More familiar faces return for British GT's Silverstone 500 this weekend
Monday, May 02, 2022
Last time out at Oulton Park last month we witnessed a new dawn in Aston Martin Racing customer racing with no AMR representation within the headline GT3 class for the first time since the wheel was invented.
Despite that, the two AMR Vantage GT4 teams of defending GT4 Pro-Am Champions Newbridge Motorsport and GT4 newcomers R-Racing certainly didn’t leave any disappointment on our faces as they achieved a three podium finishes by the end of the two one-hour sprint races with that top step feeling again for both Matt Topham and Darren Turner as well as a debut Silver Cup second place for the R-Racing crew of Josh Miller and Jamie Day.
Being full season entries, both GT4 crews will again be there at Silverstone this weekend, having already been busy testing at the circuit over recent weeks.
They will however be joined by another AMR Vantage GT4 crew as the Century Motorsport AMR of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis return to the series as a one-off entry for the three-hour race on Sunday. They will again run within the Pro-Am class.
In addition to that – although sadly not within the cockpit of an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 this time around sees the return of both Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard for Silverstone although both will be competing with other co drivers in other OEM race machinery.
We have already learned of Adan again being asked to guide his former BGT Championship co -winning driver Flick Haigh within their Two Seas Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 and now we learn that Howard will be doing likewise.
Howard will this time partner his teams former GT4 Pro-Am Champion Martin Plowman aboard their Paddock Motorsport McLaren 720s as regular team driver Kevin Fletcher decides to sit out for personal reasons and their expected baby delivery from Mrs Fletcher.
“My main programme is the GT World Challenge Europe this year with Beechdean AMR, but as we’re just doing the five races in the Endurance Cup and the gaps between those races are quite large, this is a great way of keeping myself race-sharp, as the other five Beechdean AMR drivers are doing this year with their other programmes.
“I have such a huge emotional tie with British GT – having won the title twice – that when an opportunity came along to jump back into a car, I couldn’t say no. Because of what Kelvin and Martin achieved with Beechdean AMR in 2019, Paddock Motorsport are a team I always keep an eye on when they’re racing, and with Kelvin unavailable at Silverstone it’s nice to be able to keep that association going.
“They’re a great team that have achieved a lot in a very short space of time and winning at Oulton Park was certainly impressive. It’s going to be interesting trying a car that’s completely new to me, but I’m 100 per cent up for the challenge” said Howard with this news.
Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey