Having not entered their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 into the 2017 British GT Championship after two previous seasons in the SRO series, JW Bird Motorsport are finally waving goodbye to their car by listing it for sale on the Racecardirect.com website.

Usually driven by Kieran Griffin and the 2014 British GT GT4 Champion Jake Giddings within the domestic championship, the car also saw victorious service with the team and extended driver line up at the 2015 Dubai 24H where it finished third in class.

Full details of the sale can be found HERE

Photo credit - Jacob Ebrey

Eight races spread over five months and for the umpteenth year running the last race of the British GT Championship at Donington will be needed to decide both the GT3 and GT4 driver and Team Championships.

In GT3 we have TF Sport, home to the #17 car of potential driver champions Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston. TF Sport lead the team championship by 14.5 points from Barwell Motorsport with their Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen but in the GT3 Drivers Championship it is Minshaw/Keen who lead Adam/Johnston by 11.5 points mainly thanks to their back to back wins last time out at Snetterton.

It is the same story of Minshaw/Keen leading Adam/Jonston in the GT3 Pro Am Championship and with again Minshaw leading Johnston the British Gentlemans Trophy as well!!!

Complicated ……….!

The only driver line up change in the GT3 field affecting an Aston Martin team will be that Ross Gunn's seat alongside team boss Andrew Howard in the #1 Beechdean will be occupied by former Motorbase AMR driver Rory Butcher. This race is also scheduled to be Howard's last event in the series (again! 😉) having moved up to the European Le Mans Series.

PFL Motorsport have already announced that Peter Littler and Jody Fannin will not be competing at the finale having suffered repeated problems at the Snetterton meeting following the cars rebuild after their bizarre paddock accident at Silverstone back in June so its a disappointing end to their first season.


Across into the GT4 Championships we will find the Beechdean #407 of Jack Bartholomew still in contention for the outright championship win against the Ginetta pairing of Graham Johnson an Mike Robinson. With his near season long team mate having stepped down after Silverstone his seat will again be used by 2105 GT4 Champion Ross Gunn to help push the #408 towards victory just like he did at Snetterton.

Bartholomew needs to make up a 2.5 point differential to the Ginetta drivers to claim his first and a  third successive GT4 Drivers Championship for the Beechdean team. Beechdean's quest for the GT4 Team championship will however require a more sizeable 13 point recovery!


From this it is obvious that the two hour race on Sunday will virtually be a 'winner takes all event' which, although great for the spectator and the series can be the most cruel of events for those who loose out!

The race will be televised live in the UK on MotorsTV with the race starting at 13:00Hrs

From us at The-Advantage the 2016 British GT Championship has been another awesome one with some terrific racing and sportsmanship - may the best team/driver win on the day and hence the championship - but lets just hope they're in an Aston!!

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

British GT Championship racer Jake Giddings heads to Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit this weekend, 10th/11th September, determined to try and end the campaign on a positive note after a frustrating season beset by mechanical troubles and on-track dramas.

Going into the 2016 grand finale at the Leicestershire track, the 21-year-old from Wisbech hopes the No.47 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 car he shares with Kieran Griffin will have a fault-free run to give the JWB Motorsport duo an opportunity to break back into the Pro-Am championship top six.

As a result of a whole catalogue of unfortunate troubles throughout the season, the team-mates are still seeking their first silverware of the year even though, on several occasions, Jake has delivered pace a match for the podium – and more besides.

At Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit back in June, the Irish TV, Finesse Paving and Civil Engineering, Cowley Road Garage and Toppesfield-supported driver starred with a new GT4 lap record which also earned him the Sunoco Fastest Lap of the Weekend Award.

During the subsequent event, at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Jake lapped with top three GT4 pace in race conditions and last time out at his home track, Snetterton 300 Circuit, he again showed a good turn of pace with top four times.

Frustratingly though, a variety of technical gremlins and mechanical issues have had a bigger say in the outcome of races in 2016, ultimately meaning the former British GT4 Champion and his JWB team-mate have missed out on much bigger points hauls.

“It’s true we haven’t had the best season, or the most straightforward either”, said the Aston Martin driver, “It’s been quite a frustrating year with one thing and another, but we have been able to show flashes of our true pace at times.

“For Donington we obviously want to try and end the championship with our best result of the year, if we have no issues with the car then I can’t see any reason why that shouldn’t be possible. Kieran has been making some big improvements recently, he’s definitely upped his pace, so as long as we don’t have any dramas I’m confident we can challenge for a decent result to give everyone a boost.”

Ahead of round nine of the British GT Championship season, Jake and Kieran have three outright GT4 points finishes to their credit with a best of seventh place at Rockingham in the second race of the campaign. In the Pro-Am standings in GT4 the duo holds seventh place, just 8.5 points outside the coveted top six, and with a slim outside chance of challenging for the top five.

Following two practice sessions at Donington Park on Saturday, 10th September, qualifying for the GT4 competitors will get underway around 16.30. On Sunday, 11th September, the eagerly awaited final day of the season will start with warm-up at 09.35 followed by the big race - which will be screened live on Motors TV - beginning at 13.00.

Hitting the midway point for many series, the week has seen continued track activity from both Aston Martin Racing factory and its customer teams as they all strive for perfection in their class.

Following on from their great GTE Pro and GTE Am podiums at the World Endurance Championship last weekend, part of the factory team have since transferred to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza for two days of tyre development testing with Dunlop and their other WEC Partner teams. It is thought that all four drivers shared the testing workload between them.


This week has also seen a number of British GT teams testing at Snetterton in readiness for the penultimate round of the championship there early next month. Yesterday saw both of the TF Sport V12 Vantage GT3's participate at the test with their full driver line ups together with the JWB V8 Vantage GT4 of Jake Giddings and Kieran Griffin and the PFL Motorsport Vantage GT3 of Peter Littler and Jody Fannin.


Having shaken the car down at the circuit only last Friday the PFL team would have been hoping that their misfortune with their post Silverstone 500 paddock incident and the missing out of the next round at Spa Francorchamps was well behind them but unfortunately social media messages from Fannin painted an unfortunate picture.

Gear box issues yesterday restricted the team to just a mornings worth of productive work and considering the amount of damage the car is supposed to have sustained in the incident (bordering a six figure sum of money) it is clear that the team will be hard pressed to sort all these problems out in time for Snetterton proper.


Two separate items of news from Beechdean AMR this week have however have also confirmed the omission of their #1 V12 Vantage GT3 from the Snetterton event and also (today) the immediate withdrawal from the team and series of the #407 car's Jordan Albert citing 'unavoidable circumstances beyond his control'. This has resulted in Ross Gunn now returning to his old championship winning car by pairing with the remaining Jack Bartholomew in the GT4 for the Snetterton meeting.

Over at Spa Francorchamps the sole Aston Martin Racing entry into the Blancpain Spa 24Hours has seen the Oman Racing entry of Ahmad Al Harthy, Devon Modell, Jonny Adam and Darren Turner (when he arrives at the circuit later this week) partake in the customer car and driver parade through the local town in readiness for this weekends race.




Also on hand for todays parade (although not racing) was Street Art Racing's freshly liveried and race winning 2016 V8 Vantage GT4 - what a stunner that is…..!



Photo credits - SAR / Richard Leach / Jonny Adam / Blancpain / Marco Sorensen

Following nearly a five week break, the British GT Championship resumes it 2016 season this weekend at the iconic circuit at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium with another two hour race and like the previous race at Silverstone they will again be joined by the European GT4 Series and other guest entries.

With a provisional entry list showing 61 cars spread across the GT3 and GT4 format four of those entries are V12 Vantage GT3's and nine V8 Vantage GT4's.

The Beechdean and Motorbase GT3 cars will again be joined by the two TF Sports GT3's.

PFL Motorsport have already confirmed their absenteeism from the event following the bizarre accident  with their lorrys tail lift the Silverstone paddock that left their GT3 with significant damage but more importantly, several team members with physical injuries.

In GT4 the regular BGT entries from Generation AMR, MacMillan Racing, JWB and Beechdean shall now be joined with the returning entry from Stratton Motorsport and the second Beechdean GT4 entry (see previous reports). They in turn will be joined by two GT4 Astons from V8 Racing and a single V8 Aston from Street Art Racing from the European GT4 Series.

Despite previous reports Academy Motorsport have not been noted on the entry list for what would have been their second appearance in 2016 with Dennis Strandberg and Matt Nichol Jones sharing their GT4 like they did at Silverstone.

Care should be taken with the timetable for this meeting as it shares the circuit with the annual 25Hr Fun Cup event - so the two hour race is on Saturday and not the usual Sunday!!

From the series' previous encounter at Silverstone last month it was noted that several of the BGT GT3 drivers were complaining of driving standards from the Euro GT4 Series so we hope from that that all drivers can be more accommodating to each other in order to avoid any further confrontation on track.

 Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

To say that the great British weather played an extra-ordinary part in deciding the result of Round 4 of the 2016 British GT championship would be an understatement. Guests from the SRO's sister European GT Series propelled the starting grid to 51 cars so it was inevitable that practice and qualifying had suffered from 'inadvertent' contact between the two classes of cars - and that was in the dry of Saturday.

Race day on Sunday started for some with unnecessary excursions off track during morning warm up that meant for hurried repairs to meet the early afternoon grid but by then dark clouds had formed and rain fell heavily around the Northamptonshire circuit leaving Race Control little choice but to start behind the Safety Car.


In a personal touch the British GT Championship entered cars ran with a change to their normal sun visor strips across the top of the windscreen with Racing 4 MND taking their place in memory of former GT racer Neil Cunningham, who lost his battle with motor neurone disease recently.

In a surprise and immediate change to their strategy all three Barwell Lamborghini's came in for one of their three mandatory pit stops on only lap 2, that elevated the #17 car of Derek Johnston and the #1 car of Andrew Howard up one position just in time for the race to go green on the third lap. For the next couple of laps Johnston was hounding the pole setting Bentley of Rick Parfitt Jnr all the way, conscious that the Bentley had already had a heavy off in morning warm up before final taking the race lead coming onto the Wellington Straight next time about.

With visibility on track being next to none, it came as no surprise to see many cars spinning off either as a result of too much right foot or simply aquaplaning - the #11 car of Mark Farmer was particularly fortunate not be be collected by the chasing pack having spun out of fifth place coming out of Luffield. Back in the GT4 class the #407 Beechdean car of Jack Bartholomew was enjoying leading their class whilst series returnee Matt Nichol-Jones had the torment of having no functioning windscreen wipers in his Academy Motorsport Vantage GT4!



After just 30minutes of track action the first casualty came into the pits with Johnston having been off track and hitting the tyre wall coming out of Village whilst overtaking a slower car damaging his car beyond time limited repair - that put the championship leading car out of the race. Moments later, however the Safety Car was again scrambled to allow for the clearing of debris and stricken vehicles - what could have been if he had waited?

With many of the Am driven cars now pitting to swap over to their Pro drivers Beechdean's Ross Gunn was soon on the case lifting the #1 GT3 back up to P2 having dropped down to fifth prior to the stop. Team mate Bartholomew was still having a blinder of the race - using every inch of his single seater experience to his advantage.


At the half way mark Gunn was still P2, Ross Wylie in the #8 Motorbase GT3 was holding station in P4 and Jordan Albert, now in the #407 was P3 in class. Others within #TeamAMR were however not so fortunate - James Holder was having a increasingly dizzy 'baptism of fire' in the wet spinning his #44 Vantage GT4 several times whilst he battled for grip whilst their sister #42 MacMillan car of Matty Graham faired little better ending up in the gravel after a small misjudgement at the end of the Hanger Straight loosing over eight minutes in track time, effectively ending their race.

As the minutes passed the sun began to fight its way through the cloud base and it wasn't long before a drier line became apparent. Seb Morris, now in the Bentley was now on a charge catching the second placed Beechdean of Gunn hand over fist before over exuberance lead him to damaging his car in a pot hole just off the kerb line on the Wellington Straight - that was game over for them. GT4 championship leaders Johnson/Robinson also found themselves being taken out of the race by the Abba BMW Z4 collecting them going into Club, ripping off a wheel in the process.

This was turning out to be a race nobody wanted to finish…..!

At the two hour mark, the talented Jody Fannin came through the gloom hauling his PFL Motorsport GT3 Vantage up to fifth with him, another great although inconspicuous drive from the BRDC Rising Star driver. Jake Giddings also took his turn to shine amongst the visiting GT4's lifting both his morale and Vantage GT4 up to then P3 in class.


Most cars were now also pitting for slicks for the continually drying track although some did try and stick it out on degrading wets having watched the first car to change over spin out into the armco. Howard was back into the #1 car but clearly wasn't enjoying the greasy track - thoughts elsewhere maybe??

Peter Littler was also back in his PFL GT3 on on his out lap having changed driver and taken on slicks. Coming around Stowe he unfortunately ran wide, added too much power that left him pointing front first into the tyre wall along the Vale - he too was out of the race with damage with a further Safety Car being required to recover them.

Now with just thirty minutes of the three race remaining those on slicks were now 15 seconds a lap quicker than those on wets with the Beechdean, Motorbase and remaining TF Sport GT3's dropping back again once they elected to stop again for rubber.

Come the chequered flag the rain had returned but not enough to effect the results. It was a disappointing race for the Aston Martins with the GT3 class with the #8 Motorbase car of Ross Wyle and Phil Dryburgh holding the honour in P8 but one lap down. Dryburgh was however presented with the Blancpain Gentleman Driver of the Weekend Award for his efforts.

One of the Lamborghini's that pitted at the end of the first lap won the race as a result of their clever change in strategy - well done to them.


Over in GT4 the #407 Beechdean of Jack Bartholomew and Jordan Albert held onto their good early pace to secure P3 in class with the Academy car of Matt Nichol-Jones and Dennis Strandberg commendably just one place (of the BGT runners) behind them in their first race of the year.

The championship will now enjoy a three week break before their annual excursion to Spa Francorchamps at the beginning of July.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

For those lucky enough to be at Silverstone today there was a plethora of race cars from the Aston Martin stable with both entries for the fourth round of the British GT featuring the GT4 European Series plus todays supporting Aston Martin Owners Club meeting.

Amongst the twenty two starters within the AMOC's Intermarque race was a large number of Aston Martins including series stalwarts Vantage Racing with both Chris Kemp and Tom Black competing in their own Vantage GT4's, Robin Marriott (who started the BGT season with Stratton Motorsport with David Tinn) in his GT4 and Britcars Chris Murphy having swapped his GT4 for a DB9.

With the broad spread of cars listed this race should certainly be extremely competitive.


Over in the combined British GT and GT4 European Series paddock, tomorrows 3 hour we have the five regular full season AMR GT3 entries from Beechdean, TF Sport, PFL and Motorbase but also joined by Mike Brown's GT3 for this event only. Over in the  GT4 class we again retain the full season BGT cars of SuperRacing, MacMillan, JWB and Beechdean bit they are joined for this weekend only  by the Street Art and Academy Motorsport cars as part of the joint BGT/GT4 Euro meeting.


If you can't be at Silverstone this weekend, the three hour race will be televised live on Motors TV.

In the GT4 class the first casualty was the #47 JWB car that would soon succumb to its post accident faults and would retire from the race on just lap eleven. Matty George in the #44 Generation AMR would however have a good start from his 4th on the grid to be soon leading the class until he had to come in and pit on lap 20.

The #407 Beechdean car would also start well from their uncharacteristic ninth on the grid and steadily move up thorough the field but a drive through penalty awarded to the team (at the same time as the sister #1 GT3 was awarded one for the same offence) left round 2 winners languishing back in sixth in class just ahead of the remaining Generation AMR and MacMillan Racing AMR's.


All in all Oulton Park proved to be a very difficult race for the Vantage GT3 and GT4 teams. There will I'm sure be plenty of head scratching going on within the teams to help identify issues that hindered them last weekend in an attempt to address things before they now move onto to Silverstone in just two weeks time for Round 5 on the 12th June.

We don't know if Stratton Motorsports will be appearing at the three hour event having skipped Oulton Park but we do expect Academy Motorsport to make a reappearance in the championship with Dennis Strandberg sharing their GT4 entry with an, as yet unidentified second driver.

Returning to the idyllic Cheshire circuit some weeks later into the year than normal, the double header that would form the third round of the British GT Championship had already begun to shape itself to a thriller with two, one hour races set for Bank Holiday Monday having had the qualifying sessions on the Saturday before.

Gloriously clear blue skies and sunshine greeted a huge crowd of race fans young and old as they made their way through the gate and shorts and T shirts were the apparel of the day!!

Saturday's qualifying had been set with the Pro and Am each setting a time for the starting positions for each of the two races on Monday, with the Ams starting Race 1 and the Pro's Race 2. Fresh from their two wins at the proceeding rounds at Brands Hatch and Rockingham, current championship leading TF Sport's Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam had to be rated again as favourites although they could only muster P4 for Race 1 behind both of the every improving Lamborghini Huracan's and the TPR Bentley.


In the GT4 class the Rockingham round winning #407 Beechdean of Jack Bartholomew was the highest Aston starting P2 in class behind the championship leading #50 Ginetta of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson.

Race 1 started with the JWB Motorsport AMR GT4 with Kieran Griffin missing from the grid although he would eventually start the race from the pit lane. The main loser at the start of race 1 was however the #1 AMR GT3 of reigning champion Andrew Howard who fell back several places during the opening two laps, a process that was only thwarted in magnitude by a Safety Car that was needed during the recovery of a Ginetta GT4 that had crashed heavily into the tyre wall on the second lap. That in itself allowed the JWB GT4 to latch up on the rear of the #44 Generation AMR of James Holder who was himself racing in his first race of the series.


Taking up the next fifteen minutes or so of the one hour race, the Safety Car was removed just before the pit window opened but prior to most pitting more woe was to befall the #47 JWB car at the half hour point as Griffin front ended his car into the tyre wall at Knickerbrook ending his race on the spot. That was not what the team wanted having already sustained serious front and rear damage during a free practice session on Saturday.

With all now having made the mandatory pit stops it should have become a straight race to the flag with the Pro drivers now in the cars. Both the TF Sport GT3's were having a great race between themselves for fourth position with AMR Factory driver Jonny Adam having his work cut out trying to pass its sister #11 car but for some excellent driving from Jon Barnes.

They were however fighting over the spoils as by then the top three had already pulled some significant distance away from them making any chance of a podium unlikely. Ross Gunn, now in the Beechdean would also have a great but short lived scrap with Motorbase's Ross Wylie as later they would be 'awarded' a 10 second Stop/Go penalty for a pit stop transgression that would put absolute pay to achieving any sort of result.


Back in GT4 the opening pace proved to be a bit hot for the #407 Beechdean together with some very aggressive driving from the pursuing pack that would ultimately lead to the car dropping down the running order to end the race dicing with their stablemate entry from Generation AMR SuperRacing to finish sixth in class. Nothing was really expected from the #44 at Oulton Park as at the previous two rounds Jamie Chadwick had supported Matt George whilst SuperDry designer and co owner, James Holder was away on business so their P7 in class was an achievement in itself.


The notable exception within Race 1 was the fulfilling of the potential within the #42 MacMillan Racing AMR GT4 of Matty Graham and Jack Mitchell who climbed from their lowly starting position of P8 on the grid to finish a fantastic P2 in class. This was great reward for a young driver line up that clearly has much potential in their first year of GT racing.

British GT Championship racer Jake Giddings resumes his 2016 season at Oulton Park International Circuit in Cheshire just a few days from now, over Bank Holiday weekend, where he has his sights squarely fixed on a season-best result at the wheel of his JWB Motorsport-run Aston Martin.

Following a test outing at the 2.69-mile track on Friday, 20th May, where the Wisbech racer and team-mate Kieran Griffin gained some vital mileage in readiness for rounds three and four of the campaign, hopes are now high ahead of the third event of the season.

Going into the first ‘double-header’ event of the year, where a brace of shorter than usual one-hour races will be contested, the team-mates are third in the Pro-Am GT4 standings and determined to significantly improve on the ninth place finishes achieved thus far in rounds one and two.

During the break since the previous British GT event at Rockingham at the beginning of the month, 21-year-old Jake made a return to one-make competition in the Renault UK Clio Cup at Thruxton but he is now fully focused on the resumption of his main 2016 programme.

It’s certainly been a challenging year up to now for the GT4 duo – a split oil pipe hampering Griffin’s preparations for the season-opener at Brands Hatch and contact from a GT3 car last time out at Rockingham leaving the No.47 Aston Martin carrying significant steering damage.

Qualifying, though, has been the biggest stumbling block up to now for the JWB pairing, but with the one-hour format comes a change in qualifying procedure as well – rather than combined times forming the starting grid, one driver will set the grid for race one and the other for race two.

Pro driver Jake, therefore, is hoping he can achieve a grid slot in the top two or three during his session to give the team its best opportunity yet to battle for a season-first GT4 podium in the Irish TV, Finesse Paving and Civil Engineering, Cowley Road Garage and Toppesfield-backed Aston Martin.


“The one hour races are more of a sprint really, obviously we only get half an hour in the car each so qualifying is more important than ever”, said Jake, “If we can get Kieran up to speed straight away, and the test should help keep everything fresh in his mind, then we should be OK. If qualifying doesn’t work out, the races will be a big challenge and especially if we get any Safety Cars.

“Oulton’s not a bad track for the Aston, it suits the car pretty well and the straights should help us keep up with the Ginettas. Traffic could be a problem as the circuit is pretty tight, but we’ll go into the race weekend aiming for the top five and then see if we can be in with a chance of anything better – hopefully we will!”

Opening practice at Oulton Park on Saturday, 28th May, will get underway at 09.30 with the second session following at 12.35 and GT4 qualifying beginning at around 16.15. After a day off from track action on Sunday, 29th May, round three of the championship will take place at 11.15 on Bank Holiday Monday, 30th May, with round four set to commence at 15.30.


Source material - J Giddings PR
Photo credit - Jacob Ebrey

Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam converted their mega pole time from qualifying into a dominant victory in the GT3 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage. In the British GT Championship’s GT4 class, the Beechdean AMR Vantage of Jordan Albert and Jack Bartholomew inherited victory after post-race penalties were applied.

At the start of the race, Johnston held position on the inside going into Rockingham’s banked turn one even with Alisdair McCaig’s Ecurie Ecosse McLaren trying everything in its power to outfox Johnston around the outside. However, Johnston was too wise to fall for that trick and kept his foot down on the run towards the Deene Hairpin to ensure the #17 remained in the lead.

Elsewhere on the opening few corners an incident started by the Optimum Motorsport Audi R8 LMS - an ill-judged down the inside of Mike Simpson’s Tolman Motorsport Ginetta going into Yentwood - had a knock-on effect for the #1 Beechdean AMR machive driven by Andrew Howard where the collision between the Audi & Ginetta hit the Vantage’s rear-right wheel causing steering issues.

Wisbech racing driver Jake Giddings considered himself and JWB Motorsport team-mate Kieran Griffin fortunate to have scored points in the latest round of the British GT Championship season at Rockingham on Sunday, 1st May, after a bruising 120-minute race at the Northamptonshire venue.

Despite piloting a damaged Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4, which sustained a significant impact from a GT3 racer during the opening hour of round two when Griffin was at the wheel, 21-year-old Jake did manage to bring the No.47 car home to a ninth place finish in GT4. Post-race, though, two rival entries were excluded meaning the result became a season-best seventh position.

“It was hard work in the race”, he explained, “The car was bent after we got hit by a GT3 on the straight, Kieran got bumped into the wall and it knocked all the tracking out and all of the camber at the back. To go left was a nightmare, we had no grip at all and 90% of Rockingham is left handers!

“We just had to hold on really, we had no pace so it was just a case of doing the best we could. In the end we got some points and we managed to get the car to the finish – everything that could go wrong, though, pretty much did go wrong.”

Lapping fourth fastest in GT4 during the opening free practice session on Saturday and then sixth quickest in practice two, during qualifying later in the day the JWB duo ended up with the ninth best time overall on combined times.

In the ‘Am’ session, Griffin produced a time of 1m26.764 seconds (80.49mph) to end his run 13th fastest before Jake took over the car for the ‘Pro’ session where he was an excellent third quickest and the best of the Aston Martin drivers with a lap of 1m22.653 seconds (84.49mph) – helping to elevate the No.47 car onto the fifth row of the GT4 grid.

Griffin took the opening stint of Sunday afternoon’s race but the start didn’t work out as planned and he slipped to 13th position in GT4 on the first tour. Getting within touching distance of the Ginetta ahead by lap eight, the gap then fluctuated but Griffin was able to climb into the top 12 before being edged back again to 13th place.

Midway through his stint, though, the JWB driver was the victim of contact from one of the GT3 cars which resulted in damage and badly compromised performance. He remained on track until the opening of the pit-window at the 50-minute mark and after Jake got into the Aston, he joined the race with 66 minutes left on the clock.


Holding 12th position in GT4, Jake pushed on to try and regain as much ground as possible but it proved hard work with the car struggling in left-hand corners. Even so, he still produced some good lap times to keep the JWB car in the hunt for points.

Within 10 minutes of Jake being on track, the Safety Car was deployed due to an incident for the GT4 leader and racing resumed again with 50 minutes to go. Holding an improved 11th in class, he was able to break into the GT4 top 10 soon after but the Safety Car was then deployed once more, for just a single lap, with around 18 minutes to go.

In truth, 10th position looked to be all that would be possible for the No.47 Aston Martin and even with the JWB car receiving an unfortunate stop-go penalty, Jake was still able to bring the car home in ninth place – matching the round one result from Brands Hatch a fortnight ago. Moved up into seventh post-race, the duo ended the weekend an improved third in the Pro-Am championship.

Cheshire’s Oulton Park will be the venue for the third event of the British GT Championship season over Spring Bank Holiday weekend, 28th/29th/30th May. Before then, this coming weekend, Jake will be back in race action with a one-off appearance in the Renault UK Clio Cup at Thruxton in Hampshire with his father Neil’s Finesse Motorsport squad.

Less than one hour of the scheduled two-hour opening round of the British GT Championship season was run under green flag conditions, but good strategy meant the #17 TF Sport entry of Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston wasn’t left short-changed.

At the start of the race at a beautifully sunny Brands Hatch, it was Rick Parfitt Jnr’s Bentley that made a good get away from the rolling start fending off numerous attempts by Johnston to squeeze his V12 Vantage into first place for his starting position of second.

However, the speed of the Crewe machine was too much for an Aston that doesn’t entirely suit the twisty Brands circuit and instead of looking in front of him, Johnston had to gaze behind as Liam Griffin in the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 got ever closer to the back of the TF Sport machine.

It didn’t take long for Johnston to be passed by the Lamborghini and had to settle in for a third place he would be relatively secure in for the time being.