A mad Friday follows a manic Monday

After the outstanding announcements of earlier this week with the likes of R-Motorsport and Garage 59 confirming multiple race platforms for the headline GT3 events of Europe, it was the turn today of a couple of other teams to announce some more modest but still significant plans both at home and abroad.

First their announcement was scheduled for today, then it was Monday before surprisingly coming out early doors this morning with the news that Optimum Motorsport will indeed be defending 'their' British GT GT3 Championship crown (dates permitting) with their young gun drivers of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis aboard their beautifully liveried Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 - defending the overall crown that Jonny Adam and Flick Haigh won last year in the teams V12 Vantage GT3.


With the duo already having announced their return to another full season of the International GT Open this was another significant step for the young Wilkinson in what will only be his third full season of top end motorsport. Within the British GT Championship the pairing shall be rated as a Silver-silver pairing - something that has sometimes been something of a poison challis for others in the past but this duo just see it as another challenge! We believe the Silverstone round of the BGT clashes with the Spa round of the GT Open.

“To be making my British GT debut partnering a former champion is an exciting prospect in only my third year of racing. The more I drive in top level competition the more I learn, so taking on this top championship in the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 as a Silver-Silver pairing for the first time will be a mega new challenge" said Wilkinson.
Confirming this news and unveiling their new 2019 livery that they will run in both the British GT and the Le Mans Cup from under an awning within the Prodrive facility tonight, Howard confirmed that it was "“it’s an exciting time for Beechdean to be racing the new Vantage GT3 having been one of the only teams to switch from DBRS9 GT3 to the previous Vantage. The calendar looks great with some of the most iconic circuits on the world, and I’m looking forward to racing with Marco and Ross and collecting some trophies along the way.”