2021 Teams Champions, Century Motorsport are returning to compete in the 2022 Intelligent Money British GT Championship to defend their title. The team, which emerged victorious last year with a show stopping win, has its sights set on retaining the title with back to back championships. This was the teams’ second success with the BMW after being crowned champions in 2018. After competing in the British GT Championship for fourteen consecutive years, this year will see their fifth running the only BMW M4 Motorsport’s on the grid. The driver line up so far consists of Will Burns, Jack Brown and Chris Salkeld.
Burns, who is returning to race with Century for a second season, is hoping to continue his success of last years drivers’ title win and become British GT’s first-ever two-time GT4 champion:
“It will be hard to top last year’s success, and there’s a reason why no-one’s ever won two in a row, but I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think we had a good chance,” said Burns. “Equally, I wasn’t prepared to make up the numbers for the sake of it, which speaks volumes for my faith in Century and Jack who really grew in confidence after winning at Spa last year. He was untouchable that day, and it’s that level that we’ll be tapping into again this season.”
Brown will be pairing up with Burns as co-driver of the M4. Last year was an incredible first season for Brown in British GT, with his performance getting stronger with each race. His emergence over the second half, which saw a dominant win at Spa suggests that he is ready for a title after finishing sixth overall last year.
“I’m very pleased to be driving the championship winning car with a championship winning team mate. This is such a fantastic opportunity, I couldn’t ask for a better platform to go out there and show what I can do. It brings with it increased pressure but I will do all I can to perform to my maximum to repay the faith the team and Will have put in me.”
Burns and Brown are joined by another returning driver, Chris Salkeld who will again be driving the M4 GT4 “Harriott’s Chariot”. Although currently in talks with several potential driving partners for Salkeld, the team is still eager to hear from prospective bronze and silver-graded drivers.
Salkeld had a fantastic season with Century last year, getting on the podium 3 times and finishing one place ahead of Brown, in fifth at the end of the season. He is confident in making further progress this season thanks to his experience with the M4 and the Century team.
“I learnt a lot throughout 2021, and especially from Will and Gus who obviously had an incredible season. That’s something I will be drawing on this year,” he said. “The mid-season move from Pro-Am to Silver Cup disrupted things a little but I still finished just 10 points behind second overall, and that was largely thanks to a very difficult final three races where we only scored 3.5 points. Even an average end to the season would have seen Andrew [Gordon-Colebrooke] and I finish second or third. So the pace is definitely there.”
Team Principal Nathan Freke said: “It’s great to be back for a 2 car GT4 team in British GT. This year marks our final year with the current BMW M4 and we are going to make it a great send off. After last years success, we are hungry for more and back to back championships is certainly the goal. Having Will back is great, he proved himself last year and knows the team and car intimately. Jack tested with us back end of last year and was super quick out the box. They for sure are a very strong pairing. Having Chris back for his third season with us is also great. Seeing his development within the team has been brilliant and he is now ready to mount his own championship challenge as well. We had a small set back with his driver pairing recently which means he has a spare seat next to him at the moment and we are looking to fill this with a quick driver who is ready to fight for a title.
The team have worked hard over the winter period and we are fully prepared for the season ahead. Lastly I just want to say it’s great to be back with the support of BMW Motorsport and BMW UK.”
The British GT is opening its 30th Season at Oulton Park on April 16th and 18th.