Century Motorsport

Four trophies and three fastest laps for Century in SuperCup at The Rock

Last weekend, Century Motorsport headed to Europe’s fastest racing circuit, Rockingham Motor Speedway, with their three SuperCup drivers ready to fight for the podium spots in the weekend’s three Ginetta GT4 SuperCup races, supporting the British Touring Car Championship. All three drivers impressed, with great race pace and some superb overtaking and defensive moves. Michael Crees proudly claimed the fastest lap (Am class) in all three races along with a podium finish in each, making it nine podium-finishes in a row now for Crees. Angus Fender claimed his third well-deserved podium of the season and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke narrowly missed out on his first podium finish of the season, managing to come away with his best result so far.

Qualifying got underway on Saturday morning with Crees topping the Am class times with a quick time of 1m22.969s. Fender secured a time just less than one second quicker than Crees’, putting him in third amongst the Pro class, with Gordon-Colebrooke qualifying in fifth (Pro class) with a time of 1m22.815s.

Later that afternoon, the first SuperCup race of the weekend got underway. Fender had a good start position of third on the grid however he didn’t get off to the best start and ended up losing three places on the first lap. He then spent the remainder of the race trying to find a way through the traffic and eventually settled with sixth position at the chequered flag.

Gordon-Colebrooke managed to get his best finish of the season in this race. He gained one position on the first lap and then he spent the rest of the race in fourth, constantly putting pressure on the car in front, in the hope that he could make a move to claim third place which would be his first podium finish of the season. He narrowly missed out on third place by a tiny 0.208s.

Crees started from pole position (Am class) and he managed to control the entire race, whilst constantly defending his lead position, not letting Colin White in the #78 car deter him from taking class victory!

Sunday morning saw a slight change in weather, with a greasy track for race 2. Fender got off to a better start in this race, finding a couple of gaps to get past two cars during the first lap, then holding his fourth place for the majority of the race until lap 10 where fell back to fifth and that is where he crossed the line at the chequered flag.

Gordon-Colebrooke started the race with a tentative few laps in the damp conditions on slick tyres. This led him to drop down the order and he was unable to find the front of the pack again, eventually crossing the finish line in ninth overall (7th in Pro class).

Crees started from pole position however during the second lap, White grabbed the lead. The entire race was then a fight for the Am class lead between the determined pair and Crees got extremely close on several occasions however towards the end of the race, he spun out, losing him a few seconds. A determined drive saw Crees catch up with White and he ended up closing the gap, crossing the finish line just 1.198s behind him.

Later on in the afternoon, race 3 got underway. Fender dropped a couple of places off the line but by lap 2 he had switched it around and gained three places putting him in fourth which is where he spent majority of the race. On lap 25, Fender was promoted to third place due to the #25 car having to retire from the race. The final six laps were very intense with a great battle for third place between Fender, the #99 car of Carl Shield, and Gordon-Colebrooke who was in fifth place. They were all extremely close to one another and on the final lap, Gordon-Colebrooke tried to make a move on Shield for fourth but contact was made, ending Gordon-Colebrooke’s race and spinning Shield out. Fender then confidently crossed the line in third place, achieving his third podium finish of the season.

Crees started from third on the grid due to a partial reverse grid for the Am class field. By lap 2, Crees had taken the Am class lead and from that moment onwards, he controlled the entire race. He stormed well ahead of his competitors, making it a very lonely race! He then went on to claim victory by over 17-seconds.

The next round, which is the penultimate round, will be held at Silverstone on 15th – 16th September.

Angus Fender: 

“After Snetterton I had high hopes for Rockingham. My driving was always improving and I felt as though a good, consistent and strong weekend was on the cards for Rockingham. Sure enough, qualifying fit the bill with my 5th top 3 in qualifying from 6 attempts. However, race one was frustrating as a slightly cautious first lap on my behalf left me down the pack in 6th place and because of the dirty air, I could never get close enough to the cars ahead to make a rational overtake, so would finish 6th. Race two was in tricky conditions initially and as I’d have hoped, I got to grips quickly with the changeable track and was making inroads on a podium place. However, as the track dried my pace dropped slightly and I had to settle for P5 at the flag.

Race 3 was just unreal. A combination of luck, a good setup and some well executed defensive driving on my behalf meant that somehow on a dead set of tyres, I’d be able to bring the car home in P3 for another podium to add to my tally this season!

I’m improving all the time and the only thing left for me to get this year is a race win! I’m going all out! Let’s get it at Silverstone!

Thanks as always to Century Motorsport, my mechanic Nigel Charman and all of my sponsors!”

Gordon-Colebrooke:

“I’m absolutely delighted to have managed a best result of the year with 4th in the first race! So close to a podium as well! This weekend saw more progress made overall and I’m feeling more and more comfortable with the car and with racing wheel to wheel with each and every race and that showed in that I was competing for podiums in 2 of the races this weekend. Thanks once again have to go to Century Motorsport who were faultless yet again.”

Michael Crees:

“Mega weekend!! 9 podiums in a row and I have now extended my lead in the championship! Roll on Silverstone!”

Nathan Freke, Owner of Century Motorsport:

“Rockingham was a successful weekend for us on the whole. Michael extended his points lead and continued his run of podiums. Angus had a great qually and race 3, and Andrew had his season’s best finish of 4th place. We need to keep on doing more of the same with Michael and we are pushing hard for Angus’ first win and Andrew’s first podium… let’s hope we can achieve this before the end of the season!”