NATHAN EDWARDS SNEAKS KNOCKHILL POLE

Nathan Edwards scored pole for the second successive season at Knockhill after topping the times in qualifying for the latest rounds of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE.

The EXCELR8 Driver Development Programme racer had scored pole at Croft two weeks ago and once again emerged as the class of the field during the 30 minute long session to earn his place at the head of the field for both race one and race three.

Edwards set his best time mid-way through the session and although Jamie Osborne was able to close to within 0.058s of his time, the championship leader had to settle for second spot.

“Last year was my first time here and I got pole, so I’m glad to do it again,” Edwards said. “We had a strategy for the session which worked as we hoped even though I think we could have been quicket, and we’ve been able to save some tyres for the races which is a big positive because of the fact it could be a bit of a tyre killer.

“I wasn’t sure if we’d be here this weekend so a huge thanks to my sponsors for making it possible, and now we’re going to be starting from the front and hoping to push for another win.”

Osborne may have been able to overhaul Edwards had he not dipped a wheel into the gravel at the chicane having just set his best lap in the session, but he was still comfortably clear of team-mate Lewis Selby in third.

Selby was showing no ill-effect of the 400 mile cycle ride he undertook to get to the circuit in order to raise funds for Race with Dementia, and will share the second row of the grid with top rookie Owen Hillman who enjoyed his best qualifying performance by far since joining the field at the start of the year.

“It’s been a bit of a struggle learning the car and I’ve been showing snippets of my pace but I’m delighted to get a lap together and put the car near the front,” the Pro Alloys Racing driver said. “Coming from a motocross background, I think this circuit is one that obviously suits me and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do in the races.”

Harry Hickton was another driver to impress with his pace as he took fifth for Mannpower Motorsport despite losing no fewer than seven times to track limits, with the top six being completed by Tom Ovenden.

Cameron Richardson’s best qualifying performance to date saw him rewarded with seventh, with the top ten then completed by Max Edmundson, Alex Solley and Charlie Hand.

Gerry Hendry was best of the two local drivers in 14th, two spots ahead of Brent Bowie who suffered two spins during the session.

Fresh from a strong weekend at Croft last time out, Archie Johnson grabbed his maiden pole in JCW Sport thanks to an impressive lap that proved to be more than a quarter of a second quicker than team-mate Henry Howarth.

Johnson will now look to try and take points out of his Jamsport stablemate in the opening race later today.

“It’s taken time to get this pole but I felt confident in Friday testing with strong pace in the car and we continued it today,” he said. “The JCW cars are a few seconds quicker than us here and it was tough to get space for a lap, but we managed it.”

Chris Mackenzie took third in his Bitcoin Racing car, with Nicky Gauci, Will Crooks and Ben Crossley rounding out the six car field.