Rhys Davies in Control with Third Consecutive Pole Position

Rhys Davies continues to set the benchmark for qualifying performances with his third straight pole position in GT Super Series competition, setting the pace for the Round of Belgium on Sunday.

His fourth pole position in the last five race weekends, with a second place starting spot coming at Road Gatineau, Davies’s performance at Spa-Francorchamps was the largest margin between front row starters seen all season. Nathan McKane could only manage a lap that was a little over one second off of the pace of Davies, who has been completely locked in all weekend in his MacMillan Ford. The ARWS and F1 World Champion has set the pace in both practice sessions this weekend, with each session his gap to the rest of the field increasing along the way with his best performance to come in qualifying. In doing so, Davies was the only driver to go faster than a two minute, ten second time around the seven kilometer circuit, even though it was more than a second away from last year’s pole time set by Matteo Rossi.

Rossi was one of two drivers to complain about getting impeded during their qualifying runs. Rossi was only able to put in a lap two seconds off of the pace set by Davies after catching Paul Jenkins on his in lap at Stavelot, the lap still gives Rossi a eleventh place starting position for Sunday’s race. The other driver that struggled with getting impeded during qualifying was Carson Speedwork’s Joey Alliot. After a slow first qualifying run after running wide exiting Les Combes, the American caught Oran Racing Industries driver Artesia Mass early on his flying lap, while Mass too was on his flying lap. Alliot was forced to back off resulting in his initial lap being the one that counted, leaving him with a season-worst twenty-fourth starting position for the race.

Faring much better in the session would be Rhys Davies’s teammate in Darren Older Jr.; the third place starting position being his best performance of the season in the second MacMillan Ford. Joining him on the second row of the grid will be Anton Robishaud continuing his strong one lap performances for Pagani. Current points leader in the World Driver’s Championship Chris Winter will start the race on the fourth row of the grid, with the second Pagani qualified by Amato Agostini starting alongside in eighth overall.

Leading the way for the Independent Trophy runners was Phil McCracken in the full-time Czechmate Ferrari, qualifying sixth overall.  It gives McCracken and second driver Jiri Komarek a massive advantage over the quartet of Independent’s Trophy leaders in Peter Oliver, David Simmons, Melanie Bourne and Marie Alberta Luisa. The duos from Oliver Motorsports and Boutsen Ginion tied on fifty-three points will start seventeenth and twenty-third respectively, with the latter pair’s starting position giving then only a tenth in class starting position for the race.

Qualifying Results – Round of Belgium