McNeilly on double pole for Brands Hatch finale

Liam McNeilly claims double pole position in qualifying for the final round of the 2022 Ginetta Junior Championship.

In the last round run on the BTCC support bill, McNeilly spent most of qualifying at the top of the order.

A late improvement from Josh Rowledge put the championship leader on the front row of the grid for race two, but he couldn’t better McNeilly’s time.

An off for Thomas Spragg brought out the red flag two thirds of the way through the session, leaving the grid with a one-lap dash to pole position.

By this point, McNeilly was top of the order for both first and second quickest times, putting him on pole position for both the first and second race. His fastest time was a 1m47.532s lap around the Brands Hatch GP circuit.

Despite the qualifying format for 2022 enforcing a gap between drivers on their flying runs, McNeilly found traffic on his final flying lap. He didn’t improve, and the lap time was later deleted for exceeding track limits.

There were few improvements on the final lap, but Rowledge managed to find pace enough to jump from the tail end of the top 10 into P2.

The improvement knocked Aqil Alibhai down to third, ahead of Harri Reynolds and Josh Warhurst.

Zak Meakin was one of the late improvements and managed to put himself sixth and of Luke Watts.

Will Macintye comes into the finale the only driver who can deny Rowledge the championship. He dropped to P8 by the chequered flag.

Freddie Slater and Kanto Le completed the top 10.

For second fastest times, Macintyre faired slightly better, but will still start behind Rowledge. McNeilly will start on pole ahead of Alibhai and Reynolds.

Rowledge placed fourth, with Watts separating him from his title rival.

Full results to follow

Image credit: Fox Motorsort/Jakob Ebrey Photography

PR available: Ginetta Junior Update writer Bethonie Waring is available to supply PR and communications services to Ginetta Junior drivers and racers in other selected series. Visit the PR Opportunities tab for more details