Century headed to Brands Hatch over the weekend for the opening round of the British GT Championship. A successful weekend for Team Century saw Gus Burton and Will Burns take home both the pole position and the win, while Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke and Chris Salkeld crossed the finishing line in P1 in the Pro/Am class category and P2 overall in GT4.
The #57 BMW driven by Burton and Burns showed impressive pace during qualifying to not only take pole position in the Silver/Silver class but to also secure overall pole position on the GT4 grid. After a hectic formation lap the race begun under safety car conditions. When the race was finally given the green flag, Burns held on comfortably to the lead pulling out considerable gap to the car behind.
Unfortunately due to two more safety car periods, Burns saw his lead diminish and with the second safety car being so close to the pit stop window it was impossible to build enough of a lead to negate the additional 26 seconds pit stop time compared to the Pro/Am pairings. During the pit stop Burns handed the car over to Burton.
Burton then climbed his way back through the field by overtaking the sister car, Gordon-Colebrooke, to move into second place. With only 5 minutes left of the race the pair were set to finish in a comfortable second place, until the lead car suffered a puncture, which resulted in Burton and Burns taking their first British GT win.
After winning the final round of the 2020 British GT at Silverstone back in November, Gordon-Colebrooke was ready to start the title fight with his new teammate Chris Salkeld in the #9 car. A solid qualifying for the Pro/Am pairing saw them achieve P3 in their class and an overall P5 on the GT4 grid.
Salkeld, who is new to the British GT grid, started the race and drove a solid stint to bring the car back in P3 ahead of the pit stop and driver changes. Upon exiting the pits Gordon-Colebrooke found himself in front of Burton.
Gordon-Colebrooke fought off huge pressure from Burton, which saw a great display of racing. The on track battle lasted 4 laps before Burton got the run into turn 1 and managed to find a way past Gordon-Colebrooke putting him down into third place.
After running the majority of the race in an overall third place and 2ndplace in the Pro/Am class, Gordon-Colebrooke found himself elevated to P1 in class pairing and P2 overall and that is how it stayed for the final 5 minutes of the race to claim their first victory in the Pro/Am class.
Nathan Freke – Team Manager
“After pre-season testing we knew that we had a great chance of success this weekend and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
To come away with a 1-2 is just amazing and a true reflection of the effort everyone has put in the off season. The weekend was a joy to be a part of and its shaping up to be a very competitive year for us.
The new EVO BMW M4’s worked faultlessly and are clearly a force to be reckoned with.
I’d like to thank BMW Motorsport for the continued support and to congratulate the drivers on their superb performances all weekend”
A fantastic 1-2 result for the team, Century now lead the championship standings after only one round. British GT is back at Silverstone 500 on the 26/27 June.
Photo credit: MJW Media