Chris Salkeld's Century Motorsport BMW rounded out the top three.

Intelligent Money British GT Championship, Qualifying, Donington Park, GT3 combined times

1. Neary/Neary, Team Abba Racing, 3m07.085s
2. Orange/O'Brien, Orange Racing powered by JMH, +0.908
3. Halstead/Stanley, Fox Motorsport, +1.573
4. Smith/Plowman, Paddock Motorsport, +2.724
5. Leung/Sims, Century Motorsport, +3.125
6. Procter/Hughes, Greystone GT, +3.874
7. Watts/Kell, Team Rocket RJN, +5.144
8. Borodin/Pead, Greystone GT, +7.921
9. Tillbrook/Clutton, Enduro Motorsport, +12.724
10. Balon/Mitchell, Barwell Motorsport, +13.862

For full GT3 timings, click here.

For full GT4 timings, click here.