Will Burns is ready to put a difficult weekend in the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup at Oulton Park behind him and fight at the front again at Croft next weekend.
Burns’ impressive start to the season with HHC Motorsport, which had yielded six podium visits in the first nine races, looked set to continue in Cheshire as he qualified third on the grid behind team-mates Jamie Orton and Carl Breeze.
After losing a spot on the first lap, Burns was running a comfortable fourth in the opener until a momentary lapse of concentration led to a run across the Cascades grass. With a grass-filled intake leading to the temperature of his new-for-the-weekend engine rising, Burns was forced to park and retire.
That left him with a mountain to climb in race two, but a superb drive from fifteenth on the grid took him to a seventh place finish and some vital points for the championship, though it wasn’t enough to maintain his top three position in the standings.
“That was a pretty tough weekend, but one that I’m already determined to quickly put behind me and get back on track in two weeks’ time,” said Burns, who now lies fourth in the points.
“It looked like it was going to be another good weekend following qualifying and I had anticipated at least one, if not a podium in both races. I had some great pace in my car thanks to HHC, but after I made a slight mistake, I didn’t want to risk any damage to the car when grass filled the radiator grill.
“The second race was therefore all about damage limitation, particularly on a circuit which is tough to overtake on. But to take a seventh place finish was a good fightback.”
Burns now heads to Croft, the scene of his maiden Supercup podium finish last year, knowing that he’ll need more trips to the podium this time around to start closing the gap to Breeze and Orton at the head of the standings.
“I’ve now got my bad luck out of the way and I’m already fully focused on the next rounds at Croft,” he added.
“It is the local circuit for HHC Motorsport, so I’m sure that the team will have a good set-up and I’m positive that I’ll be back challenging both my team-mates.”
