Century Motorsport showed they will be front-runners in the 2014 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup after their driver pairing Jamie Orton and Tom Oliphant both graced the Brands Hatch podium during the opening rounds this past weekend.
Having taken the final race victory of the 2013 season at Brands, Orton was looking forward to returning to the Kent venue. After qualifying third on the grid, Orton maintained the place throughout the opening race, benefitting from a black flag for the erstwhile race leader to finish second.
That unfortunately proved to be the highlight of his weekend, with his second race ended at just the first corner after contact from a rival pitched him into the gravel. A great job from the Century team got his car back on track for race three, but after gaining five places on lap one, more contact, this time at Graham Hill Bend, forced him into retirement again.
Oliphant meanwhile enjoyed a strong start to his maiden full Supercup campaign. From the fourth row, the former Formula Renault racer worked his way up to a solid sixth place finish in race one. He converted this into an ever better fourth place in race two, and then fought back after slipping to sixth early in race three to make his Supercup podium bow in second.
“All weekend, Jamie’s pace has been great, putting it third in qualifying and very close to pole. He drove very well in the first race, kept a cool head to finish second. Both race two and three were very disappointing as he was taken out of both races as an innocent bystander,” said team principal Nathan Freke.
“Tom’s weekend got better as it went on. He made good progress in each race and a podium in his first weekend as part of the championship is great for both him and the team. Overall it’s been a good weekend for the team with two podiums and we’re really looking forward to Donington!”
