Nathan Freke teams up with The Player International.

With just 3 days before the season opener of the Ginetta GT Supercup at Brands Hatch last weekend, a last minute deal was put together between Nathan and The Player Bookazine enabling him to compete this season.

Only taking delivery of the car on the day before the meeting Nathan had a big task in front of him. Friday testing went well with the Century team making good improvements with car and Nathan ended up 3rd quickest by the end of practice.

Saturday brought a tricky qualifying session on a damp track. It was clear that the end of the session would be where the quickest times were to be set, with the track drying all the time. Nathan judged the conditions well and ended up with a very pleasing P2 for the Grid of Race 1.

Nathan made a good start of the first race and slotted into second behind Tom Sharp. Instantly Nathan started putting pressure on the leading car, and when Sharp ran wide onto the Start/Finish straight Nathan tried to capitalize on the situation. Things were very tight going into the first corner and there was contact between the 2 cars resulting in Nathan spinning out and into the gravel.

Nathan managed to recover the car and get back on track but unfortunately due to 4 damaged tyres he couldn’t make any inroads and had to settle for a finish, and some points.

With the results of race one determining the grid position for Race 2 Nathan had to start right at the back of the field. After a hectic start Nathan carved his way up from 22nd to 10th place.  A satisfactory result considering the starting position.

Race 3 and Nathan lined up 10th on the grid. Making a great start Nathan moved straight up to 7th on the first lap. With some extremely tough drivers in front of him Nathan had a tall task to be able to make good progress. Keeping a cool head Nathan picked off the opposition 1 by 1 and ended up a very respectable 3rd place by the end of the race.

After the race Nathan commented on the weekend “The last week has been an emotional rollercoaster. On Tuesday I was in the mindset that this season I would not be racing, then on the Wednesday the deal with www.theplayer.co.uk came about and suddenly I was back in the seat!!. This weekend hasn’t been a true reflection of my pace, I have a lot of work to put in from a personal point of view with my fitness and mental focus and the team have the job of getting the car dialed in fully for me.  I’m ecstatic about this deal and feel very lucky to be associated with such a prestigious brand. I am really looking forward to the rest of the season and I can’t wait to develop my relationship further with The Player.”

Andie Jones, publisher of The Player Bookazine added ‘We are very proud to be racing in the Ginetta GT Championship with Nathan and the team at Century Motorsport. The 2011 season promises to be very exciting and Nathan’s performance at Brands Hatch was exceptional given there was so little time to prepare the car. We will definitely be aiming for the top this year”