Bruce Winfield grabs last-gasp pole for Oulton opener
Area Motorsport’s Bruce Winfield boosted his TCR UK points advantage by securing pole position for the opening race of the weekend at Oulton Park.
Despite a wild off-track moment before a red flag, Winfield set a best time of 1:25.966 late in the session, beating team-mate Alex Ley by nearly three-tenths of a second.
Jac Constable was third quickest in his Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of Chris Smiley, while practice pace-setter Joe Marshall was seventh fastest.
“I kept going purple in the first two sectors and then I messed it up [in the final], so we came in and stuck a new set of tyres on it,” said Winfield.
“I got a little pep talk and there was gearbox oil all over the road, so I got loads of understeer and went off the road but I managed to keep it out of the wall and put a lap in.
“Absolutely over the moon!”
Under sunny skies, the session was run in almost perfect conditions, with Darelle Wilson the first driver to set a representative laptime.
His 1:28.545 was soon beaten soundly by the Audi of Brad Hutchison, who went nearly eight-tenths of a second on his first flyer.
With the majority of drivers electing not to do new tyre runs in morning practice, the times quickly improved rapidly, as Alex Ley moved to the top of the table with a 1:26.224, just under a quarter of a second faster than Rob Boston Racing’s Jac Constable.
Points leader and Area Motorsport team-mate Bruce Winfield then went second fastest and was set to improve on his second run before going off into the gravel trap at Druids.
An array of cars then came back into the pits as Callum Newsham’s JH Racing Hyundai ground to a halt between Druids and Lodge, dropping oil on the track. Despite being parked at the side of the road, Newsham’s car was deemed to be in a safe enough position for action to resume without the i30 N TCR needing towed.
At the end of the first runs, Ley’s advantage over Winfield stood at just 0.028s with Constable just over a tenth of a second in arrears in third.
The session was then red flagged after Steve Gales went off at Druids, his Audi RS 3 LMS going straight over the gravel trap and hitting the barriers.
Action resumed with five minutes left to run, leaving drivers with two flying laps to attempt.
Winfield improved with his final run to go fastest with a time of 1:25.966, almost three-tenths of a second quicker than Ley setting the fastest final sector of the lap.
Smiley went fourth quickest on his penultimate lap, as both Ley and Winfield back out of their final attempts. Smiley also backed off and settled for fourth, ahead of Adam Shepherd.
Winfield picked up six points for pole position which proved more than beneficial for his points lead as chief rival Carl Boardley scored no qualifying points as he only managed ninth on the grid.
Bradley Kent was sixth fastest in his Essex & Kent Hyundai Veloster N TCR, while Newsham will start eighth on the grid, provided his team can carry out the necessary repairs before race one.
Brad Hutchison completed the top 10 on the grid.
Race one is scheduled to start later today at 13:25 local time (14:35 CET).
