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Moffat holds on for Trans Am pole at Sandown
JAMES MOFFAT has clung on to pole position for Round 5 of the Trans Am Series at Sandown in a red-flag interrupted qualifying session at Sandown Raceway.
Moffat banked his 1m11.290s best earlier in qualifying before a late red flag with 7 minutes remaining halted proceedings.
The Valvoline GRM driver – who had six-tenths of a second over the remainder of the field at the time – elected to not return to the circuit, waiting in the lane as all his rivals attempted to knock him off the top spot.
While everyone else improved, Moffat’s best time stood to deliver the Mustang another Trans Am Pole.
Ben Grice was one of the improvers, jumping to second in his All American Ford Mustang on his last flyer.
Grice, looking to rebound after a brutal recent round in Queensland, will line up alongside Moffat in a generational front row on Saturday.
The times behind Moffat were incredibly close with 0.32 seconds covering second through eighth on the grid.
Elliot Barbour continued his good run of form with third, while Queensland winner Tom Hayman will look to continue his strong momentum from the outside of the second row.
Lochie Dalton endured all the key title contenders were in the top six, with Eden Thornburrow completing that group.
Nash Morris was seventh and Brett Holdsworth was eighth, with every driver behind Moffat improving on their final run though unable to usurp the dominant polesitter.
Elliott Cleary and Cody Gillis completed the top-10, while Trans Am newcomer Elly Morrow was an impressive 11th on her series debut.
The Trans Am Series will tackle two races in a busy Saturday for the category at Sandown.
Both will be broadcast live and free on the Nine Network around Australia, with coverage on 9Go or 9Gem depending on the local market.
All races will also be shown live, ad-break free and on demand on Stan Sport as part of a bumper round of the Shannons SpeedSeries this weekend.