McArthur takes last-gasp Walter Hayes Heat 3 pole

Thomas McArthur took pole position for the third heat of the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone, pipping Julian van der Watt in an incredibly close 10-minute session.

B-M Racing Van Diemen driver McArthur’s best of 1m02.621s, set on his last flying lap, was just 0.097 seconds quicker than erstwhile pacesetter van der Watt (Spectrum), with Ross Martin another 0.003s behind in his Graham Brunton Racing Ray.

Van der Watt had led the majority of the session before the late flurry of times mixed up the order, with pole position changing on a lap-by-lap basis in the last few minutes.

Carter Williams (Ray) had been as high as second before dropping to fourth at the flag, 0.049s off Martin’s best effort. Henry Chart rounded out the top five in his Van Diemen.

Thomas Cappezone (Swift), John Svensson (Van Diemen) and Peter Gillespie (Spectrum) were all within a second of pole in sixth, seventh and eighth place.

Ninth-placed Adam Quartermaine was the first outside the one second bracket, ahead of Oulton Park regular and Class C polesitter Jaap Blijleven.

Second and third in Class C went to Conor Murphy (Mondiale) and Chris Hodgen’s Van Diemen, which stopped near the end of the session.

Qualifying results