The sequel to a thriller
The GT4 battle is wide open in the absence of last year’s title protagonists, and it could be the parties that battled out the ultra-close 2018 crown in contention
The absence of two-time and reigning GT4 champion TF Sport and its closest 2020 challenger, HHC Motorsport, means British GT’S secondary category has a somewhat different complexion this year. But numbers are up, with a healthy seven manufacturers on the grid for Brands Hatch.
For an indicator of what to expect, you could do worse than look back to the 2018 GT4 title battle for inspiration. That year featured a three-way thriller played out between two Century Motorsport BMWS and the leading lights of the new Mclaren Driver Development Programme, then fielded by Tolman Motorsport. It may be fanciful to expect two points to split the leading trio this term, but there’s every
reason to expect Nathan Freke’s Fenny Compton-based Century squad to once again do battle with Mclaren’s young chargers, that programme now run by
Team Rocket RJN after a race-winning
GT3 campaign in 2020 with Michael O’brien and James Baldwin.
Assuming that both adapt well to Century’s well-proven BMW M4, series returnee Will Burns and Gus Burton will be an evenly matched frontrunning pair. The duo won over half of the 19 Ginetta GT4 Supercup races last year – five apiece – as category veteran Burns edged Ginetta Junior graduate Burton to the title.
Freke’s courting of Burns resulted in a test planned at Silverstone in November, only for fog to cause its cancellation. Burns then accepted an offer from Assetto Motorsport to race its new Ginetta G56 – “Because I’ve always been in a Ginetta, I thought it made sense for me to continue that partnership” – but was released from the deal when the team struggled to find him a co-driver, and was quickly snapped up to join Burton, an 18-year-old who Freke hopes will be a candidate to join BMW’S junior roster.
“I’ve known Nathan all the way through the Supercup years,” says Burns, “and I always wanted to go with Century but the opportunity never presented itself.
It was easy for me to familiarise myself with that car – obviously it being front-engine, rear-wheel drive, it’s the same characteristics as the Ginetta. Gus is an extremely quick kid as well, so I think we’re going to make a strong pairing.”
It’s the best line-up Century has put together since it finished 1-2 in 2018, when Jack Mitchell, aided by Dean Macdonald, edged Ben Tuck and Ben Green by a single point. And with the M4 boasting an upgrade package including a revamped traction control system that’s expected to improve driveability at the end of a stint on worn
tyres, a title challenge is expected.
After a year’s Covid-enforced hiatus, the Mclaren DDP is back with a quartet of drivers anxious to make up for spending 2020 on the sidelines. Back in 2018, O’brien and Charlie Fagg finished just two points shy of Mitchell, while in 2019 the rapid James Dorlin and Josh Smith were dogged by bad luck.
It was exclusively an enterprise to blood British talent back then, but Katie Milner is the only Brit of the current intake.
The former Ginetta racer joins Australian Harry Hayek, who has experience of the UK circuits from an abortive BRDC British Formula 3 Championship foray in 2017, while Swiss Alain Valente and Moroccan Michael Benyahia in the other car both have experience of the Mclaren from Germany’s ADAC GT4 series in 2019.
They won a race apiece in that contest, so they will be the expected frontrunners.
Even so, the daughter of 2002-03 British rally champion Jonny Milner believes that she is now a “completely different driver” after a year spent working with Mclaren
“If we turned up at Brands hoping for a top 10, that wouldn’t be the right way to approach it”
sim partner izone, and that she can compete with the best at the sharp end.
“It wasn’t nice to not be racing for a year, but the lockdowns just helped me really focus on training,” Milner says. “I’m the fittest that I’ve ever been and also eating right and being on the sim more. In the time we’ve had we’ve all come on massively.”
Bob Neville’s RJN team may be new to the 570S GT4, but it has no shortage of
GT4 competition experience to fall back on, with the 2011 Blancpain GT4 Cup and 2009 European GT4 teams titles under its belt. In its most recent GT4 foray in 2018
(its last season before the tie-up with
Jenson Button and Chris Buncombe under the Team Rocket name), RJN ran Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher close to the Pro-am title. “We’ve got many GT4 podiums, wins and championships behind us so we’re not uncomfortable – we like GT4,” says Neville, whose team welcomes back engineer Simon Pollock from the factory Aston Martin World Endurance Championship set-up.
RJN has expanded to enter a third car for 2019 Mclaren DDP alumnus Jordan Collard and ex-speedworks Toyota driver James Kell. Collard, who was unfortunate not to win the title last year with the HHC Mclaren squad, is expected to be a leading light. “We’re expecting [Collard] to be our benchmark, and we’re delighted to have him in the team for that very reason,” says Neville, whose team is also running the JBXE Extreme E programme. “He’s got the experience, he’s got the speed and he’s got the knowledge of the car. The work we’ve done with him so far has worked out well.”
The best bet for stopping a 2018 rerun is likely to come from Steller Performance’s Audi R8, with Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams returning to GT4 after selected outings in GT3 last year, because their all-silver status means they’re now ineligible for the senior class. They won on their last GT4 outing at Donington in 2019, and Williams has every reason to expect to hit the ground running.
“The great thing about Sennan and I working together is that we do like the car the same way,” says Williams, “so we get consistent feedback which has really helped to unlock more performance. If we turned up at Brands hoping for a top 10 finish, that wouldn’t be the right way to approach it. We go there expecting to win and that’s what we’re out to do.”