Will Burns continued his hugely impressive debut European GT4 Series season with a charging drive through the field at Hockenheim for a top 10 finish at the penultimate meeting of the season.
The Weston racer linked up with Berkay Besler and the Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport team for a first visit to the German circuit, after a superb maiden class podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps.
Getting to grips with the 2.84 mile circuit in testing and free practice, Burns secured the team’s best result in qualifying with 19th but Besler started the opening race on Saturday in 26th.
The Turkish driver fought his way to the fringes of the top 20 before the driver change pitstops, as Burns started his stint in 17th.
But rain began to fall during a safety car period, with Burns amongst a number of drivers to gamble by changing to wet tyres, before officials elected to end the race.
There would be more joy in the second race as a superb start by Burns saw him keep out of trouble and pull off some brilliant moves to gain no less than 10 positions in the first two laps.
Settling in eighth, the reigning British GT4 champion was aiming to make more progress when the driver behind made heavy contact with the side of his BMW M4 GT4, causing a full 360-degree spin in the middle of the circuit.
Despite some damage to the car, Burns continued in 10th place behind the safety car, before Besler pushed on to secure seventh place and a sixth top-10 of the campaign.
Burns was back in action in the penultimate event of the British GT Championship season at Brands Hatch last weekend, linking up with Jack Brown and Century Motorsport in their BMW M4 GT4.
On a sombre weekend, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Burns and Brown endured a frustrating Saturday as they found themselves unable to quite match the ultimate pace of the leading GT4 class contenders.
They started eighth on the grid for Sunday's two-hour race but received a harsh penalty following an innocuous pre-race situation.
Burns had moved them up into the top six in the opening laps before a drive-through penalty, which combined with a safety car soon after left them almost a lap down on the rest of the class as they had to settle for ninth.
Burns said: "We’ll aim to come back stronger for the final weekend and try to cement fourth in the championship standings."
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