It may have been tough but three Aston Martins still hit the class (and title) podiums at British GTs final round today

Whilst we still await official verification of the results, it appears as though two Aston Martin Racing powered teams completed upon at least part of their own British GT Championship possibilities at the end of the last race of the season from Brands Hatch earlier today.

Going into the #BattleofBrands two-hour finale, we were in the position of having three of the five AMR Vantage powered crews having similar possibilities within both GT3 and GT4, although some were a little bit of a push away than others.

 

The #007 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn had seen their own workload intensify during qualifying when an off for Gunn limited them to just to just a P8 overall starting position in a race that they needed to win before then relying upon the misfortune for others. Although the damage incurred on Saturday was easily rectified by the team overnight, the writing on the wall for Howards one last dance appeared to have been already written.

It was a near similar case for both the MK Racing and Grange Racing AMR Vantage GT4 crews of Jessica Hawkins/Will Ortin and Dan Lavery/Darren Turner respectively, as the full Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit layout was certainly not to the favour of their cars with their overall championship competitors significantly faster going into the race.

 

The #40 Townsend Racing and #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 crews were not in contention for any end of season accolade but were a further opportunity for each team to lay out their wears in their continuing recruitment drive in time for next season. James Townsend would also be running his own marathon within the race as he would firstly overcome those points of doubt having been off in the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend three times the day before plus a spin elsewhere on the circuit to become the first driver to complete a two-hour race within the national series as a solo driver. Kudos to him for doing so.

John Hartshorne and Jordan Collard would see out the first season for the joint venture team within the paddock for the team as they also look to run a two-car package next season with one car in each of the available GT4 Pro-Am and silver classes.

 

Despite the cooler of late temperatures and the potential for rain later into the race, the race itself got underway to a surprisingly smooth start with front runner GT3 runners making early statements of intent during the opening laps with little to no incident of note to report.

That incident did come soon enough as the then race leading Lamborghini spun off into the gravel of its own accord bringing out the Safety Car for the first time as also the GT4 class leading Ginetta GT4 did suffered a pit lane at the far end to the circuit just as others in class were pitting for their one and only stop. That would throw the available GT4 silver and overall championships wide open to those left on track.

 

A solid opening stint from Lavery had seen him lead his already secured GT4 Pro-Am championship lead for much of the race as he and his #27 car circulated fifth overall within GT4 and with the #21 MK Racing Aston also behind him too. As the class approached their pit window, the sequence on track of the #27 ahead of the #42 Ginetta ahead of the #21 Aston would later become more significant towards the end.

Pitting first between classes, the GT4 of Lavery was one of the first-class contenders to pit early as he handed over to AMR factory driver and Le Mans 24hr winner Darren Turner for the final near hour long run into the flag as others around them, including the #21 car had additional pit lane time to serve either through success penalty or class definition.

 

Whilst that was all going on, Howard had run his last British GT race from a best position of seventh overall on track and P4 in class, to hand over to Gunn for one last stint but with others being much faster than them, they would round off their 2026 season P6 overall but with one final visit to the podium for the pairing with their P3 in GT3 Pro-Am finish.

After all the pit stops were over, the GT4 battles certainly heated up considerably as Turner had now come out second overall in class – way behind the then leading McLaren but high enough up the order, with others behind that technically gave them the Overall GT4 Drivers title as long as they stayed where they were and nobody else overtook anyone else to change the running order. They was a threat from the #84 McLaren but that youngster was no match for the factory driver, and the #84 car was soon along pit lane serving a drive through penalty for a pit lane infraction.

 

Next up was the #42 Ginetta to be hot upon the heels of the #27 car again, but with the #21 AMR of Will Orton now catching both hand over fist with still over forty-five minutes to go. A FCY to remove the long stopped #74 Ginetta from the grass infield briefly slowed things again giving Turner the need to produce the race of his recent life to keep both cars behind him.

Unavoidable contact between the #27 and the #42 at Druids only delayed the Ginetta but allowed the #21 car to close up again and with passing GT3 machinery, literally anything could have happened with those three GT4 cars.

In the end and despite a last corner last lap lunge form Orton, Turner was able to hang onto their P2 overall /P1 in class finish to provisionally lift the Overall GT4 Drivers title to go alongside their GT4 Pro-Am Drivers title with the #21 MK Racing AMR of Hawkins/Orton also doing enough to secure their GT4 Silver Drivers title as well.

Now – all just needs to be confirmed before the champagne is allowed to flow too wildly!!

 

 

Hopefully, this will not be the last time we see any Beechdean AMR liveried Aston Martin Racing on a racetrack somewhere in Europe next season.