The idea of a qualifying ‘hot lap’ for start position was very well received by the Pro class riders who were all fitted with transponders for the short blast out of Nantmawr Quarry, through a twisty wooded section, around part of the more open field section of the course before dropping down a monster steep hill, through the trailer which led into the logs and tyre section before finishing back where they started.

T1 race director Steve Ireland predicted times of 3-4 minutes and he was not far off the mark. Riders lined up in numerical order with Tom Sagar leading the field. Each rider had the chance of a sighting lap, which finished in a holding area before going for a fast time.

Only the top 10 fastest riders would make the front row of the start grid for the main Tough One race so competition was close. Riders outside the top ten would start en masse 30 seconds behind the faster qualifiers.
In addition, the Expert start was nearly half a lap ahead of the Pro riders. Both groups started at the same moment, giving the Pro’s an extra challenge of working their way through the Experts in addition to tackling all the T1 course had in store for them.

Hockly Timing supplied the necessary equipment and it worked perfectly. Riders set off at 30 second intervals and Putoline Suzuki’s Sagar posted a 3.32.662 time to give riders something to beat and it looked fast, until Factory Beta mounted Dougie Lampkin got into the high 20’s with a 3.29.805 followed just seconds later by Grahm Jarvis on the Factory Sherco who took the lead from Lampkin by just three tenths of a second.

Jarvis’ time remained unchallenged for quite some time but Knighter was waiting in the wings on his Red Bull KTM. His race number, 101, meant he was near the tail end of the field but his lap was worth waiting for. He attacked at every point and spectacularly leapt off the cliff edge onto the steep downhill as if on tarmac. The loose, shale covered drop held little to fear for the Manxman as he powered down to the sharp left-hander at the base of the cliff, faultlessly through the trailer, logs and tyres to finish with a time of 3.20.620, nearly nine seconds fasted than Jarvis.

Sagar’s time was good enough for fourth place with only Lampkin , Jarvis and Knighter ahead of him. New Zealander Rory Mead took his Yamaha to fifth, just ahead of Paul Bolton as Lette (Andreas Lettenbichler) rode his Factory BMW 450 to seventh place.

With no margin for error Paul Edmondson made a slight mistake on his hot lap, which dropped him to eighth but still in the first line of riders. Richard Elwood was just five thousandths of a second behind Eddy, in ninth place while Ben Hemingway completed the top ten, some 28 seconds behind Knighter’s impressive time.

This performance gave riders and spectators something to think about and many were convinced that the main race was in the bag even before the Pro’s lined up on the start.