Barwell Motorsport to contest Merdeka 12 Hours with Aston Martin DBRS9

Former British GT Championship-winning team, Barwell Motorsport, will be contesting this year’s Merdeka Millennium 12 Hour Endurance race at the Sepang F1 circuit on August 7th. Barwell, an Official Partner Team of Aston Martin Racing, will be campaigning the Frank Yu-owned Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3 car, in conjunction with top Asian team, Eurasia Motorsport, which is run by British ex-pat Mark Goddard. The Aston has recently been fettled in Barwell Motorsport’s workshops, and we have developed and fitted a Bosch ABS system – the first time one has been used on a DBRS9. The car was sent back out to Malaysia two weeks ago, where it was shaken down by former F1 driver, Alex Yoong.

Barwell has had continued success in both endurance and sprint racing over the last five years with the Aston Martin DBRS9, culminating in a competitive fourth place in GT3 (and 11th overall) in the 2009 FIA Spa 24 Hours. As well as providing its engineering expertise, Barwell has also placed current British GT driver and experienced DBRS9 exponent, Michael Bentwood, into the Merdeka squad to join car owner Frank Yu and Eric Cheung.

Hong Kong-based drivers Yu and Cheung also own Ginetta G50Z-Zytek machines, as campaigned successfully by Barwell in last year’s British GT series (using the Ginetta factory development car). We have recently completed full pre-season rebuilds on these cars, prior to them being shipped out for the first round of the GT3 Asia Championship at Sepang on May 15/16. Barwell’s Engineering Director, Chris Weeden, then joined the Eurasia crew to assist with their running at Sepang, where they recorded their best results to date.

Meanwhile on the European GT front, Barwell’s next event will be the British GT race at Spa on June 5th, where the grid will be combined with the Belcar GT Championship for a 2.5 hour endurance race. Following Paul Whight and Michael Bentwood’s podium finish in the Oulton Park British GT season opener, the team will be hoping for further success at Spa with Whight’s stunning Aston Martin DSBRS9. On the same weekend Barwell will also be competing at Oulton Park, with its Ginetta G50 Cup squad fielding championship runner Julien Draper in the fourth round of the TOCA one-make series.

PR