NATHAN EDWARDS, HENRY HOWARTH BAG SILVERSTONE POLES

Nathan Edwards and Henry Howarth topped the times at Silverstone to score pole position for the latest rounds of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE.

Edwards extended his recent impressive qualifying record for EXCELR8 to top the times for the third successive meeting in a session that was effectively halved in time due to an early incident involving Owen Hillman.

The Pro Alloys Racing driver, who was one of the stars of the previous meeting at Knockhill, went off on the run to Brooklands and clattered into the tyre wall to leave his team with plenty of work to do ahead of race one later today.

With just 15 minutes therefore in which to set a time, Edwards was able to grab top spot with a lap set shortly after the restart which would end up being just 0.027s quicker than Max Edmondson.

Edwards looked set to take a double pole but lost his second fastest lap to track limits, which means Edmundson will instead lead the field away in race one.

“That’s three in a row now so I’m mega happy with that,” Edwards said. “Big thanks to the team as they’ve put an absolute rocket underneath me and since Croft, we’ve been the car to beat in qualifying.

“It was a tough session with the red flag as we only had a few laps to get the time in and I lost a few of those to track limits, so to come out on top is great.

“I’m just here to win races and this puts us in a great position for the race tomorrow. Today will be more tricky because of the penalty I have from Knockhill but we’ll still give it a good go.”

Tom Ovenden, who will hope to overhaul the absent championship leader Jamie Osborne in the standings this weekend, ended up with the third quickest time just ahead of Lewis Selby – with both leaving it until late in the session to post their best times.

That helped to demote Alex Solley back down to fifth, with the top six completed by Harry Hickton. Hickton’s former team-mate Charlie Hand was just behind in seventh having moved over to Chandler Motorsport, with Harry Campey, debutant Jenson O’Neill-Going and Josh Porter completing the top ten.

In JCW Sport, the fight for pole went down to the wire before Howarth emerged on top, stealing top spot from Jamsport team-mate Archie Johnson by just 0.015s.

Nicky Gauci made it a strong session for the local team with third as the current champions grabbed a 1-2-3 on the times.

“With how close the championship is between me and Archie, it’s definitely good to get those extra few points because they are going to come in handy at the end of the year,” Howarth said.

“We had a suspension issue yesterday which cost us a bit of time in the session checking things over on the car so there was a lot of pressure to get a lap in with the limited time in the session. The team gave me an amazing car, so thanks to them.”

Chris Mackenzie was just 0.012s behind Gauci in fourth, with Ben Crossley and Will Crooks less than a tenth further back in fifth and sixth.