Patrick Watts scores pole in split qualifying session
Patrick Watts will start from pole position as the Super Touring Car Challenge makes its first appearance at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Despite having clutch issues on the grid ahead of Sunday’s aborted race on the Grand Prix circuit, the Donington Park race winner stormed to the top of the time sheets around the Indy circuit with a time of 50.410 seconds.
The session was halted for a number of minutes owing to a spin from Alan Strachan in the Ford Mondeo at Paddock Hill bend, almost catching out both Watts and John Cleland in the process and the red flag was thrown to retrieve the Ford Mondeo.
After the session restarted, Watts jumped straight to the top of the times and never looked back, while the battle for the remaining spot on the front row raged on between Stewart Whyte, who was fastest at the time of the red flag, and Tom Gladdis.
Gladdis came very close to pushing Watts off the top spot, posting a time just 0.007 seconds off the Peugeot driver, but Watts immediately responded with an improvement of his own.
Despite putting in a lot of laps at the end of the session, Whyte was unable to match the time of Gladdis, having to settle for third alongside Cleland on the second row.
The third row will see John Finnemore in the Chris Beighton Honda Accord line up alongside Craig Davies’ Ford Sierra RS500, while Andy Wolfe and Harry Whale will share the fourth row.
Series returnee Mark Wright took ninth in the Ford Escort RS1800, while Mark Smith rounded out the top ten.
Tony Absolom and Ric Wood will start eleventh and twelfth respectively, while Darren Fielding and Alan Strachan will share the seventh row. Both Fielding and Strachan had their share of off track moments during the session which hindered their pace.
