Will Burns secured a second podium finish of the season and narrowly missed out on another in the latest two rounds of the 2022 British GT Championship.
After a brilliant top-three result at Oulton Park during Easter weekend’s season opener, Burns continued his impressive campaign in British GT.
Silverstone and Donington Park brought successive three-hour endurance races, the joint longest on the calendar.
Burns and team-mate Jack Brown were second quickest in testing at Silverstone, then produced a competitive showing in qualifying the next day to go fifth.
Burns enjoyed a fantastic start to the race, moving up to second on lap one, and grabbed the lead next time roud to maintain his advantage through to the first pit-stop cycle.
Brown kept them in the top two through his stint, before Burns took over just past the halfway mark.
A calm and efficient performance saw Burns keep out of trouble and produce consistently fast lap times, keeping them in the hunt for the win.
Brown eventually brought them home in second, but a time penalty for an incident in the opening stint dropped them to fifth.
Burns bounced back from that disappointment with a strong showing at Donington Park.
After productive runs in free practice, the duo combined times in qualifying secured seventh on the GT4 grid.
Once again Burns began the race with early heroics, gaining no less than five places in the opening four laps to move into second.
He dropped back a spot soon after, but remained in third to the first pit-stop.
Impressive stints from Burns and Brown kept them right in contention, with the latter eventually taking the chequered flag in second place to put them fourth in the GT4 championship standings.
“I’m really pleased with how the British GT season has gone so far,” said Burns.
“While we haven’t been the quickest car in the GT4 pack yet, we’ve managed to keep ourselves in the mix for podium finishes and managed to get a couple of trophies.
“It’s frustrating that a small mistake on my part cost us another podium result at Silverstone, as the team deserved it after a great job with the car and the strategy. I’m delighted we could reward their efforts and get back on the podium at Donington Park.
“I’ve been enjoying building my partnership with Jack [Brown] and seeing him make great progress. I’m confidentr we can continue to be battling towards the front of the GT4 field.”
Burns was back on track for the second round of the 2022 GT4 European Series at Paul Ricard in France last weekend, sharing a Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport-prepared BMW M4 GT4 with Berkay Besler.
The team and drivers went into the weekend in high spirits after a hugely promising opener at Imola, where they gained 29 places over two races to secure two 10th-placed finishes.
Burns took advantage of two free practice sessions on Friday to learn the Paul Ricard circuit, but it soon became clear there was a mechanical issue with the car.
The team worked through the night to try and fix the problem, but it would sadly return on Saturday.
After getting through qualifying, they had to make the difficult decision to retire the car in the early stages of race one before Burns got behind the wheel.
Dedication from the team saw them pull another all-nighter to find a solution ahead of race two on Sunday.
Burns and Besler duly delivered a superb performance to reward their efforts as from 16th on the grid, Burns moved into the top 10 within four laps.
He went on to gain nine places in total before handing over to his team-mate, who held seventh place to the finish.
"After having luck desert us with the car over the first couple of days, it’s a great feeling to be able to produce that drive and result on Sunday," added Burns.
"The car was brilliant and I really enjoyed getting stuck in and making progress up the order. We’ve shown over the opening races of the season there is huge potential in the car.
"A huge thank you to everyone in the team for their incredible levels of hard work over the weekend, it’s hugely appreciated.”
Burns continues his 2022 season with a trip to Snetterton for the next round of the British GT Championship (June 25-26), then heads from Norfolk to Misano on the East coast of Italy for the third round of the European GT4 Series (July 2-3).
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