Century Motorsport drivers Benji Hetherington and Nathan Freke collected 5 podiums out of 6 in the Ginetta G50 races at Rockingham, including the season’s first 1 - 2 by any team in the series so far.

Sunday’s first race saw mixed fortunes for the team and Benji drove and excellent race from gird 5 to finish 2nd, unfortunately mechanical gremlins for Nathan meant a pit stop and an eventual 10th place. A second podium of the weekend for Benji and the lap record, important championship points for Nathan.

The feature race on Sunday with Nathan on pole and Benji on grid 5 was going to be important for the team with the championship coming to its closing stages. Both drivers had a super start with Nathan into the hairpin first and Benji into second as Frank Wrathall is removed from the race by another car. From then the 2 Century drivers eased away to record the series first 1 - 2 for any team, with Nathan setting the fastest lap on the way.

The weekend could not really have gone any better for the team 5 podiums and a 101 point lead in the championship - with only 10 points more needed to clinch the title.

Century Motorsport drivers Nathan Freke and Benji Hetherington filled 2 out of 3 podium places in the Saturday Ginetta G50 race at Rockingham today 19th September. Qualifying went very well for both drivers with Benji recording his best ever result of 4th and 2 5ths. Nathan was pipped to 3 poles by 0.007 of a second and had to settle for 1 pole and 2 P2’s.

Both drivers had an excellent start with Benji almost taking 2nd place from Nathan at the first hairpin, however the result was Wrathall in first, Nathan in 2nd and Benji in 3rd, and despite Nathan’s best efforts that was how it would finish. Benji recording his first podium of the season in front of several more experienced drivers, and Nathan settling for 2nd and fastest lap to keep his grip on the Championship lead.

Sunday’s races are a longer affair and hopes are high for at least a repeat of Saturday’s success.

Century Motorsport’s success continued at the Silverstone rounds of the Ginetta G50 Championship. testing went well for both cars on friday with Nathan Freke being quickest in both sessions and Benji Hetherington 5th fastest overall in the 2 sessions. Following this it was important that the team carried the table topping performance into qualifying and racing. Qualifying on the Saturyday was a very tense affair with all of the cars going quicker than the Friday testing resulting in the table changing until the very last lap, Nathan taking 2 poles and a grid 2 and Benji taking 9th, 7th, and 5th.

The first race was a very close affair with Nathan taking the win by less than 2 tenths from Frank Wrathall, sadly after a race long battle benji eventually recorded a non finish after being pushed into a gravel trap - lots of late evening work for the team. Race 2 on the Sunday was very similar to the first race with Nathan just shading it by a couple of tenths from Wrathall, but without using up his 2 new tyres which had been saved for race 3. Benji recorded his best place so far with a sixth, but with lap times good enough for a podium.

Race 3 (the posponed race from Oulton Park), was driven on a damp track and tyre choice was critical, everybody except the TCR cars chose slicks and soon after the start it was evident that the choice was correct as the wet shod cars went backwards very quickly. Nathan folowed Wrathall off the line for 5 laps until he forced the leader into a mistake into Becketts when a clean overtaking move put him into the lead - which he held and increased by the end to 2 seconds. Benji had an excellent race eventually taking 5th place to record another best place in the series so far, in front of far more experienced drivers. In addition Nathan bagged extra points for 2 poles, and 2 fastest laps.

Both cars will be testing at Rockingham on the 5th September in preparation for the next rounds there on 19th and 20th September.

Century Motorsport Ginetta G50 team raced at Knockhill at the weekend with excellent results and quality racing from both their drivers. After the trials at Snetterton the team was confident that they would be competetive on the Scottish circuit. Friday testing was wet - very wet and in the first session both cars went well with Nathan Freke quickest and Benji Hetherington 7th, having not seen the track prior to the test day. Unfortunately an electrical gremlin caused Benji to miss part of the 2nd session sharing Nathan’s car in the afternoon - however Nathan posted the quickest time in that session to gain a start on his rivals.

Saturday qualifying was a slippery affair with both cars on wet tyres on a fast drying track, Nathan managed to grab all 3 pole positions and Benji taking 7th, 8th and 7th. The first race on Saturday afternoon was on slick tyres on a track with some damp patches, Nathan made a good start and had a fairly uneventful race easily holding off Breeze who struggled for pace all weekend. Benji had a mid grid tussle with 3 other cars to eventually take 5th place - his best result so far in the series.

Sunday racing looked to be a mixed weather affair as all the cars arrived at the grid with slicks on and after the parade lap had to quickly change to wets after a downpour. The cars slither off the line and it becomes a repeat performance of race one as Nathan eases out to yet another comfortable victory. Benji starting from grid 8 had another very good race eventually finishing 6th after a scrap with 3 other drivers.

Sunday’s second race was the only one where the drivers knew what the tyres would be as it was conducted on a dry track with sunny conditions. Nathan again started on pole and led off to eke out a 1.2 second lead before the tyres seemed to go off allowing 2nd placed Frank Wrathall to close him down to 0.4 second gap when on lap 19 Nathan made a rare error to spin out after clipping a kerb exiting the chicane. Fortunately he was far enough ahead to be able to rejoin in 4th place closing down Breeze in 3rd to 0.4seconds from 2.8 seconds in 3 laps by the chequered flag, but good championship points. Benji had a fantastic start and was up into 5th off the line and pressuring Breeze for 4th whilst fighting off the attentions of Tom Sharp behind him. Once released from Sharp’s pressure Benji easily caught Breeze and on lap 9 he made a super move at the end of the straight to pass, unfortunately although the move was clean enough the car could not get slowed down enough and Benji made a vist to the gravel trap. Dissapointing but recording the 3rd fastest lap of the race was a consolation.

Nathan has come away with an improved Championship lead and Benji with some major experience ready for the next round at Silverstone on the 29th /30th August.

Century Motorsport driver Benji Hetherington starred on his recent visit to the West Country circuit in his EOS Productions backed FF1600. Having only raced at the track once before and having had no testing at all Benji qualified well in 11th place out of 33 drivers for the Saturday race. A few tweaks were made to the car and the race resulted in an excellent drive to finish in 6th place.

Sunday morning arrives and qualifying goes even better than Saturday ending up with 4th place for the race in the afternoon. Off the line Benji makes an excellent start and is into 3rd place which he manges to hold for a couple of laps before he is relegated to 4th place which he holds until the chequered flag. A superb result on both days beating several acknowledged ‘Combe experts’.

Benji now goes with the team to the Scottish track at Knockhill to compete in the Ginetta G50 Cup.

Returning to action at the Snetterton rounds of the Ginetta G50 Cup hopes were high for the Championship leader and the teams new G50 driver Benji Hetherington. Benji had been racing with the team for 3 years in karts and FF1600 and was now making a step into sports cars after winning 3 out of 4 club races in his new EOS Productions G50 in previous weekends.

Friday testing went well with Nathan quickest in both sessions and Benji 2nd quickest in the 2nd session. However electrical gremlins affected Nathan’s car after the session which ultimately made the weekend very difficult for the team who were playing catch up after a late night on Friday trying to sort the problem ( unsuccessfully).

Qualifying found both cars lacking pace and Nathan qualified 5th with Benji qualifying 7th and both cars having handling issues as well as Nathan’s gearshift and electrical faults.

Race one and Nathan finishes 4th with Benji 8th after a struggle with Colin White. Race 2 and Nathan has a brilliant start into 2nd which he holds until lap 16 when a suspension failure spits him off the track to finish 9th. Benji drives an excellent race to finish 5th in front of several more experienced drivers. Race 3 and after 2 good overtaking moves Nathan records his first podium of the weekend in 3rd and Benji after tusseling with White and Rydman finishes 8th.

Not quite the result the team had been hoping for but still coming away with the Championship lead and valuable experience for Benji after his first full G50 meeting.

The next rounds will be at Knockhill on the 15th and 16th of August a track Nathan knows well, but Benji has not seen before.

Century Motorsport made their GT racing debut at the Donington Park round of the British GT4 series with their Ginetta G50. Co driving with Century team principal Nathan Freke was Benji Hetherington who has competed in Karts, and FF1600 with the team over the last few years. Both drivers went well in testing and the result was putting the car on pole by 7 tenths from the series leaders Nigel Moore and Jody Firth. Things looked good with practice driver changes and re fueling being completed without a hitch. However just before the start the heavens opened and a change to wet tyres and setup had to be made and neither driver had driven the car in the wet in GT configuration.

Because of the severe weather the race was started under the safety car and when that pulled in the Century car with Benji behind the wheel took the class lead, however the poor conditions made driving a lottery and a spin put the other car into class lead which despite the best efforts of the drivers and team the Century car could not bridge, particularly after another safety car intervention lost them a lap. However the team did have pole and fastest lap so a good debut, and lessons learned.

Century Motorsport’s MR2 Street Drag Car set a new World mark at Shakespear Raceway on the 12th July. In the first of 3 runs Century driver Nathan Freke lowered his current European best by 2 tenths from 10.4 to 10.2, quickly followed by a second run which saw the Century car become the first outside the USA to beat 10 seconds with a 9.93 run lowering the European best yet again. However the icing on the cake came in run three as Nathan lowered the World mark by 5 thousandths of a secont to 9.722 with a terminal speed of 148 mph. The car will now head to Ten of the Best to try and make it 3 wins in a row when defending the Rear Wheel Drive class, the Century / Marangoni Yaris should also make an appearance.

Sometimes it isn’t obvious why a particular relationship actually works, and over the last few years this could certainly apply to the close working partnership between Italian Tyre manufacturer Marangoni, and Kidderminster’s Century Motorsport.

The two companies initially met when Nathan Freke of Century Motorsport was approached by UK based Sales and Marketing Director for the Italian company, Derek Carruthers. Derek’s son was karting at the time, and he asked Nathan if he could give his son Scott a bit of coaching. Neither of them knew that this would be the beginning of a long and varied tie up between the two most unlikely of partners!

Since then, Century Motorsport co-owner, and professional race driver Nathan has been employed by Marangoni as a track instructor for various client demo days and test days, he was part of the driver line up when Marangoni entered a new model Fiat 500 in the 2008 Nurburgring 24 hour race and he is also the official driver of the unique and frighteningly quick mid engined 550bhp Marangoni Yaris.

As well as supplying his driving skills and knowledge to the Italian company, Nathan and Clive Freke, the owners of Century Motorsport have also been involved in the development of the above mentioned Marangoni Yaris. This little car was originally built and designed as a promo vehicle for the tyre maker, and was demonstrated at various events up and down the UK last year. At that time however it lacked two very important features….. One it didn’t handle….. and two, it wasn’t particularly fast! After Nathan had driven the car at one of the Marangoni events, Century stepped up with an offer that they would redevelop the car over the winter and make it perform the way it should do.

A few months later and the Mad Marangoni Yaris now has real pace and handling and is a true advert not just for Marangoni but for the skills and workmanship of Century Motorsport. On its first outing of 2009 at Santa Pods Marangoni Fast Show, Nathan and the car managed a stunning quarter mile time of 12.6 seconds….. with the boost turned down to a “safe level” and running standard road spec Marangoni Mythos tyres!  Century have targeted a time of 11 seconds for the next outing….. again running standard road rubber!

Along with the Yaris, Century have also been redeveloping their own high spec MR2,  and this is now liveried and logo’d in Marangoni colours. With around 900bhp, this wide bodied Marangoni shod monster should be on show soon at various top level tuning events and drag meetings. Century have certainly built the fastest Toyota Yaris in the world…. Maybe they’ve also just built the worlds fastest MR2?

Due to these strong company links, Century and Marangoni have just agreed an extension of their business partnership. In the very near future Century will be offering Marangoni tyres for sale from their new website. The idea is that Century already have a big following in the tuning and performance market, and a lot of their customers have asked if they can buy Marangoni tyres directly from them. To service this market, Century’s new website will allow performance enthusiasts, tuners and drifters etc to log on and purchase the Italian High Performance tyres at fair prices.

Century Motorsport’s team principal Nathan Freke totally domintated the 3 races at the Donington Park rounds of the British Touring Car meeting. Testing prior to the meeting had gone exceptionally well and whilst qualifying was not totally straightforward Nathan grabbed pole position for all 3 races to have the best chance of getting his maiden win.

Saturday race time arrived and the weather conditions start to deteriorate with light drizzle falling. The cars are released onto the track on slick tyres and a damp surface. The lights go red and the cars slither off the line - Century down to 3rd place, however after a couple of laps Nathan asserts his superior driving and is into the lead and stretches away to win comfortably despite the changeable conditions, taking fastest lap in the process.

Sunday morning and a problem with the car - the wiring loom has shorted out on the chassis and there is only an hour before the cars are due in the assembly area for the first race of the day. Some swift work from the Ginetta and Century race engineers and Nathan takes his place on pole as the cars leave the assembly area for the parade lap. No mistakes this time on the start and Century is off into the lead which Nathan does not relinquish and wins once again by a comfortable margin with a new lap record on the way.

Looking forward to a 3rd win of the day suddenly looks more of a problem with a downpour of rain - Nathan has not driven the car in the wet and the team have no setup information. The Century Motorsport team change the car to a simple wet setup and put Nathan in the seat. The lights go out and Nathan makes a stunning start and disappears into the distance to win by his biggest margin so far - over 5 seconds. Century Motorsport and Nathan are the first to win all 3 races in a meeting this championship and the gap to the championship leader is cut to 20 points. ‘The car was as near perfect as it could be, it did exactly what I wanted and I thank the Century Motorsport team for putting such a good car under me. I am looking forward to the next round at Oulton Park where I have also gone well in the past.’ commented Nathan.