Century Motorsport returned to the British GT grid at Snetterton, as their Ginetta GT4 pairing of Dominic Evans and Zoe Wenham brought home a well deserved second place and picked up a great points haul.
In free practice one, it was Dominic Evans who took the first stint behind the wheel, and steadily got quicker and quicker throughout the session, with a best time of 2.03.6 as he handed over to teammate Zoe Wenham she posted a 2.03.1, but unfortunately the session was short lived when she pulled off at Bomb Hole with a broken right drive shaft.
The Century team pulled together to fix the problems and the car was out again for free practice two around the Norfolk circuit. However, traffic proved problematic for Wenham, and she was unable to get the flying lap she needed before handing over to Evans – whose session was cut short due to an incident involving the BMW.
Whilst the team waited in the pit lane for a restart, a sudden downpour and the resulting standing water on the track led to the session being cancelled, nevertheless, Evans and Wenham were both still in high spirits and looking forward to the evening qualifying session.
Team principal Nathan Freke said “I don’t think we showed our true pace today. We are making a few changes to the car and looking forward to qualifying. Let’s hope the rain stays away!”
Unfortunately, the rain didn’t stay away and qualifying was cancelled: SRO announced the start positions from the race would be taken from the best times in free practice one and two – not what the team had hoped for with issues we had throughout the day – and starting positions were fourth for race one and fifth in race two.
As race one dawned on Saturday, Wenham lined up on the grid to take the first stint, and from the moment the lights went out, the young driver was right on the pace, climbing up the order with every passing minute.
Following a healthy battle with the yellow G50 GT4 car of Optimum motorsport over third place, a mistake and spin by the rival team saw her claim third, just behind the second placed Mazda and WFR Ginetta out front.
As problems for the Mazda saw the car slow and retire, Wenham was promoted into second before the WFR Ginetta pitted and found itself involved in an incident with the Lamborghini in pit lane, leaving the Century Motorsport GT4 leading the class.
Wenham pitted a short time later and the smooth driver change saw Evans take his position at the wheel, still leading the GT4 class. After a long battle with the Optimum GT4 car, Evans was forced into second place – however, with two laps to go a problem with the drive shaft lead to an oil spillage on the exhaust which resulted in a fire in the rear corner of the car.
Despite all the issues, Evans managed to coast the car over the line, taking the flag and a very well deserved second place on the podium! Wenham said: It was a fantastic race, the car was brilliant and there was some great competition out there! I really enjoyed it – a good clean race”
A few hours later and the team had it all to do once more, this time with Evans lining up to take the start from fifth on the grid. After just a few laps in the Century car was involved in an incident with the APO and Mazda resulting in damage to the rear diffuser and precious seconds lost.
Relegated to P6, Evans had a lot of work to do to catch the leading cars, but after another flawless pit stop, Wenham took over and was soon moving up into fifth place – with the APO Ginetta just up the road, Wenham was determined to reel in another position and crucial championship points.
With just 16 minutes remaining and running three seconds a lap faster than the APO car ahead, Wenham slowly made her way onto the back of her rival, before claiming fourth place just metres before the line.
Evans said: “The team did a great job mending the car from race one this morning. Finishing fourth was a great result given the incident in the first few laps. I would like to thank Century Motorsport for a great weekend and I am proud of the results, despite the issues.”
In all, the Century Motorsport team leave Snetterton with renewed confidence; whilst there were a few issues which wouldn’t have been missed – namely the shocking weather – the second and a fourth still leaves the team second in the championship, a great place to be in at this stage of the season.
Century Motorsport are now looking forward to the next round at Silverstone 8/9th September.