Bartley masters challenging Manfeild conditions for pole position

Rookie Marcel Bartley mastered challenging conditions at Manfeild - Circuit Chris Amon today to take pole position for the first race of the final round of the Toyota 86 Trophy Series.

The morning’s two 20 minute practice sessions had seen Nathan Grammer and Nieko Scoles top the times, but both Miles Baker and Winter Series leader Toby Elmiger had been fast too.

Occasional light rain ahead of the qualifying session and very cold temperatures made for a challenging session as the ten cars headed out for qualifying.

First to show was Grammer, but times were around five seconds off the morning’s pace initially. Elmiger then popped to the top of the timesheets after seven minutes of the session - breaking the 1 minute 24 second barrier ahead of the rest as the rain continued to fall. 

Behind Toby,  Marcel Bartley, Grammer, Hill, Scoles and Baker were all within a second of each other. Bartley and Grammer then went into the 1 minute 23 second bracket, but by then Elmiger had gone even faster. 

Bartley was the man on the move into the final five minutes of the session, popping in a quick lap sixth time around to go fastest and then backing it up next time around with an even better effort. That was enough to give him almost two tenths of a second advantage with three and a half minutes to go.

Marcel’s battle with Elmiger for top spot intensified as the clock ticked down and both went into the 1 minute 22 q bracket with less than two minutes to go, and that was almost a second ahead of the rest until Nieko Scoles popped up in third place on the timesheets.

At the flag Bartley capped a fine session by taking a few more tenths of a second off his time to leave the pole position mark at an impressive 1 minute 22.369 seconds, just under four tenths ahead of Elmiger.

Third quickest was Elmiger with Baker alongside on the second row. Row three would be Scoles and CareVets Scholarship driver Taylor Mitchell. Behind them Josh Hill and veteran Mark Mallard were seventh and eighth while Mitch Vye and an out-of-sorts Riley Boswell rounded out the ten.

2026 Toyota 86 Trophy Series - Round 4 - Manfeild - Qualifying