Century Motorsport‘s new line-up made an impressive start as the Ginetta GT Supercup resumed at Snetterton after its annual six-week break.
Jamie Orton and Pepe Massot were topping the time sheets from the first testing laps on Friday before taking second and fourth respectively in Saturday’s qualifying session. An off on the warm-up lap for Orton meant he could not take his front row position, but meant that Massot had a clear gap off the line.
After a strong start, Massot managed to tuck in behind reigning champion Carl Breeze for the opening laps of the race and began setting a consistent pace, finally taking third at the drop of the chequered flag.
Sunday morning’s race saw Massot battling hard with former Ginetta Junior and G50 champion, Tom Ingram, while Orton worked his way up from the back of the grid, moving up to eight position by lap eight, where he would finish the race. Massot fought hard with Ingram, eventually settling for his second third position of the weekend, just eight hundredths of a second behind Ingram.
Sunday afternoon’s race saw an early red flag, as contact between Massot and Matt Nicholl-Jones sent the latter spinning at Montreal hairpin, directly in to the path of Marcus Hoggarth and Orton, receiving heavy impact from both.
Massot took his opportunity at the restart to make a jump for the lead, following reigning G50 champion Mark Davies, before having to deal with immense pressure from Ingram, a role reversal from race two, which allowed Davies to pull out an unassailable gap. The battle between Massot and Ingram allowed Breeze to close right in and join the fight, allowing Massot to gain some breathing space and consolidate his second position, taking his third podium result of the weekend.
“As we predicted Pepe has done a fantastic job this weekend,” said Century Motorsport Team Principle, Nathan Freke. “Three very sensible drives and three podiums in his debut for Century Motorsport, we really couldn’t have asked for any better. I’m disappointed for Jamie as his testing and qualifying pace was a true reflection of what he’s got to offer. Luck wasn’t on his side in race one and unfortunately that left him playing catch up for the rest of the weekend in a position where he really should never have been. Knockhill should be very interesting!”