Photo: PSP Image

Stewart Whyte grabs last-gasp pole at a damp Brands Hatch

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Stewart Whyte will start from pole at the Brands Hatch Masters Historic Festival following a last minute lap put him firmly at the top of the time sheets.

The Honda Accord driver had spent the majority of the damp 25 minute session at the foot of the top five, while Patrick Watts, John Cleland and Tom Gladdis did battle for the top three positions.

As the chequered flag was being readied, Cleland held the top spot, but with just one second left on the clock, Whyte put in an outstanding lap of 1:44.194 to go to the top of the field by eight tenths of the second.

Both Gladdis and Paul Smith, who spent a lengthy amount of time in the pits with an issue getting his Audi A4 restarted, closed the gap to Whyte with their final laps, with only half a second separating the top three.

Cleland remained fourth with his final timed lap, missing out on a personal best by just two hundredths of a second, while Watts rounded out the top five having sat out the second half of the session.

Newcomer to the championship Chris Beighton took sixth in the ex-Gabriele Tarquini Honda Accord, with Andy Wolfe taking seventh in his popular Opel Astra. Simon Garrad, driving his Renault Laguna with yet more engine issues with his Opel Vectra, took eighth, with Richard Meins placing his Ford Mondeo in ninth.

Tenth saw the first of the BMW M3s, with Mark Smith winning the inter-class battle at Brands Hatch with a 1:48.476. The sixth row will see series organiser Dave Jarman’s Nissan Primera line up alongside Smith’s teammate Harry Whale.

The RS500 of Craig Davies took thirteenth while the second Peugeot 406 of Malcolm Harrison, who also did limited running, will line up fourteenth, before an all-ST2 row of Darren Fielding’s BMW and Tony Absolom’s Vauxhall Cavalier.

Finally, Alan Strachan put the new-to-the-series 1996 Ford Mondeo in seventeenth, with Ric Wood and Jason Minshaw rounding out the grid. Both Strachan and Minshaw only put in a handful of laps, achieving a total of nine between the pair of them.