Heart of Racing rising star Hugo Allan continued his rich vein of form with pole position at Hampton Downs at the final round of the 2022 Toyota 86 Championship.
The championship’s up and coming stars maintained their pace from the previous round at Taupo with Allan, Ronan Murphy and Marco Giltrap all starring in the session and making up the top three qualifiers.
Allan had bided his time in the 20 minute session before clocking his 1 minute 16.684 second pole position lap.
Up until those closing moments the session had been dominated by Ronan Murphy, who produced a superb middle sector on his best lap before making full use of a handy tow to the finish line from team mate John Penny. That put Murphy two tenths clear, but Allan was far from done and put everything together when it mattered most.
“In the first part of qualifying the car wasn’t perfect but I came in and we did a bit of a tune up and then headed out again,” he said afterwards. “I think it was a bit of the car and a bit of me in that best lap, but it’s great that the three of us are up the front again and I can’t wait to go racing.”
Remarkably, the top 16 cars in the 21 car field were covered by less than a second. The two championship protagonists, Rowan Shepherd and Simon Evans, could only manage fifth and sixth fastest respectively and will share the third row of the grid for Saturday’s opening race of the final weekend.
Behind Allan, Murphy and Giltrap, Brock Gilchrist maintained his late season charge to lock out the final spot on the second row in fourth. With Shepherd and Evans on the third row, it was Zac Stichbury and Dion Pitt who claimed seventh and eighth on the grid with top Masters class racer Penny and rookie Matthew McCutcheon rounding out a hugely competitive top ten.
Championship challenger Justin Allen will line up 11th on the grid with plenty of work to do when the race gets underway later today.
2022 Toyota 86 Championship – Round 6 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park – Qualifying
Pos, Name, Time
1/ Hugo ALLAN 01:16.684
2/ Ronan MURPHY 01:16.859
3/ Marco GILTRAP 01:16.907
4/ Brock GILCHRIST 01:16.946
5/ Rowan SHEPHERD 01:17.024
6/ Simon EVANS 01:17.074
7/ Zac STICHBURY 01:17.074
8/ Dion PITT 01:17.092
9/ John PENNY 01:17.170
10/ Matthew MCCUTCHEON 01:17.230
11/ Justin ALLEN 01:17.244
12/ Fynn OSBORNE 01:17.274
13/ Christina ORR WEST 01:17.278
14/ Todd PRUJEAN 01:17.356
15/ Chelsea HERBERT 01:17.359
16/ Rianna O’MEARA-HUNT 01:17.682
17/ Todd FOSTER 01:17.759
18/ Mark MALLARD 01:17.831
19/ Clay OSBORNE 01:17.862
20/ Will MORTON 01:17.873
21/ Sam COTTERILL 01:18.292
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