Easter weekend at Oulton Park – the much awaited season opener for British GT Championship is here. 2018 sees a whopping 35 cars on the grid – two of which are brand new BMW M4 GT4s, run by Century Motorsport. Century confirmed their driver line-up for their second BMW on Friday – Jack Mitchell and Aleksander Schjerpen. Schjerpen was unable to make it this weekend so Ricky Collard, BMW Junior driver stepped in as a sub.
Due to technical infringemen
t by another competitor, the qualifying positions were all moved up one. Collard and Mitchell both impressed in Saturday’s qualifying, both finishing with the same result, a P4 which turned into a P3.
Ben Tuck got a P5 in car 42, which moved up to a P4 once the results were published. Ben Green was fighting his way through the traffic and ended his qualifying session with a P16, which moved up to a P15. Overall, a great start to the weekend for both cars.
Ben Green:
“The BMW M4 GT4 performed very well in qualifying at Oulton Park. The car felt great on new tyres and we found a lot of pace in qualifying. For me it was my first new tyre run on Pirelli’s, I made some small mistakes and got held up in traffic so overall the session didn’t pan out the best for me. I’m sure the car will have great race pace and I’m really looking forward to the racing!”
Ben Tuck:
“I’m really happy with how the car felt on new tyres. The car gave me loads of confidence to be able to push for a lap. We knew Oulton Park was going to be one of our hardest tracks for the M4 so I’m really happy to be on the 2nd row of the grid for the first race. Starting alongside our team mates in the #43 is also great for BMW Motorsport as well!”
Jack Mitchell:
“Very pleased with the result of qualifying, all the hard work over Friday and Saturday paid off and it was good to see the car up the front where it deserves to be. I still had a little more time left in myself but I’m happy with our starting position. Somewhere we can race from and hopefully finish with a podium or race win.”
Ricky Collard:
“My first BMW GT4 qualifying session was very positive. I had no real expectation going in, so to come away with a P3 was a fantastic achievement for the team. Going into Monday’s races, we should feel confident – I know from previous experience the car is very strong in a race environment.”
Nathan Freke, Owner of Century Motorsport:
“I’m delighted with qualifying. I think we extracted the best out of the car and the drivers all performed very well.
It was a shame Ben Green didn’t get a clear lap, but we know that his pace is very close to the other three drivers so we will be looking to move forwards in race 2 on Monday with car 42. To start race 1 with both cars on the second row is very satisfying. The quality of the GT4 field this year is very strong, so it’s great to be at the sharp end.
The weather looks to be wet on Monday, so it will be a new experience for us. First and foremost we want two cars at the end of each race, scoring points. After that we want to achieve the best result possible.
We have four extremely talented drivers and the team are all hungry for success, so let’s hope we get the results we have been working hard for.”
The first race kicks off tomorrow morning, Easter Monday, at 11:07, with the second race following at 15:22 in the afternoon. These will be the first ever races this pair of brand new BMWs have entered. Let’s hope for a cracking result!