Last seen out on track at the very last track meeting to actually start proceedings with what was already then a revised race schedule at St Petersburg in Florida, Canadian race driver Fred Roberts is just one of a long line of drivers in the USA to have made the switch to the Aston Martin Racing marque for what should have been a full and exciting season within the SRO GT4 America Series.

Under the watchful eye of Generation AMR's young Pro driver Matt George, Roberts auditioned his #89 Recstuff Racing prepared AMR Vantage GT4 at the opening round of the Sprint Series from the Circuit of the Americas earlier this month where he came away with two good finishes.


The next Sprint round was supposed to have been at St Petersburg just a week later but local government COVID-19 restrictions put pay to that event just as the GT cars had completed their first practice session and whilst we all wait for movement restrictions to be lifted and the threat of viral infection removed, what is interesting is just where Roberts new car has come from.

Whilst his fellow AMR competitors in the series have purchased new race cars from AMR's North American partner CSJ Motorsport, Roberts secured the purchase of a certain used 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT4 with a Championship winning provenance under its belt already.


Formally raced in the colours of  #11 Beechdean AMR in the 2019 British GT Championship, this is of course the car that Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman drove to secure their GT4 Pro-Am last year.

Although having raced under the Beechdean team name, we understand that the car was actually owned by the title sponsors of the car and was sold (to Roberts) as soon as Fletcher/Plowman and sponsors had decided to return to the Championship in 2020 with a Bentley GT3.


The next round of the GT4 America Series is due to be from Lime Rock Park in Connecticut at the beginning of May but that is sadly, yet to be confirmed.

Photo credit - (Team celebration) Jacob Ebrey

A belated congratulations to all the drivers and teams who finally picked up their 2019 season Championship prizes at the annual SRO Awards night, this time held in Las Vegas at the weekend.

Designed to coincide with the finale of the SRO's latest regional acquisition, all the winning drivers and teams from the greater SRO Series umbrella were invited over to meet in the Grand Ballroom of the plush Bellagio Hotel in central Las Vegas for a extra-ordinary presentation night


For the many Aston Martin Racing customer and Partner teams, the winners of course included the likes of TF Sport, Beechdean and Optimum Motorsport from the British GT Championship, TF Sport again in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the smaller Street Art Racing team from the GT4 European Series.


Championship prizes for Graham Davidson, Jonny Adam, Tom Canning, Ash Hand, Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood, Ahmad Al Harthy, Ollie Wilkinson, Bradley Ellis, Martin Plowman, Kelvin Fletcher, Pascal Bachman and Clement Seyler were all there on site to collect their respective accolades but then there were more awards to be won for two special race drivers at different positions in their racing careers.


AMR factory driver Jonny Adam, the winner of four British GT Championships was also awarded the Allan Simonsen Trophy Award from the Championship whilst the young convertee to GT racing, Clement Seyler was awarded the Sean Edwards Foundation Award for Young Driver of the Year - two significant awards Ito reflect some truly magnificent achievements between the pair of them.


Congratulations to you all, thank you for choosing the sport and the cars that we love and (hopefully) see you back in 2020 to defend your crowns!

Photo credits - Teams/drivers and SRO

A very interesting job advert was released by the Beechdean AMR motor racing team today, looking to fill the new position of Team Administrator to help take the multiple British GT Championship winning team into an extended, multi series race programme for the 2020 season.

With the advert talking about multi car programmes in both the British and European racing arenas, the team will surely be looking to emulate or even better the successes that fellow AMR Partner Teams like TF Sport and Optimum Motorsport have achieved of late with their own cross platform/driver grading customer base


Team Principle Andrew Howard did tell us at the British GT meeting at Brands Hatch earlier this year of his future desires for the team that would not necessarily include him behind the wheel of any car as, although thoroughly enjoying his motorsport at the moment, time would soon come where his continued inclusion in the driver line up would not make either economic nor sporting sense for either him or the team - he is a businessman after all!

This news comes on the 'eve' of his and the teams final race of the season at Portimao, Portugal in the Michelin Le Mans Cup next week with his #99 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 that he shares with the now AMR factory driver Ross Gunn.


Sadly not in contention for the overall crown in GT3 this year despite podiums at both Le Mans and most recently Spa Francorchamps, the duo do have a battle on their hands to retain their present third place in the GT3 Championship table from the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari.

The final race of the Le Mans Cup season starts early at 09:00hrs (local) on the 27th October.

Photo credits - LMC / British GT

All previous examples of the British GT Championship's infamous hashtagged final race of the season have all provided highly exciting and eventful races that have in the past (mostly) gone in the favour of any Aston Martin Racing customer team in the equation, but Sundays events took all of that to the next level.

Going into Sunday's finale there were four AMR cars all with a statistical possibility of lifting a class or overall crown should all other results go their way. Indeed, such was the complexity of the issue that TF Sport had even created themselves a large excel document listing all of the scoring permutations just in case!


The 'favourites' had to be the then class leading entries of the #42 TF Sport Vantage GT3 car of Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam, the #97 TF Sport Vantage of Tom Canning and Ash Hand along with the #11 Beechdean AMR Vantage of Martin Plowman and Kelvin "Twinkletoes" Fletcher all up for a potential haul of accolades in both GT3 and GT4. All they had to do was to follow the team plan and not fall off the track!

The #96 Optimum Vantage GT3 of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis did have a small statistical possibility of taking the overall GT3 crown but following issues during Free Practice and Qualifying it seemed that that duo had 'settled' for the GT3 Silver Cup title which they received on Saturday as their prize for a job well done in the first season of British GT.


Speaking with many of the drivers concerned, it was quite surprising just how 'matter of fact' they were being about it all - even for those who hadn't won anything of this level before as it would after all be what it was going to be. One thing was always going to be for sure though, that none would go down without the biggest fight that they could muster on track!!

On the formation lap, clearly some had got a little ever excited with two GT4's coming together at the Melbourne Hairpin putting themselves effectively out of the impending two hour race even before it had started - fortunately none of the AMR family of cars were affected as the actual race then began behind the Safety Car.


With the Am drivers taking the start, the opening laps saw Davidson do exactly what he needed to do in terms of following (whilst still applying the pressure) onto their Championship rival in the #72 Barwell Lamborghini - then the BMW of Angus Fender got past the #47 for position to start applying (helpfully) some significant pressure onto Adam Balon.

In GT4, Tom Canning was doing the same as he followed the class leading #29 Stellar Performance Audi R8 whilst the #97 TF Sport car of Patrick Kibble acted 'like his wingman' keeping their Championship rivalling Multimatic Ford Mustang of Scott Maxwell safely behind.


Whilst the order within GT4 would remain the same until the pitstop, pressure clearly got the better of Balon who dropped behind Davidson and into the crosshairs of both the #96 Optimum of Wilkinson and the #99 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard. At the halfway stage the #47 pitted for their extended pit stop from P4 whilst the #72 was now down in P11.

For the GT4 starters of Canning and Kelvin Fletcher (#11), they both ran impeccable opening stints with fast lap times built upon the basis of zero mistakes and that helped them to be able to pass on almost undamaged cars onto their respective co-drivers.


Obviously there were a few other Aston Martin Racing teams competing in the event. Despite Academy's experiencing another problematic opening day to the meeting to a point where many of the teams mechanics would spend more time working upon the #62 car of Will Moore and Alex Toth-Jones that the car ever would on race track over the weekend, at least they, with Micah Stanley and Ben Hurst in the #61, would see their season out with two solid, mid table finishes.

Also, the two Optimum GT4 cars of Connor O'Brien and Jack Butel (#35) and Mike Robinson and Patrik Mathiessen (#75) would sadly see out the season on something of a crash and a whimper (despite earlier promises in Qualifying) as O'Brien would crash out in an incident at the Old Hairpin where he would at first leave the track before rejoining it (facing the wrong way) and being collected by the Race Performance Mustang ending their season on the spot.


That incident also prompted another Safety Car period that would rotate the tables slightly for both the #47 and #97 TF Sport cars at the restart.

Firstly, the #15 Multimatic Mustang of Seb Priaulx would take P2 from Ash Hand as the pack began to space out a little once the circuit went green again - that would reduce the points deficit between the two cars slightly in the Championship but was OK as long as things didn't get any 'worse' on track.


In GT3, the biggest drama was just about to unfold going into the closing minutes of the race when the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini at first gave Jonny Adam a more than decent whack up the rear going into the final corner of one lap before giving him further 'kisses' down through the Old Hairpin before overtaking him for P5 a corner later on the next lap.


That overtake took the #47 car off the top of the table in GT3 and with Adam seemingly unable to respond that all allowed the #69 Barwell car of Sam de Haan and Jonny Cocker to be the surprising victors at the chequered flag just half a lap later. That 'disaster' within one side of the TF Sport garage opposed directly with the joy and elation on the GT4 side as Hand delivered the #97 Vantage GT4 home to claim P3 in class and the GT4 crown.

Martin Plowman would also avoid all the clashing and banging on the restart (action that would ultimately claim the #96 Optimum GT3 into the gravel on the final lap) to finish P4 overall in GT4 and convincingly claim their GT4 Pro-Am title which was being celebrated in the pit lane even before the #11 car returned to Parc Ferme!!


Even at their younger ages, it was extremely professional of all four members of the TF Sport crew to mellow their celebrations as the team responded to the events on track and pondered any protest against the actions of the #18 car against the Adam/Davidson car. That action quickly went into full effect as the #47 car's Prodrive engineer was soon on his way to Race Control armed with the car's software data upon his laptop closely followed by both Adam, Davidson and other AMR representatives.


Passing them waiting outside the office of Race Control was reminiscent of waiting outside the headteachers office at school but obviously a lot more rode upon the outcome of any decision they might make - it could have easily been a very long night for all as the race results remain strictly provisional.

Investigation/appeal - counter claim/investigation from all parties all ended with WPI Motorsports appeal against their five second post race penalty finally being rejected by the Stewards allowing both Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson to be officially declared GT3 Champions based upon their adjusted P5 finish to the race thanks to a 0.037 of a second gap to the #18 car now behind them in the results.


To say that the eleven Aston Martin Racing GT3 and GT4 race cars entered this year dominated the season wouldn't be so, whilst the #47, #96, #97 and #11 car's have dominated six British GT Championship titles in both GT3 and GT4 classes which they have won, the 2019 season has been one of the most competitive and closest seasons to date and is a testament to the SRO ability to regulating such close inter marque competitiveness.


What a race - what a season and thank you to all who made that possible!

Now - when does 2020 start......???

Aston Martin marked the most successful campaign in its domestic racing history, winning six of the eight available titles in the 2019 British GT Championship, following the series finale at Donington Park. Three partner teams, TF Sport, Beechdean AMR and Optimum Motorsport all secured titles in either the GT3 or GT4 classes in a dominant season debut for the new Aston Martin Vantage.

Works driver Jonny Adam retained his British GT drivers' title for a record fourth time in a dramatic season finale. The most successful driver in the championship's history, Adam and TF Sport team-mate Graham Davidson survived a late-race skirmish with a rival to be classified fifth in the race, which was enough to secure the title in a season that included two victories.

Coming in to the final round with an six-point deficit to the series leaders and a 20s success pitstop penalty for winning the previous round at Brands Hatch, the odds were stacked against the Scottish duo. But following a brave stint from Davidson, Adam was on course to take the title in fourth position as his rivals faltered. Adam was then hit by a rival car on the penultimate lap dropping him to sixth position and second in the championship, until a subsequent post-race stewards enquiry reversed the positions and gave them the points needed to secure the title.

TF Sport also provided the leading lights in GT4 where Aston Martin swept the board. AMR Academy drivers Tom Canning and Ash Hand secured the overall class championship as well as the Silver Cup with third place in class, following an exemplary drive by both. They were followed home by another Aston Martin Racing partner team Beechdean AMR, whose drivers Martin Plowman and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Kelvin Fletcher, who secured the GT4 Pro-Am title. Patrick Kibble and Josh Price's sixth place was enough to give TF Sport the GT4 Team's crown as well.


All in all, and including the GT3 Silver Cup title that Optimum Motorsport won at Brands Hatch, Aston Martin secured two titles with the Vantage GT3 and four with GT4, representing the most successful haul by any manufacturer with a car on its season debut.

Adam said: “What a season it's been, to be 54 points off the lead of a championship and then come back and win is mega for everyone at TF Sport and Aston Martin Racing. To wrap up some championships and showcase how good the new car is on its debut season is an immense achievement. British GT is an important customer-base and to win four championships is really important to me personally. It's a lovely feeling. To see so many new Aston Martins on the grid this year at the first round was really nice, so to come here at the final round and for Aston to dominate in the points in all classes shows how good a car we've built. Graham has driven so well this year, and he has really wanted to win this championship. To have the nerve to drive the way he did today and give us a shot was amazing.”

Davidson added: "After Silverstone I thought it was all lost but I did what I could do and somehow we have got to this result at the end of the year. But it just goes to prove that persistence, practice, training and simulator work makes a difference. Jonny knows how to win a championship and he knows how to work with his co-driver. Even yesterday it seemed a distant chance, but I went out there and just got the best out of the car and didn't take any chances. It's nice to win it with Aston Martin and TF Sport. Jonny is the best driver coach in the world."


Aston Martin Racing President David King added: “What a fabulous result for the new Aston Martin Vantage. It's unprecedented to see a new car dominate such a competitive championship as the British GT series. That three teams were able to secure championship titles and deliver on the promise of the Vantage is testament to the tremendous hard work and engineering talent of everyone at Aston Martin Racing and of course our partner. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank those teams for making such a big commitment to a new car in its first season. I am so pleased we could repay their faith in us. When we envisaged the new Vantage racing car, it was always with a view to creating a user friendly platform that was fast in the hands of professional drivers and customers alike. That we have been so successful in British GTs and competitive in so many other places around the world, proves that we have achieved our objectives.”


Source material - AMR

For the many who made the journey to Oulton Park yesterday for the opening two races of the 2019 British GT Championship were once again treated to two battle royales as both the GT3 and GT4 classes set about establishing an earlier order of hierarchy in some very equally performing race machinery.

Treated this time to an Easter Bank Holiday of clear blue skies and blazing sunshine, it didn't take long in race 1 for events to get spiced up with the leading two GT3 cars taking themselves out of the race on only the second time around the 2.7 mile circuit.


The first unwanted track action for the one of the Aston Martin Racing team cars however had already happened when the #2 TF Sport GT3 of Mark Farmer had already had a 180 degree spin at the first corner at the end of the first lap - a spin that saw his car only narrowly missed by one of the Academy Vantage GT4's coming up behind. The next track action to forget for Farmer was unfortunately just half a lap later when he failed to negotiate the now stricken Mercedes AMG of Ian Loggie that had just been taken out of the race by the Team Parker Bentley hitting that a broadside but at a thankfully very low speed. It already wasn't going to be Farmers day!

Loosing a large chunk of time in the first half of the race to the resulting Safety Car, it didn't leave the Am drivers long to do what they needed to do before the pit window opened allowing for the deployment of their respective Pro drivers.


The young Ollie Wilkinson in his #96 Optimum prepared Vantage GT3 was the highest placed AMR car at the time holding a comfortable P7 whilst the grid followed in procession behind the Safety Car. Patrick Kibble meanwhile was also having a great opening race in the Championship in his #95 TF Sport Vantage GT4 holding P5 in his Silver Cup class.

Just after the Safety car released the pack the #97 TF Sport Vantage GT4 of Tom Canning came into the pit lane with a technical issue with the (?) front nearside corner of his bright yellow car that he shares with Ashley Hand - an issue that would see a premature end to their otherwise pacy start to the year.


With the first round of pit stops (featuring minimum pit stop times) inevitably came the first wave of penalties for any transgressions - the #2 TF Sport car of the then Nicki Thiim was one of the first to get pinged for a 1 second stop and go for the error at the changeover.

With the GT4's having a different pit window it took several laps for the field to finally filter itself out so that those at the front of both classes were the overall class leaders - not just those who hadn't pitted yet. Coming through the other end of the pit stop cycle in a better position than what they went in was the #96 Optimium car with Bradley Ellis now at the wheel as he would emerge from pit lane in P3 but with the #69 Barwell Lamborghini in a great close pursuit - a battle that would last till race end.


Another car having a discreet but progressive passage up the order was the Pro-Am Beechdean AMR GT4 entry of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher - with many races of racing together experience under their belts, Plowman was given the opportunity by his co-driver of racing for a class podium which he did , bringing the #11 Vantage home P2 in class.


To round off a good opening start to the season for the AMR runners was with Ellis hanging on till the death to his P3 overall finish in his #96 car to continue the fine performance of the Optimum team in the Championship with last years Championship winners Jonny Adam and Flick Haigh.

The #95 TF Sport GT4 car of Patrick Kibble/Josh Price did well in their opening race together to finish a very appluadable P5 in what is already a heavily McLaren 570s dominated GT4 Silver Cup class.


For the other nine AMR runners it would be the case of looking forward to making amends in the afternoons second BGT race of the day to help start their season off with some vital Championship points.

Photo credits - Optimum / Steve Jackman / Jacob Ebrey

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

Plenty of water has passed under the metaphorical Aston Martin Racing bridge since the end of the 2018 British GT Championship with so many teams committing to buy and race multiple units of the factory's new 2019 specification Vantage GT3 and GT4 both at home and abroad with order books at record proportions.

One such fan favourite team confirming early to face the challenges of the 2019 British GT Championship season was Andrew Howard's Beechdean AMR squad who would, for the first time since 2016, return to the British GT Championship with both a GT3 and a GT4 car. Joining Howard and Marco Sorensen (who would race together in their brand new turbo charged V8 Vantage GT3) would be the 2018 GT4 Pro-AM runners ups Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher who would race in the teams brand new turbo charged V8 Vantage GT4.


Having spent the last season and a bit with both the Stratton Motorsport and the RJN Nissan squads, Plowman teamed up with TV star Kelvin Fletcher last year aboard a rejuvenated Nissan 370Z GT4 to push hard towards the top step of the GT4 Pro Am class, missing out to the Team Parker Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 of Scott Malvern and Nick Jones almost by virtue of their DNF at the final round at Donington Park.

Fletcher proved himself to be one of the faster and more capable amateur drivers in the GT4 paddock last year and developed into race winning material under the watchful eye and instruction of the former Le Mans 24 LPM2 class winner. "Hungrier than ever" as they have been quoted to say, the duo will look to improve upon their championship outcome this season from the start despite being with a new (but highly experienced team) and in a new car.


Having originally intended to catch up with Plowman at the recent Autosport Show (but missed), he kindly agreed to take some time out of his schedule to give us a little background to what he has been up to since Donington and just how those choices came about.

So - what have you been up to then Martin?

"It’s been a much busier than usual off-season for me. It’s the first time in a long time that my racing program has been confirmed before Christmas so that definitely took some stress away over the Christmas period. On top of working with a new team and preparing for the season I have also started an online motorsport engineering degree and to top it off I’m training to run in my first ever London marathon."
"The engineering degree is probably the hardest as I left school at 16 to pursue my racing career so there are a tonne of mathematics that I haven’t covered and I’m essentially cramming 4 years of study into a 3 month module that covers the maths I need to move forward with the course!"
"As for the marathon training, it’s no more intense than what I would normally do for a pre-season, but naturally it’s hard getting your body in shape for the longer distances. I just have to remember why I’m running and the money I hope to raise for Whizz Kidz. They’re a fantastic charity that I was introduced to last year that do so much for children with disabilities."

Beechdean AMR today announced a two-car assault on the 2019 British GT Championship, covering both the GT3 and GT4 classes with a brace of brand new Aston Martin race cars. The new cars are the next generation Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and GT4, which replace the outgoing Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 and V8 Vantage GT4, which have enjoyed much success across the globe.

The double British GT Championship-winning team will enter the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the Vantage GT4 in the full season, beginning at Oulton Park in April and ending at Donington in September.

In the GT3 class, Beechdean AMR team boss Andrew Howard will be joined by Aston Martin factory driver, Marco Sørensen. Howard is the 2013 and 2015 British GT Champion and he is looking forward to racing with the man who took four of the seven fastest laps in the 2018 British GT season.

“The new Aston Martin Vantage is looking very strong for 2019 and I am excited to be pairing up with Marco,” said Howard. “He showed exceptional pace in 2018 on many tracks that were completely new to him. It is also great to see Beechdean AMR back to running two cars in British GT. As ever it’s going to be a fiercely competitive series but we are planning to be at the sharp end in both categories. Bring on Oulton Park!”

Sørensen, a former single-seater ace, made his British GT debut in 2018 and the 28 year-old Dane is already a British GT race winner. His most recent victory though came in the FIA World Endurance Championship where, along with Nicki Thiim, he took the first win for the new Aston Martin Vantage GTE in Shanghai, China. He will be a formidable team mate for Howard.

In addition to being double British GT GT3 Champions, Beechdean AMR is also a GT4 championship-winning team. In 2019, Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher will race a new GT4 Aston Martin Vantage with the team.

Ex-Emmerdale star, Fletcher, has proved himself to be one of GT4’s fastest amateurs over the past two seasons, taking his first class victory at Silverstone earlier this year. In 2018, Fletcher raced with former Le Mans class winner and FIA WEC champion Martin Plowman. This partnership will continue in 2019 as Plowman and Fletcher make the switch from Nissan to Aston Martin with Beechdean AMR.

“I’m very excited to be returning to British GT with Kelvin and grateful that I get to continue the great relationship we’ve had so far,” said Plowman. “Even though we’ll be in a new team with a brand new car we are both hungrier than ever and aim for success from the start. Being with a team of Beechdean AMR's experience and understanding of the Aston Martin marque is a very positive step for me personally and I look forward to being a part of everything next season has to offer. We have a lot of unfinished business in this championship, so I can’t wait to get started!”

The new Vantage GT3 and GT4 boast race-modified versions of the 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged engine used in the Aston Martin Vantage and the GT3 car in particular draws heavily on the design logic in the development of the Vantage GTE, the marque’s FIA World Endurance Championship entry.

The Beechdean AMR new Vantage GT3 will make its debut, competing in the Gulf 12 Hour race in Abu Dhabi on December 15th.


Source material - Beechdean AMR