Xavier Kokai has qualified his Borland Racing Spectrum 015 on pole for the first of three Australian Formula Ford Series races at Symmons Plains this weekend.

The session at the Tasmanian circuit was cut short with a red flag, and left series points leader Sonic Racing’s Matt Hillyer (Mygale SJ18A-001) sixth, albeit only 0.23 seconds off Kokai’s pole time of 56.4180s.

In a stunning climax only 0.07s covered the top four where Kokai, Synergy Motorsport’s Eddy Beswick (Spectrum 014) and Altatek Racing Kobi Williams (Spectrum 12b) held the top spots during the session.

Beswick and Williams finished second and third ahead of Team Sonic’s Jake Santalucia (Mygale). It was Williams who brought out the slightly premature end to the session when he spun off at the second last corner and was beached in the gravel trap.

Synergy’s Cody Maynes-Rutty (Spectrum) had secured fifth and will start race one alongside Hillyer, while his Synergy teammate Elliot Cleary (Spectrum) and Conor Somers (Mygale) will be on row four. Behind them will be Lachie Mineeff (Mygale) and Harrison Sellars (Spectrum).

Daniel Frougas (Mygale) was eleventh quickest, just in front of Colin Hill Engineering’s Zak Lobko (Mygale). Lobko has won two of the six races contested so far over two rounds (Hillyer the rest) and is second in the points.

Lachlan Strickland, Matt Holmes, Imogen Radburn, Bailey Collins and Fraser Hie round out the starters for race one on Saturday with the early start of 8:25 local time/AEST.

Race 2 is at 12:15 before the last outing on Sunday at 10:45 local time/AEST.