Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke enjoyed a sensational winning start to his title charge in the 2021 British GT Championship, taking the Pro-Am class spoils and finishing second overall in the GT4 class in a frenetic season opener at Brands Hatch.
Entering a third consecutive season in the GT4 class with Century Motorsport, the Buckinghamshire racer was determined to enjoy a strong start to the 2021 campaign on the Grand Prix layout he claimed his first British GT podium at last year.
Partnered with Chris Salkeld for the new campaign, Gordon-Colebrooke showed competitive pace throughout Saturday’s initial brace of free practice sessions, setting a time good enough for second place in the GT4 class in his BMW M4 GT4 in a mixture of wet and dry weather.
Those conditions eventually eased in the afternoon and the 28-year-old was greeted with dry conditions for his 10-minute qualifying sprint. A strong individual performance from him put the car fourth in the times in a good session for BMW, Gordon-Colebrooke’s car ending fifth on combined times ahead of the big race on Sunday.
The two-hour contest brought with it the returning threat of rain, something which arrived heavily just moments before the cars took to the grid for the race. It would only prove a brief shower and therefore the BMW joined its rivals in choosing slick tyres for the opening stint.
Settling in sixth spot early on with his team-mate behind the wheel, Gordon-Colebrooke took over the car after the hour mark and immediately climbed up into the top two in the GT4 class. Giving chase to the leading Ginetta ahead of him, he settled into a competitive run of lap-times as he also had his sister Century BMW closing in his mirrors.
While he lost out to his team-mate Gus Burton, a consistent final half an hour ensured that the job could be done, and a final twist played into Gordon-Colebrooke’s hands as the lead Ginetta suffered a puncture in the final 10 minutes to promote the BMW man to second overall in GT4.
It was also a result good enough to seal the overall victory in the GT4 Pro-Am standings as Century grabbed a GT4 one-two, ensuring a strong start to the latest British GT Championship campaign and a solid haul of points.
Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke:“It couldn't be a better way to start the year! Obviously we came here knowing we were in a strong position to go for overall GT4 honours, and then starting P5 helped us with that plan.
"You always want to go forward and we ended up in the fight for the podium. The safety cars help you with a Pro-Am pairing, and it did just that so we were happy with the pace early on. My stint; I felt I didn't have initial pace but then it really came back to me in the latter half hour.
"I could consolidate that from there and tried to hang on before that, but it's put us in a great position to review and we'll get back on it straight away. We'll take it!"
Gordon-Colebrooke next heads to the home of British motorsport and his local circuit, Silverstone, hoping to add more silverware to his collection in a month's time (26/27 June).
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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