The Century Motorsport team competed in the last major race of the year on the weekend of December 9th-10th, as the Intercontinental GT Challenge series wrapped up its 2022 season with the Gulf 12 Hours race at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. They were the only team to enter a BMW in the event and faced some colossal challenges to get the car onto the grid and finish the race.
Century Motorport is based in the UK and competed primarily in the British GT Championship in 2022 with both the M4 GT3 and the M4 GT4. They had competed in the Kuwait 12-Hour race (part of the Hankook 24H Series) the weekend before the Gulf 12 Hours race with two cars (an M4 GT4 and an Aston Martin), but then had a customs delay with a shipping container that was to go from Kuwait to Abu Dhabi for the Gulf 12 Hours. The M4 GT3 was shipped directly to Abu Dhabi from the team’s base in the UK, but the container coming from Kuwait had a lot of the equipment the team would need for the Gulf 12 Hours, including telemetry equipment, dampers, brakes, and tools, among other things. Four team members flew to Kuwait to get as much out of the container as they could take back to Abu Dhabi, and then received help from other race teams to get enough equipment to run in the race, but it was a bare-bones operation.
The Century Motorsport M4 GT3 was entered in the Pro/Am class with drivers Darren Leung, Eduardo Coseteng, and BMW works driver Dan Harper. They qualified eleventh in class and ran as high as third in class and fourth overall during the race, before going on to finish sixth in class and nineteenth overall. The Pro/Am class was won by the SunEnergy1 Mercedes. “After everything that has happened this week, its fair to say we are very happy with that!” said a team representative on social media. “We are so, so proud of this team, how hard they have worked to make this even happen and to pull through, despite the difficulties early in the race. To even start the race, let alone finish it, is an achievement with what we have been faced with.”
Century Motorsport will be the first team to race the new M4 GT4 in a major race, when they compete with the car in the Dubai 24 Hour race that’s coming up in mid-January. —David Haueter
[Photos by SRO, Gulf 12 Hour]