With the sudden departure of James Birch from the Ginetta GT Supercup, a last minute deal to field Nathan Freke in theplayer.co.uk supported Ginetta G55 was struck after its extensive rebuild from a substantial impact at Thruxton. With the car being finished just in time for the trip to Oulton Park, the team were forced to carry out a shake down of the car on Friday morning in the first of two 45 minute test sessions at the Cheshire circuit. Also joining the team for the weekend was Ginetta Factory driver Mike Simpson in a Ginetta G50 as he prepares himself for the next round of the British GT Championship in the Team LNT Ginetta G55 GT3 at Snetterton this weekend.
Qualifying was a mixed affair for the Century Motorsport drivers thanks to the session being split by a red flag. Nathan Freke in theplayer.co.uk car set his best time on lap four to put him second on the grid before a puncture would hamper any further progress for the remainder of the session. Mike Simpson had better luck in the G50 class as he grabbed pole for race one ahead of nearest rival Sean Huyton making it a front row start in both G55 and G50’s for Century Motorpsort prepared cars.
As the lights went out Nathan Freke made the best advantage of his front row start to snatch the lead away from pole man and season long front-runner Tom Ingram. However Freke was never going to have it easy to remain in front and had the former Ginetta G50 champion breathing down his neck for the next sequence of laps. In the G50 class, Mike Simpson made the best use of his pole position to lead from the off. Back at the front of the field, Freke was showing that his race craft is amongst the best in the field and looked to be defending his lead with ease but was now backing Ingram into the clutches of Mark Davies in third. Indeed this allowed Freke to start opening a small margin out in front as Ingram now had to defend himself from Davies to remain in second. Mike Simpson continued to lead the G50 class following the retirement of his nearest rival Sean Huyton. At the head of the field the chequered flag was prepared and it was Nathan Freke who took a dominant win for Century Motorsport and theplayer.co.uk well ahead of Tom Ingram in second. To compliment Nathan’s victory Mike Simpson also crossed the line in first place in the G50 class making it a double victory for Century Motorsport in race one.
Sunday afternoon’s race two grid was decided from the finishing order of race one. This of course placed both Century Motorsport drivers Nathan Freke in G55’s and Mike Simpson in G50’s on pole position for the race. When the red lights went out both made the best use of their pole position advantage to lead into the first corner. As in race one, Freke found himself with Tom Ingram filling his mirrors for most of the race as he tried to deny the Fennycompton driver his second win of the weekend. Mike Simpson was running well in the G50 class until contact from Dan Norris-Jones spun the Ginetta factory driver around handing the lead back to Sean Huyton. Out in front Ingram now had to back out of the battle for the lead as the scorching hot Oulton Park conditions were sending his engine temperatures through the roof. This allowed Freke to comfortably move out into a lead that he would secure right to the flag taking his second consecutive victory of the weekend for Century Motorsport. Once again Mike Simpson showed his determination to race back into the lead of the G50 class crossing the finish line making it a maximum four victories for Century Motorsport.
Speaking after the race, Team Manager Clive Freke commented: “This has been a truly magnificent weekend for Century Motorsport. We’ve been running in some uncustomary positions over the last few rounds but once again we’ve shown that we’ve got the right team and car and with the right driver behind the wheel we are easily capable of taking several more maximum scores in any championship. Well done to all the boys who worked so hard to get theplayer.co.uk car ready in time for this weekend and I’m glad we’ve been able to repay their efforts with a superb result. The car is now available for the rest of the season and we would welcome anyone interested in winning further rounds of the Ginetta GT Supercup to get in touch with us right away!”
Century Motorsport move to Snetterton on Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th of June for rounds five and six of the British GT4 championship with their class leading pairing of Zoe Wenham and Declan Jones in the Ginetta G50 GT4.