Two prestigious organisations in the world of motorsport held their annual awards night presentations both last night and today with some well known faces within the Aston Martin Racing family again coming out on top.

Firstly, we had the Autosport Awards take place last night at Grosvenor House in London where the freshly sponsored Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year was announced from the final four which included Jamie Chadwick.

Sadly for her she didn't win that highly accolade but at least she didn't have to wait too long before her driving talents and successes of this season got formally recognised.


This time taking place earlier today at the London Marriott in Grosvenor Square, the British Racing Drivers Club awarded Chadwick their Special Achievement Award to the 21 year old for her successes in the W Series, her role within the Williams F1 team and her general raising of awareness and participation for women within sport.

Next up to receive their thoroughly deserved award for another incredible achievement on track was Aston Martin Racing Factory and TF Sport Partner Team driver, Jonny Adam who accepted his John Cobb Memorial Trophy award via video link.


Whilst Adam was away on his delayed honeymoon with Rachel, TF Sport team boss was fortunately on hand to accept the trophy on Adam's behalf from Christian Horner but also to accept his own award in the form of the Nigel Moore Trophy for his teams 'most meritorious performance' in international motor racing during 2019. That success extended from helping Adam gain has fourth British GT title, another in the British GT GT4 Championship through to overall class wins in the World Endurance Championship.

Congratulations to you all.

Photo credits - BRDC / Social media 

With most National, European and International race Series and Championships already at or very close to their conclusion for the 2019 season there seems little to look forward to over the winter months (with the exception of one or two bespoke stand alone racing events of course), but at least we still have the outcome of two driver talent selection processes to be decided.

Most recently and following the process ending track sessions of last week at Silverstone for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year where the very capable young lady race car driver Jamie Chadwick makes up one quarter the four candidate driver list of possibilities for the top UK accolade.


Joining three other single seater specialists, Chadwick (already a GT4 and single seater Champion) have all been measured behind the scenes on simulators, had their physical and mental fitness assessed before finally making it out on track last week in machinery that included a Garage 59 supplied Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 for the ultimate driving comparison.

Hopefully, the guidance and instruction from her former driver coach Jonny Adam at Snetterton last week came in handy for her over the two day assessment ahead of the final reveal at the annual Autosport Awards night in early December.

We wish her well.


Then of course we have Aston Martin Racing's own 2019 Driver Academy that (we are told) should be coming to some kind on conclusion within the next few weeks.

Relaunched for 2019 for any driver between the ages of 17 and 25 and driving for any Aston Martin Racing Partner or Customer team this year saw a mighty twenty three driver entry confirmed by the team at the start of the year.

Many were AMR convertees, turning to GT racing for the first time as the next stepping stone in their motor racing ladder career path and mainly competing in Europe although a few did figure in series further afield in both China and the USA.


With what we have learned from the last winner of a similar process in 2015 (Ross Gunn) was that race results were not the sole solution to the questions being posed by the team as (like above) mental and physical abilities also came into play alongside their media relations capabilities as well as technical and engineering awareness.

What is clear is that most benefitted in some way from this process, having the likes of Andrew Watson, Charlie Eastwood, Ross Gunn, Jonny Adam, Maxime Martin, Darren Turner all on hand at some point in the process to help these young drivers develop.


There were also a few drivers from the Academy process who went on to be crowned as winners at the end of their respective seasons - these include Ollie Wilkinson who won the British GT Championship GT3 Silver Cup (and was the only candidate to drive a GT3), Tom Canning and Ash Hand who won the British GT GT4 Championship together with TF Sport and Clement Seyler who secured both the GT4 European Series Am Class title (with Pascal Bachmann) as well as the Sean Edwards Foundation Young Driver of the Year Award.

As with any season, there was some degree of 'natural wastage' as a few drivers became victims to both circumstance and the hugely competitive nature that is modern motor racing as more than five would not make it to the end of the season in the team/car in which they started.


The candidates

Patrick Kibble (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4
Tom Canning (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4
Ash Hand (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4
Josh Price (UK) TF Sport British GT Vantage GT4
Clement Seyler (LUX) Street Art Racing GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Julien Darras (F) Street Art Racing GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Jamie Vandenbalck (BEL) Street Art Racing GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Matthew Cowley (UK) Academy GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Alex Toth-Jones (UK) Academy British GT Vantage GT4
Micah Stanley (MON) Academy British GT Vantage GT4
Ben Hurst (CAN) Academy British GT Vantage GT4
Tom Wood (UK) Academy GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Connor O’Brien (UK) Optimum British GT Vantage GT4
Jack Butel (UK) Optimum British GT Vantage GT4
Patrick Matthiesen (DEN) Optimum British GT Vantage GT4
Ollie Wilkinson (UK) Optimum British GT/GT Open Vantage GT3
Matthew George (UK) Generation AMR GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Akhil Rabindra (IND) Propeak Performance GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Jeremie Lesoudier (F) Propeak Performance GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Florian Thoma (CH) Propeak Performance GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
David Griessner (A) Propeak Performance GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Jeremy Sarhy (F) Propeak Performance GT4 European Series Vantage GT4
Yves Volte (GER) BSEM China GT

Congratulations to Jamie Chadwick tonight for reaching the final four drivers all competing for the prestigious Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award 2019.

With Aston Martin having taken over both the title sponsorship of the award as well as contributing significantly to the mechanisms of its new selection process both in terms of hardware and selection panel, it is entirely fitting that Chadwick, the reigning W-Series Champion, member of the ADAC Total SP8T Class AMR winning crew and Williams F1 Racing Academy driver (amongst many other things) has been included in the final four.


Chadwick joins three other promising single seater candidates in Enaam Ahmed, Johnathon Hoggard and Ayrton Simmons in a fitness and simulator test at Red Bull Racing before a further two day driving test at Silverstone in order to determine the ultimate winner who will then be declared at the Annual Autosport Awards on December 8th.

The quartet will need to demonstrate their skillsets capabilities aboard an MSV Formula 2 single seater, a Ligier LMP3 prototype as well as a Garage 59 supplied AMR Vantage GT3.


The winner will receive (amongst other things) a coveted test within a Red Bull Racing F1 car, a further test in the new AMR Vantage GTE as well a £200k prize fund.

Good luck to them all.

Photo credits - Garage 59 / J Chadwick

Congratulations go out to today to Optimum Motorsport's young GT3 racer Ollie Wilkinson who today becomes the next in a long line of Aston Martin Racing customer and partner team drivers to be elevated into the coveted British Racing Drivers Club 'Rising Star' programme.

Having started racing late into his still younger years, the twenty three old from Leeds swapped to GT3 racing with the Wakefield based last year, competing in their Audi R8 before swapping to a brand new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 for a dual assault on the British GT Championship and International GT Open Series.


Since the start of this season, and with the help of driving mentors like Bradley Ellis, Jonny Adam and Darren Turner, Wilkinson has gone on to claim his first overall race win last time out in the GT Open at the Red Bull Ring with AMR factory driver Adam and at Spa Francorchamps in the British GT alongside Ellis. After the last round of the British GT at Brands Hatch three weeks ago both Wilkinson and Ellis also secured the Championship's Silver Cup title with one round still remaining.

Wilkinson joins the likes of of AMR family drivers Jamie Chadwick, Ross Gunn, Ricky Collard and Andrew Watson on the Rising Stars programme and Charlie Eastwood on the SuperStars programme and affords all concerned additional mentoring and tutoring from the vast knowledge base available within the BRDC.

Photo credits - Optimum / BRDC

Interesting faces past, present and future were in attendance at the British Racing Drivers Club Track day event from the home of British motor racing at Silverstone today.

Aston Martin Lagonda CEO Dr Andy Palmer was there along with his race suit as he put in some laps aboard the new Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 that Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman will race in this weekend at the opening round of the 2019 British GT Championship season.

His conclusion to the his first experience of the new race car around the Grand Prix circuit was more than adequately summarised in his "My first drive in anger of the @astonmartin @AMR_Official #Vantage GT4 race car. No better place than at Silverstone to experience it. Its just bloody awesome!" tweet.


He was followed in that car by the two racing generations of the Brundle family as both Martin and Alex prepare to take the next step to be able to race together at the Nordschliefe. From all accounts Alex will be at the next round of the VLN Series next weekend aboard one of the AMR Performance Centre cars.


Finally, it was great to see the return of both Derek Johnston and Flick Haigh with their own AMR V12 Vantage GT3's that they raced in last year - to great effect for Haigh as she and Jonny Adam (also in attendance) won the British GT overall Championship aboard the Optimum Motorsport prepared car.

Johnston was also there in his now fully rebuilt car was again being supported by his friends at TF Sport - what other events have been pencilled in for the now 'retired' former Champion have yet to be confirmed.



Photo credits - social media

Unexpectedly announced yesterday was the confirmation from Aston Martin that they would be taking over the primary sponsorship and a pivotable guiding role within the Autosport - Young Driver of the Year recognition programme together with the British Racing Drivers Club.

Working previously with McLaren, Aston Martin will be using its close association with Formula 1 team Aston Martin Red Bull Racing to offer a test with that team for the individual makes wins the outcome of a vigorous selection process.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Christian Horner said: “We are pleased to lend our support to Aston Martin’s drive to discover motor racing’s future stars and this programme represents a golden opportunity for young drivers to further their career at the highest levels. Red Bull has a long and successful history of nurturing young racing talent through its Junior Team and so we look forward to supporting Aston Martin in its quest to find the champions of tomorrow.”

TF Sport's Charlie Eastwood becomes the latest person wearing an Aston Martin Racing team coverall to be recognised by the British Racing Drivers Club Superstar driver development programme.

Admittedly, having gained this recognition for his championship winning efforts in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB last year, the young Irishman is just the third AMR driver in recent times to receive such an accolade behind Ross Wylie in 2014 and Ross Gunn in 2016.

No sooner than his hectic 2017 racing season had come to an end that Aston Martin Racing driver Jonny Adam became equally busy collecting all his end of season accolades for what has been an incredible year for the young Scotsman.

Presumably, the highlight of his season (and his career to date) was his last lap endeavours in France back in June that allowed him to take the chequered flag to the win the GTE Pro class at Le Mans along with co-drivers Darren Turner and Daniel Serra.

MacMillan Racing's Jack Mitchell has today confirmed his position within the BRDC Rising Stars programme thanks to his racing efforts in British GT and Ginetta Supercup this year.

He joins a long line of AMR drivers to this accolade, some of whom have gone into lofty heights of GTE competition.

Well done Jack - hope to see the BRDC roundall on the Vantage at Donington for the final round of the British GT season in a few weeks time.

Photo credit - Jacob Ebrey

Following in the footsteps of many a talented young driver, Jordan Albert today achieved the honourable status of being selected onto the BRDC Rising Star programme

Joining the likes of Jamie Chadwick, Seb Morris and Jody Fannin the BRDC scheme is only open to drivers under 24 years scouted by a member of the BRDC Selection panel where the BRDC acknowledges the potential to succeed in that individual's racing career

Unfortunately for Albert, he misses out on the last two rounds of the British GT season with his Beechdean AMR co driver (Jack Bartholomew) at a critical stage in their GT4 championship due to 'circumstances beyond his control'. That puts him under additional pressure to find a competitive drive during 2017 in order to remain on the BRDC scheme.

We wish him well.

Photo Credit - Jordan Albert social media

It was only back in August 2015 that the then British GT GT4 Champion (Designate) was awarded the lofty position of being one of the BRDC select few Rising Star drivers of tomorrow.

The then eighteen year old then went on to win the GT4 Championship alongside his Beechdean co-driver Jamie Chadwick who was also awarded that accolade at the time. Not only that but at the turn of last year, and having seen off more experienced opposition, the now nineteen year old was awarded the coverted award of being the first Aston Martin Racing Evolution Academy winner 2015.


So it should come as now real surprise to read that Gunn's achievements, even over such a short period in time, have been again recognised by the BRDC who have today awarded him 'Superstar' status.

The BRDC SuperStars Programme is now an established programme that offers help to the worthy dozen with mental training, career guidance, team building skills, sponsorship advice, media and sales training, PR and marketing, motor sport seminars and workshops with other BRDC Members.

Ross Gunn: ‘It is a great honour to be selected as a BRDC SuperStar. It is another great opportunity for me, and I now need to make the most of it. I am looking forward to having the BRDC’s assistance and encouragement during the year to help push my on and off track performance with Beechdean and Aston Martin Racing. It’s something I am very proud of. I would like to thank Tim and the BRDC for this fantastic opportunity.

Great to read that Aston Martin Evolution Academy drivers and Beechdean team mates Ross Gunn and Jamie Chadwick have both confirmed tonight their inclusion into the BRDC Rising Stars drivers programme for the rest of the 2015 season.

Just prior to the penultimate meeting of the 2015 British GT season the young duo are on the cusp of securing the GT4 Championship and this news should give them the impetus that they will need to clinch the title at the Snetterton meeting.

They join other British GT drivers like Jody Fannin, Andrew Watson and Jake Hill who are currently on the programme. Congratulations to you both.