There’s only one BMW team competing in the British GT Championship, which features GT3 and GT4-spec machinery. Century Motorsport is competing in the GT3 class with an M4 GT3 driven by works driver Dan Harper along with Darren Leung, as well as a pair of M4 GT4s in the GT4 class. SRO sanctions the series, but unlike the SRO America series, the GT3 and GT4 cars run together in the same races.
The British GT season opened last weekend at Oulton Park on the weekend of April 7th-10th, and the Century team showed great potential in both classes. In GT3, Darren Leung qualified the #91 M4 GT3 in eighth for race one and moved up to sixth before handing over to Dan Harper, who had a great battle going with the #4 Mercedes-AMG of Jules Gounon for third position. Harper got by Gounon on a restart after a caution period, but passed Gounon before crossing the start-finish line on the restart. That’s a no-no, so Harper was given a penalty and ended up finishing in sixth, throwing away a likely podium finish. Harper put in the fastest lap of the race and showed strong pace versus the other cars when the pros were driving. “Some unfortunate circumstances in race one cost us a podium but we showed great pace all weekend,” said Harper on social media after the race. The race was won overall by the #4 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG driven by James Cottingham and Jonny Adam.
Dan Harper had the fastest lap in race one at Oulton Park.
In race two, Harper qualified second in the GT3 class behind Gounon in his Mercedes-AMG, who Gounon had battled with in race one. The race started with a wet track, and Harper seemed to have trouble getting power down and lost positions on the first lap. Harper held on to fourth during his stint but Leung dropped a couple more positions once he got in the car, with the duo ultimately finishing in sixth again, as Mercedes-AMG finished one-two, with the win going to Gounon and co-driver Ian Loggie in the #1 2 Seas Motorsport car.
In the GT4 class, the #22 M4 GT4 of Carl Cavers and Lewis Plato finished fourth out of all the GT4 cars and second in the GT4-PA class in race one and were followed by the #14 M4 GT4 of Michael Johnston and Chris Salkeld, who finished third in the GT4-PA class. Johnston and Salkeld finished third in GT4-PA in the second race, with Cavers and Plato ending up fifth in class. Rounds three and four of the British GT Championship will be at the Silverstone circuit on May 6th-7th. You can see replays of the races or watch them live on the SRO YouTube site.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO]