Reigning champion Darren Leung is set to return to the British GT Championship this month, for a one-off appearance in the Silverstone 500 with BMW factory driver Dries Vanthoor.
The pair will drive a Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 in the showcase event for the championship, which Leung won last year en route to the British GT3 title with Dan Harper.
Originally Leung was due to compete at Silverstone with Harper once again, alongside his flagship FIA WEC LMGT3 programme with Team WRT. However, Harper has since been called up to a full-time British GT drive with Century, forcing Leung to look elsewhere for a teammate ahead of next weekend’s three-hour race.
In Vanthoor he and Century have found one of the world’s top GT drivers.
The Belgian was a mainstay of Audi’s GT3 factory programme, predominantly with WRT, before swapping to BMW at the start of 2023. He is also a multiple GT World Challenge Europe champion, as well as winner of the Nurburgring 24 Hours and Bathurst 12 Hour.
“I’m very much looking forward to the race weekend at Silverstone,” he said. “It will be my first race in British GT, so it will be special and I am looking forward to racing in the UK. Looking at last year’s performance from Darren and Dan, there’s not much we can do to do better than that, so for sure we will try and do the same! Hopefully, we can have some good fun and a successful weekend together.”
Leung added: “I would love to have done the Silverstone 500 with Dan in what would have been our only British GT race together this year. But then circumstances changed and we had to assess other options,” said Leung. “There is so much GT racing these days but, fortunately, BMW has a very deep pool of factory drivers to choose from, and Dries was available for Silverstone. Speed-wise he’s top tier, but I’ve also always admired his approach.
“I know he will be flat out at every opportunity, and that’s something I really appreciate. We’re not racing for points, a result or even a podium; I want to defend that win and that’s the mentality we’ll have all weekend.”
Vanthoor joins his BMW factory colleagues Harper and Raffaele Marciello on the Silverstone 500 entry list, which is set to feature more than 40 cars on April 27/28.
Among them are five Century BMWs: Leung’s example joins two full-season GT3 entries, while another pair of M4s will contest the GT4 class.
Images courtesy of Century Motorsport
