Chris Alajajian has taken pole and extended his championship leading margin to 35.5 points after a massive display of pace during this afternoon's final qualifying session of Hertz MINI Challenge - delivered by Pizza Capers, on the Sydney Olympic Park street circuit.
In total the top-5 competitors qualified within 0.77 seconds of each other in what was one of the closest qualifying sessions in the history of the series. 'The Chris' was in a fierce battle with championship rival Paul Stokell all race until a high flying Spaniard guest-driver named Javier Villa put in a gigantic effort on his final lap to split the rival gap and nestle in between Alajajian and Stokell.
It was a superb effort given his first qualifying session in a right-hand-drive racecar. Pizza Capers UberStar driver Glenn Seton was also dicing with the pack and headed as high as second, mid-session, but was carved up by men on a mission Villa and Stokell and had to be contempt with fourth on the grid for tomorrow's opening race.
Fifth on the grid tomorrow will be Supercharge Batteries driver Peter McNiven who put in a stunning final lap after the chequered flag to pip rival Sean Carter by 0.37 seconds. This sees McNiven gain one championship point on Carter as the pair continue to battle for third in the series standings with three races remaining.
MINI Spain's second guest driver this weekend, Jose Manuel De Los Milagros, drove his MINI R56 to qualify seventh despite having engine troubles in the morning's practice sessions. A fine effort indeed from a young man who, just 3 days ago, had never left his native homeland of Spain. Finishing a close eighth was Prosurv Racing's John Modystach who would have posted a strong sixth if not for the presence of MINI Challenge's Spanish friends. Dramas for the day were Allan Jarvis in the iSeek entry who smacked the wall coming out of the back straight during opening practice this morning, but battled back to qualify 11th despite not driving the second practice session as his team repaired the car.
Transquip Hire driver Brendan Cook also struck trouble when the front-right wheel completely sheared off its studs halfway through this afternoon's qualifying session. An unfortunate result for the Queenslander as the exact same issue occurred during Race 2 at the last MINI Challenge round on the Gold Coast. Bruce Lynton MINI Garage Dealer Principal Beric Lynton will start from the rear of the grid tomorrow after missing today's sessions due to business commitments. Tomorrow will showcase two action-packed MINI Challenge races at 12.15 and 17.35 with everyone hopeful conditions will stay dry as they managed to do for the entirety of today's racing.
Circuit length:3.4kmCircuit Direction: Anti-ClockwiseMaximum Speed: 250km*
(*new circuit based on estimate speeds only)
Fastest point: Turn 1, end of pit straight
Slowest Point: Mid-corner, last 2 turns (12/13)
MINI Challenge Homebush Pole-Sitter Chris Alajajian said:
"Three words... Worked for It! That was tough going but it is great to come away with pole at my home track and more importantly further the championship gap over Paul [Stokell]. When the team told me he leaped in front of my time with about five minutes of the session remaining I got angry, really angry, and pushed like hell to post the top time. I must thank our Spanish friend [Javier] Villa for slotting in between us because that just earned me a further 3 point advantage. Although, I was a bit nervous with the times he was setting around the circuit! My mentality is to win here this weekend and I'm sticking to it so bring on tomorrow's race, if it's anything like the action this afternoon the fans are in for a huge treat!"
MINI Challenge Spain driver Javier Villa said:"I'm really happy with the result from qualifying because this is still not easy for me driving on the right side of the car. There is one corner I have a lot of trouble with due to so much room on the left side of the car and I can't quite reference the curb yet. We have improved a lot today and I know I can improve more over the weekend. But we are guest drivers here and there is a race for the championship at stake so I have to make sure I don't cause any trouble for these guys tomorrow... but for sure a win would be fantastic! The Australian drivers are very, very quick and I am really looking forward to the first race tomorrow."
Qualifying - Sydney Telstra 500
Pos.Sponsor Driver Diff to Pole
1 JAXQuickfit Tyres Chris Alajajian - 2 MINI SpainJavier Villa +0.36s 3 DecoRug Racing Paul Stokell +0.42s 4 Pizza Capers Glenn Seton +0.53s 5 Superchare Batteries Peter McNiven +0.76s 6 Plan4Growth/ON TIME EARTH Sean Carter +1.13s 7 MINI Spain Jose Manuel De Los Milagros +1.41s 8 Prosurv Racing John Modystach +1.59s 9 Doulman Motorsport Grant Doulman +1.78s 10 Squawking Magpie Wines Gavin Yortt +2.73s 11 iSeek Allan Jarvis +2.80s 12 Fiji Water Aaron Zerefos +3.41s 13 CXCDylan Thomas +3.60s 14 Transquip Hire/ABC Autogear Brendan Cook +3.77s 15 thesupportersclub.com Chris Wootton +4.15s 16 Box & Lock Storage Rob Knight +5.29s 17 Bruce Lynton MINI Garage Beric Lynton DNS
