For the final meeting of the 2023 TCR UK season, Jenson Brickley took pole aboard his Cupra Leon Competición TCR around the twisting Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Even though he’s carrying the maximum success ballast of 40kg, the Leicestershire-based driver managed to deliver a time of 58.28 seconds with five minutes left of the session. He felt that he knew that the car would always have that extra bit of performance.
“We had no new tyre runs yesterday or Thursday, so we always knew that we could go a bit quicker,” said Brickley.
“Obviously early on it was all about getting a time in early on. We ruined our first run and we waited for the second run after we realised it wouldn’t rain. We just put in a really good time.”
Callum Newsham led the running earlier in his JH Racing Hyundai i30 but lost pole by just three-hundredths of a second to Brickley before lining up second.
A tantalising four-thousandths of a second further back was Alex Ley, another of the six championship contenders. With Ley not running any ballast around the hilly Brands Hatch Indy circuit, clearly this was not as much of an advantage as was hoped for by the drivers of the lighter TCR machinery.
Last year’s champion Chris Smiley was pushing very hard in his Restart Racing Honda Civic. After a couple of lurid slides through Clearways and track limits penalties, the result of his endeavors was fourth for Race One.
The current championship leader Carl Boardley put his car fifth on the grid after feeling he missed the sweet spot in terms of chassis setup.
“We didn’t quite get the balance of the car right,” explained Boardley. “The last couple of test days have been wet, then damp, you know stuff like that so the conditions caught us out a little bit.”
The Audi of Joe Marshall put in the next fastest time with Marshall being another to fall foul of track limits early on in the session.
Boardley’s closest danger man in the drivers’ championship, Adam Shepherd, was seventh fastest after leading the session in the opening minutes. Having some setup issues, Shepard was in the pits halfway through qualifying having adjustments done to his rear suspension however he did not improve on his time following this.
The top ten qualifiers were rounded out by Jac Constable, Oliver Cottam, and Scott Sumpton ahead of the last two TCR UK races of the year.
Session results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Jenson Brickley Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 24 | 48.283 | – |
| 2 | 16 | |
Callum NEWSHAM | JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 28 | 48.313 | 0.030 |
| 3 | 76 | |
Alex LEY | Area Motorsport with Daniel James | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 19 | 48.316 | 0.033 |
| 4 | 1 | |
Chris SMILEY | Restart Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 29 | 48.341 | 0.058 |
| 5 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | CBM with Hart GT | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 30 | 48.390 | 0.107 |
| 6 | 99 | |
Joe MARSHALL | Rob Boston Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 28 | 48.477 | 0.194 |
| 7 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Area Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 26 | 48.491 | 0.208 |
| 8 | 11 | |
Jac CONSTABLE | Rob Boston Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 28 | 48.592 | 0.309 |
| 9 | 98 | |
Oliver COTTAM | Paul Sheard Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 22 | 48.760 | 0.477 |
| 10 | 27 | |
Scott SUMPTON | Restart Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 29 | 48.842 | 0.559 |
| 11 | 37 | |
Bruce WINFIELD | Area Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 28 | 48.850 | 0.567 |
| 12 | 14 | |
Andy WILMOT | Rob Boston Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 28 | 48.908 | 0.625 |
| 13 | 115 | |
Luke SARGEANT | Area Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 30 | 49.232 | 0.949 |
| 14 | 17 | |
Bradley HUTCHISON | BOND IT with MPHR | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 21 | 49.236 | 0.953 |
| 15 | 50 | |
Darelle WILSON | DW Racing | Vauxhall Astra TCR | 25 | 49.729 | 1.446 |
| 16 | 31 | |
Matthew WILSON | JWB Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 30 | 49.753 | 1.470 |
| 17 | 72 | |
Rick KERRY | Team AFM Racing | CUPRA TCR | 28 | 49.959 | 1.676 |
| 18 | 223 | |
Garry TOWNSEND | Townsend Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 50.932 | 2.649 |
| 19 | 28 | |
George JAXON | JWB Motorsport with Trade Nation | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 19 | 51.009 | 2.726 |
| 20 | 77 | |
Mark SMITH | Richmond Fire Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 18 | 51.100 | 2.817 |
| 21 | 19 | |
Jeffrey ALDEN | Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing | Opel Astra TCR | 16 | 51.575 | 3.292 |