Will Burns Scores Brilliant First British GT Win Of Season At Snetterton 04.07.2022: Will Burns made a welcome return to the top step of the British GT Championship podium last month, as he and team-mate Jack Brown scored a brilliant first win of the season at Snetterton (25/26 June).

Will Burns made a welcome return to the top step of the British GT Championship podium last month, as he and team-mate Jack Brown scored a brilliant first win of the season at Snetterton (25/26 June).



Following on from a great podium finish in the previous meeting at Donington Park, Burns and Brown showed great pace from the off again in their Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 at Snetterton as the prepared for a pair of one-hour ‘sprint’ races on Sunday.



Topping the timesheets in two of the three official pre-event test sessions on Friday, they then fine-tuned the BMW’s set-up in free practice on Saturday ahead of the all-important qualifying sessions. Brown tackled the opening ten-minute segment, securing eighth on the grid for race one.



Burns was responsible for securing their starting position for race two and duly delivered a brilliant performance in his session. Narrowly missing out on a front row start, the Weston-Super-Mare based racer recorded the third fastest GT4 time, their best qualifying result of the season so far.



With the #90 BMW having to serve an additional seven seconds on their pitstop time as a success penalty for the Donington podium, they knew it would be a tough opening race and their spirited efforts ultimately secured them a ninth place finish in the GT4 ranks.



Burns started behind the wheel for race two and an impressive start saw him immediately challenging for second place, picking up the place on lap three. From there, a composed, consistent drive saw him keep in touch with the leader and maintain a comfortable distance to those behind.



Brown emerged from the pitstop still in second and went on to close down a gap of over four seconds to the leading Aston Martin. A stunning move around the outside at Agostini corner got him the lead, which he held to the finish for both the overall GT4 and Silver Cup class victories.



A third podium finish of the season means Burns, who races with the support of Cases Ltd, Eurocams and Absolute Plastering Services, and Brown lie third in the overall British GT4 drivers’ standings and second in the Silver rankings, just one point off the top.



Will Burns: “I’m absolutely delighted we could get our first win of the season. Century Motorsport have been above and beyond to give us a fast car to go racing with and the BMW was right on the pace from the opening session on Friday.



“With the pitstop success penalty for race one, we knew our best chance of success came in race two, so we focused our efforts on that one. I was happy with my stint, staying right in touch with the leader throughout, before Jack drove brilliantly and pulled off a superb move for the lead.



“I’m pleased we’ve been able to reward all the hard work from the team with a race victory and hopefully we can get another one or two before the end of the season. We’re in a strong position in the standings and will keep pushing hard to maximise our points opportunities in the coming races.”


 

 


Burns made the trip from Norfolk to the East coast of Italy for the latest round of the 2022 GT4 European Series at Misano. Making his first ever visit to the circuit, the Somerset racer once again shared a Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport prepared BMW M4 GT4 with Berkay Besler.



A tough start to the event saw the team battling issues with the car during testing, meaning they ultimately headed into qualifying on the back foot and finished up lower on the timesheets than hoped. They were able to fight back in the races though, as has become their trademark this season.



>From 34th on the grid in the opener, Burns and Besler sensationally scythed their way through the order to rise no less than 18 places en-route to 16th at the finish.



They added eight more places gained in race two, finishing up ninth for their fourth top ten result of the season so far. Their impressive charges up the order secured them a pair of fifth place Silver class finishes.



Will Burns: “We had a really tough start in testing, so huge credit has to go to the team for their hard work fixing the issue. After a difficult qualifying session for me, I was absolutely determined to gain as many places as possible and the team gave us a quick car to do so.



“It was great fun out there making moves and I’m delighted we could get a top ten finish to end. In the five races we’ve finished this season, we’ve gained over 60 places from our grid positions, so our focus is on sorting out qualifying to put us in the position to challenge for big results.”


 

Burns is now looking ahead to back-to-back race weekends at Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. First up on 23/24 July is the next British GT Championship meeting, before he returns a week later to compete in the European GT4 Series on the support bill of the Spa 24 Hours race.



Simon Paice - photos Ebrey