One of Century Motorsport’s two Ginetta G55 GT3s will return to the British GT fold at Silverstone this weekend after the team confirmed that Aleksander Schjerpen would be joining Charlie Robertson.
Century entered two of the Yorkshire firm’s GT3 cars at Oulton Park and Rockingham earlier this year before Americans Harry Gottsacker and Parker Chase opted to end their planned full-season campaigns early in favour of racing Stateside. That left both G55s without driver crews, forcing them out of Snetterton’s British GT double-header a fortnight ago.
However, Century remain committed to their GT3 programme and have now turned to Schjerpen - who finished second in 2015’s British GT4 Silver Cup category driving one of the team’s G55s - to partner Ginetta factory driver Robertson who began the season alongside Parker.
Team boss Clive Freke confirmed Schjerpen’s Silverstone deal remains a one-off outing at this stage and that Century was committed to filling its GT3 seats for British GT’s remaining rounds at Spa-Francorchamps, Brands Hatch and Donington.
“Alex was with us in 2015 and ’16 so knows the team well, plus he’s been racing a Lamborghini Super Trofeo car this season so the jump to GT3 shouldn’t be too daunting,” he said. “It’s great that we’ll be back out at Silverstone this weekend when we’ll hopefully show what the G55 can really do. The car has potential but we’ve not been able to demonstrate that yet for various reasons.
“We provide a very competitive opportunity to race in GT3 and are speaking to a number of drivers about doing just that for the rest of the season. We’re certainly very hopeful of having both cars back on the grid this year.”
Freke also confirmed that Mike Simpson would return alongside Anna Walewska in Century’s #111 GT4 entry this weekend. Simpson began the season with Century by claiming class pole position at Oulton Park but was called away by Ginetta on official factory duties for the following two rounds, leaving George Gamble and then Nathan Freke to fill in.
British GT’s blue riband, three-hour Silverstone 500 race begins at 13:35 this Sunday. Tickets, which start at just £12, are available here, while live coverage is also available on Front Runner TV and the championship’s Facebook page.