Howard and Adam set the track alight at Spa with dominant British GT win
Monday, July 13, 2015
This weekend, 11th July, the infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit saw 2013 British GT champion, Andrew Howard, and Aston Martin Factory driver, Jonny Adam, push themselves back into the game in the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 with overall victory.
After claiming pole in Friday’s qualifying, Howard and Adam’s second consecutive pole position in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, the Beechdean AMR duo cruised to victory on one of the most challenging race tracks in the world.
Despite the inevitable pressure of round 5 of the British GT, the Beechdean pairing worked hard focussing on the race of the season, and Adam, yet again, showed incredible pace. Keeping their cool in the heat of Spa, Beechdean AMR’s GT3 drivers are now second in the British GT Championship standings, only 14 points off the lead.
An eventful start to the two-hour race saw Liam Griffin of Oman Racing Team in the lead, after a jump-start, before his serving of the subsequent drive-through penalty which allowed Howard back into first. Dropping to second in a close race, Howard pitted after the safety car release, and the Beechdean AMR team perfected the pit stop with Adam pulling out in a comfortable second.
Great strategy and efficiency, along with Jonny Adam building up pace, meant that three laps in, Beechdean AMR were once again in the lead and set to win their second race of the season aboard their reliable GT3 Aston Martin Vantage.
As the first multiple British GT Championship overall winners of 2015, after Oulton Park victory at the start of the season, Andrew Howard, Jonny Adam and the rest of the Beechdean AMR team are proud of their flawless performance and the consistency of the Aston Martin GT3 car, and are ready to take the final three races of the championship by storm.
Andrew Howard: “It was great to get another victory and do it at Spa makes it more special. It was the perfect race for us, and Jonny and the team were brilliant this weekend. This sets us up nicely for Brands Hatch which will be the crucial round in our Championship challenge.”
Jonny Adam: “The car was great, nice and consistent; it was more a case of watching the track limits because it’s so easy to make a mistake here. As for the Championship, it’s been going backwards and forwards as the season’s gone on but Brands is a good circuit for us, we won at Snetterton last year and it always goes down to Donington, so we’ve got a couple of good rounds coming up.”
Beechdean AMR’s GT4 drivers, Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn, also gave a faultless performance finishing second overall in round 5 of the British GT Championship.
Despite not matching their recent wins at Rockingham and Silverstone, the youngsters are delighted with their first race at the prestigious Spa circuit, and still picked up plenty of points after racing their Aston Martin Challenge GT4 into a strong second place, after qualifying in second as well.
Given the weight they were carrying this weekend and Chadwick and Gunn’s comparative inexperience of such a demanding circuit, P2 is a fantastic result and still leaves the impressive pairing in the GT4 Championship lead.
Ross Gunn: “We’re very pleased with second, especially as the Lotuses were on-form this weekend. We hoped reliability might play a part, but in the end they were too quick. We didn’t really have any issues, just a little degradation at the end, but I managed it okay and am very pleased with another strong points’ haul. We need to keep having weekends like this. I’m chuffed to bits for the team.”
Jamie Chadwick: “Spa lived up to my expectations and didn't disappoint - it was awesome! We came here looking for a safe finish to consolidate our Title challenge, but soon found the pace to run at the front, and although we couldn’t match the performance of the much lighter Lotus, second was still a terrific result. Thanks, as always, to Beechdean, Aston Martin Racing, Ross of course, and all the organisers for putting together an amazing weekend. It’s motorsport at its best. Huge congratulations must of course go to Andrew and Jonny on their stunning win!”
Beechdean AMR will return to round 6 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Brands Hatch, ready to gain more points, on 1st/2nd August.
Source material - Beechdean Motorsport
