BURNS AND BURTON SURVIVE DEMOLITION DERBY
The Century Motorsport team was in disconsolate mood on Saturday night at Donington. Six different makes of car occupied the top six places on the grid, but its BMW M4 GTS were not among them.
Championship leaders Will Burns and
Gus Burton were only ninth on the grid, with Chris Salkeld and Andrew Gordon-colebrooke two spots further back. But come Sunday, the mood in the camp was totally transformed as the pair repeated their Brands Hatch 1-2 after a demolition derby that only five of the 13 starters survived.
It took Burns just over 20 minutes and 10 safety car-interrupted laps to surge into a lead he’d never lose. Taking advantage of the GT3 fracas at the start, he moved up to fifth at the first corner then passed Mark Sansom (Ginetta) and poleman Matt Topham’s Newbridge Aston Martin to take third on the lap-five restart, Silverstone winner Topham losing several places on the grass at the Old Hairpin.
Moments later, both he and Sansom were then eliminated in a multi-car accident triggered by Salkeld spinning Sansom at Mcleans – for which he was given a 10s stop/go penalty. The crash also forced Alain Valente and Ashley Marshall into retirement and brought out the race’s second safety car. When racing resumed on lap 10, Burns wasted no time in passing Will Moore (Academy Mustang) and John Ferguson (Speedworks Toyota), as chaos ensued behind.
A slide from Moore exiting Goddards cost him two places to Team Rocket RJN Mclaren drivers Jordan Collard and Harry Hayek, who began piling the pressure on Pro-am leader Ferguson. Following another brief safety car interlude for debris, Collard dived past Ferguson at the Melbourne Hairpin, but when Hayek tried to follow around the outside of Goddards, he was tagged by the Toyota and both were collected by the luckless Moore, putting all three out.
Burns continued to pull away from Collard until the mid-race driver swaps, and Burton enjoyed a trouble-free run to the flag. But Collard’s team-mate James Kell endured a torrid stint as a bent exhaust melted some wires, impacting the ABS and gearshifts. He dropped into the clutches of Gordon-colebrooke, who had earlier passed Jamie Stanley’s Fox Mclaren.
Kell could put up no defence and eventually slipped to fifth behind Jake Giddings’ Ciceley Mercedes, which had recovered from a threesecond stop/go for a too-short pitstop, and a spin over the grass exiting Redgate.