2 Seas impress in qualifying

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahraini-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport put in strong qualifying performances yesterday for the first two rounds of the 2024 British GT Championship.

The meeting is being held at Oulton Park Circuit in Cheshire, England, kicking off the new season and 2 Seas’ much-anticipated GT3 Teams’ title-defence.

Kevin Tse powered 2 Seas’ #18 Mercedes-AMG GT3 car to the front row in second on the grid for the campaign’s opening race, while teammate Ian Loggie will start the same event from third in 2 Seas’ #6 contender.

Meanwhile, Phil Keen put 2 Seas’ #6 car in third on the grid for race two, while Maximilian Goetz managed 13th for the same event in the #18 challenger.

Both races, each to be held over an hour’s length, are scheduled to take place tomorrow, following a rest day today.

The first is scheduled to flag off at 12.50pm, followed by the second beginning from 5.45pm, both Bahrain time. Yesterday’s qualifying was held over two sessions, with each determining the grids for the meeting’s two races.

In the opening qualifying, Tse narrowly missed out on pole position after the Barwell Motorsport tandem of Rob Collard and Ricky Collard grabbed the leading grid spot on their very last lap, in which they posted a fastest time of one minute 35.102 seconds.

Tse appeared to have secured the top spot in the session until Barwell’s late surge, and the 2 Seas man had to settle for second on the starting order after qualifying 0.187 seconds behind.

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Loggie in 2 Seas’ other car was 0.262s from the top, and will be in row two alongside the other Barwell Motorsport crew of Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell.

In the second qualifying run, Mitchell and Martin this time took pole for Barwell with a fastest lap of 1:32.777.

Keen was able to secure third on the grid for 2 Seas’ #6 crew after finishing 0.268s behind, while Goetz had to battle back from having two of his lap times cancelled and was 13th on the order 1.141s from first place.

Earlier in the day yesterday in pre-qualifying, the loggie and Keen tandem were ranked eighth while Tse and Goetz were 10th.

In free practice, Loggie and Keen third quickest with Tse and Goetz classified seventh.

Heading into tomorrow’s races, 2 Seas will be hoping to emulate their title-winning showing from last year, when their two entries scored four race victories and four further podiums between them. The 2024 British GT calendar features nine rounds in all.

Following the first two events at Oulton Park, round three will be held in Silverstone from April 26 to 28. Round four will then take place from May 23 to 26 in Donington Park, and then round five will be held at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium from June 21 to 23 as the only event outside of the UK for this season.

Rounds six and seven will then be held from July 12 to 14 at Snetterton, and then the championship returns to Donington for round eight from September 5 to 8.

That will set the stage for the season-finale at Brands Hatch on September 28 and 29.