Some of the guys at Motionsport are today experiencing a very soggy shakedown test at Silverstone of their very recently acquired (ex MP Motorsport) Aston Martin V12 Vantage in readiness for the Bathurst 12hr.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152413385050496

According to MP Motorsports Facebook page the car was exchanged only on Friday 21st November so timescales are already getting tight for the team to gain car experience and to have it shipped out in readiness for the event in early February 2015.


This news obviously also confirms the MP Motorsport are indeed moving onto pastures new having listed for sale both of their GT3 Vantages in early October. The team have yet to announce any official plan for 2015 but it has been noted that one or two of the drivers may/may not have been seen testing with the likes of …………..!! (I would be unfare to say anything specific at this stage)

Again, the final round of the Avon British GT Championship was to be held upon the fast, undulating curves of the Donington Park circuit with both GT3 and GT4 championships still mathematically up for grabs.

With MP Motorsport's Mark Poole and Richard Abra again deciding to sit out another round in favour of the Blancpain Endurance Series and with Paul Bailey (Horsepower Racing) wisely deciding to skip the meeting in favour of celebrating a significant wedding anniversary with his good lady wife the number of Aston Martin Vantages competing was thus reduced to 'only' seven cars.


Craft Bamboo driver Alex McDowall would again deputise for John Gaw in the PGF-Kinfaun car with Phil Dryburgh. in readiness for the next round of the WEC in Austin Texas this weekend.

Going into this race the situation was that the #4 Oman Racing GT3 Vantage needed to win the race outright but with the championship leading Barwell BMW Z4 Ecurie Ecosse of Marco Attard finishing no higher than seventh for Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine to be crowned GT3 champions.

A similar situation was to hand in the GT4 category with the Beechdean V8 Vantage being 29.5 points ahead of the TF Sport V8 Vantage prior to the race.



Come the end of qualifying on Saturday the #4 Oman Racing car snatched pole from its championship contender by the slimmest of margins leaving an 'all to play for' front row together with the #49 TF Sport car just ahead of the #407 Beechdean further back the grid in GT4 in P2 and P3 respectively.

Additional hope was also given to Al Harthy/Caine when it was decided that a late engine change was required on the championship leading Ecurie Ecosse Z4 after morning warm up. Speaking to Michael Caine in the Media room just after this disclosure there was an almost noticeable 'lift' to his already competitive demeanour and with a simple 'smile and shrug of the shoulders' he was gone!! Another car requiring an engine change post qualifying was the Strata 21 car of Paul White and Tom Onslow-Cole.



With the Barwell team having moved mountains to get their car - albeit a bit smokey to the grid all was set and within the next two hours champions would be made.

Straight from the off Ahmad Al Harthy planted his foot hard down and very quickly established a second or two lead over the chugging BMW and the rest of the chasing pack and within a few more laps later the BMW would be in the pit lane with terminal issues. The #5 Oman Racing car of Liam Griffin now in P2 would be Al Harthy's wingman and all was looking sweet………..!

Further back into the pack the #1 Beechdean car of Andrew Howard had beached itself in the gravel at The Esses - cause was unknown and he was to loose several laps waiting for marshal/mechanical intervention and despite rejoining seemingly undamaged it would later retire with mechanical issues.

Paul White was also having a stormer with some good moves up the inside into the Melbourne Hairpin on some, a wild trip through the gravel at The Esses with others before contact with another car would see him sitting in the pits for several laps whilst suitable repairs were undertaken.




Back in GT4 the TF Sport of Andrew Jarman was almost inseparable from the Beechdean of Ross Wylie with some very tight but clean driving between them - certainly no BTCC style rubbing going on or needed there!

Around about lap 32 the pit window was to open allowing the 'gentlemen drivers' to swap with their professional counterparts - now the racing was really to begin.

By the time AL Harthy pitted he had lead every lap and eked out a lead of over twenty seconds allowing Caine to rejoin back in the lead by the time the rest of the field had completed their mandatory stops. Still all was looking good for the #4 car - leading the race AND with their championship rivals already in retirement.

With not much more than twenty minutes remaining the sky suddenly blackened and drops of the wet stuff started to fall - not enough to have to don your coat and put up your umbrella but the stuff drivers hate - the stuff that causes indecisiveness. A seemingly inocuous glancing blow between the #4 Vantage and a Triple 8 BMW during this damp period of the race would be enough to alter the results in both time lost in the traffic and damage caused by the contact allowing the chasing Porsche of Phil Keen to ultimately pass him for the lead. Soon after the racey Ollie Hancock in the FF Corse would force his way passed the Vantage going through Redgate for position with the Audi of Matt Bell doing similar a couple of lap later.



What could have been was not to be and by race end the #4 Oman Racing car had slipped back to P4 which was not enough to snatch the championship away from Marcus Attard who would ultimately win by 10 points from the #4 car.

Back in GT4 Ross Wylie had handed over to Jake Giddings in the Beechdean who again was able to do decent, safe percentage driving, keeping the TF Sport of Devon Modell in his sights all the time - controlling the gap - controlling the race. The only hiccup came was when the drizzle appeared and the #407 shot into pit lane with only about 20 minutes to go for what turned out to be a precautionary 'splash n dash' but even that wasn't enough to alter the eventual outcome.



Come the chequered flag the #49 TF Sport car of Jarman/Modell would finish on the podium in second but for the #407 Beechdean their P5 would be enough to award Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings the 2014 GT4 Championship title.



Subject the official confirmation would see the Aston Martin teams finish as follows :-http://www.britishgt.com/pointsn.php


Photo credits:- Richard Leach

With todays qualifying now confirmed for the final round of the 2014 Avon British GT Championship at Donington the grid has presented itself nicely to ensure us a nail biting and hopefully entertaining conclusion to the season with ultimately the confirming of the, as yet undecided GT3 AND GT4 Champions.

By the slenderest of margins (just three thousandths of a second to be exact) Oman Racing's Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine slotted their Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 onto pole position and importantly ahead of current championship leading BMW Z4 of Marco Attard/Alex Sims who will themselves start from P2. Outgoing 2013 champion Andrew Howard will be starting in P3.

Further back along the grid the GT4 championship battle will also be concluded between the season long rivalling TF Sport V8 Vantage of Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell and the championship leading Beeechdean V8 Vantage of Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings with the Beechdean boys again starting ahead of Jarman/Modell.

http://www.britishgt.com/results.php?event=7&season=2014&session=Aggregate%20Qualifying




The-Advantage.org shall be trackside tomorrow to witness the outcome - may the best team win.

Photo credit - Richard Leach

The penultimate round of the 2014 British GT season on Sunday at the picturesque Brands Hatch circuit was not to disappoint and provided some typical GT racing throughout its 31 car entry.

Prior to the meeting a few driver line up changes were announced within the Aston Martin Customer Teams - namely the withdrawal from the race of MP Motorsports owner/driver Mark Poole and Richard Abra with Colin White and Tom Sharp replacing them in the team's V12 Vantage. Another saw the  direct substitution of Aston Martin racing CEO John Gaw (at his own behest) with Craft -Bamboo Racing's Alex McDowall replacing him in the PGF-Kinfaun car.



Reasons for the Poole/Abra withdrawal was cited as being that they wanted to concentrate on their Blancpain Endurance endeavours and at this moment it is unknown whether or not we will see them back in British GT again. White/Sharp were able to set up a last minute, one of deal with MP Motorsport to use their Vantage having dropped their Ginetta G55 due to its poor performance/reliability.

As far as Alex McDowall was concerned this move was a simple racing decision by John Gaw to give 'works' driver  McDowall some competitive race time in a car to help bring him up to 'speed' prior to the next WEC round at CoTA in a couple of weeks time.


Another point of note was the ability of the #1 Beechdean GT3 car to come back from quite a substantial factory rebuild following its very scary looking collision with another car at the Spa24 enabling Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam to put it on pole position by nearly half a second after only a brief shakedown test at Snetterton during the week. Come Sunday morning warm up however the car would experience some break issues that would prevent it from entering a notable time.

Further down the grid the #407 Beechdean GT4 car would be again starting on pole in its respective group.

Come the rolling race start the #1 Beechdean car turned into Paddock Hill Bend in first position but the slightest of touches from behind by the #63 Trackspeed Porsche would be enough to upset the balance of the car leaving it on the back foot into Druids and with further 'rubbing' and a reoccurrence of the warm up break issues these would start to push the car back down the field leaving the #4 Oman Racing car of Ahmed Al Harthy in the lead.



Further down the track a decent start from Colin White in the MP Motorsport car would see it make contact with a slower GT4 car leaving the Vantage stranded in the gravel dropping it to last after recovery.

At the half hour mark Al Harthy was still leading with a controlled margin from the Porsche, including gaining the fastest lap with team mate Jeff Smith in the #5 Oman Racing car in third with Paul White's #21 car in eighth and the PGF-Kinfaun car of Phil Dryburgh in tenth. The #1 car of Howard had slipped back to 15th.



In GT4 the #407 Beechdean car of Jake Giddings was still ahead of the chasing TF Sport Vantage of Andrew Jarman.

Towards the end of the first hour further woe was to befall the #1 Beechdean car when an ambitious move on Andrew Howard's part saw contact made with the #888 BMW of Derek Johnston which put the Vantage into the pits with a puncture and the BMW beached a on kerb that would bring out a Safety Car to recover.

This Safety Car intervention would provide a critical move in the inter Aston Martin GT4 battle between the #407 Beechdean and #49 TF Sport car which would effectively put the TF Sport car almost a whole lap behind despite running only a few seconds behind prior. During its pit stop some twelve minutes later the #49 TF car would attempt to recover some crucial time by not changing tyres.


Further up the track the GT3 lead would swap in the pit lane following a faster stop from the #63 Trackspeed team leaving Oman Racing's Michael Caine to chase down the Porsche with Rory Butcher holding a watching brief in third.

With thirty minutes remaining Caine was P2, Butcher P3, McDowall P7, Onslow-Cole P8, P14 Schulz and Adam P16. Giddings was retaining a 44second lead in GT4.

With the leading Porsche of Phil Keen getting a puncture with only twenty minutes remaining and then its sister car of Nick Tandy taking the race lead the finishing order would be:-

P2 Al Harthy/Caine Oman Racing GT3
P3 Butcher/Smith Oman Racing GT3
P6 Dryburgh/McDowall GT3
P7 White/Onslow-Cole GT3
P14 Bailey/Schulz GT3
P15 White/Sharp GT3
P16 Howard/Adam GT3

P1 Giddings/Wylie GT4
P2 Jarman/Modell GT4

The result leaves the final race weekend of the season at Donington Park set up once again for an 'all or nothing' GT3 finale between the Oman Racing car of Ahmed Al Harthy and Michael Caine having a achievable mathematical chance against the BMW Z4 of Marco Attard who is 28.5 points in ahead.

The same is the case in GT4 with the Beechdean junior pairing of Jake Giddings and Ross Wylie having a similar lead over their championship rivals TF Sports Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell.

So there's plenty to win but certainly lots to loose for some!

Should make for a very tense race.

Photo credits - Richard Leach

With the race preparation 'pleasantries' having already taken place yesterday in the town centre of Spa Francorchamps with the now customary GT car entries driving from the circuit and into town together with the driver briefing in the local theatre followed by the public presentation in the town square, the gloves have now come off as all attention now focuses on the race event itself.



With both practice and qualifying taking place over Thursday evening and into the night all five Aston Martin Customer Teams were jockeying for position, aiming for that top 20 shoot out that would ultimately decide pole position for the race. With MP Motorsport and Beechdean noting the quickest times in Free Practice and Pre Qualifying Practice respectively earlier today friendly rivalry was already being expressed between their fellow Pro and Am drivers before the evenings qualifying. Important grid positions and driver bragging rights were at stake in the Aston Martin garage.

Starting the whole qualification process in the early evening would be Pedro Lamy (Leonard Motorsport), Stefan Mucke (Beechdean), Onslow-Cole (PGF Kinfaun), Darren Turner (MP Motorsport) and Michael Caine (Oman Racing) but obviously all drivers would have to enter timed laps at some point during the day and again in the night proceedings. The twenty minute Super Pole shoot out will be held tomorrow (Friday).



With all drivers having completed their mandatory laps all that was to be determined was whether or not any would qualify in the top 20.

Driver line ups:-

#32 Leonard Motorsport Pro-Am

#96 PGF-Kinfaun Pro-Am

John Gaw
Phil Dryburgh
Tom Onslow-Cole
Paul White

#38 MP Motorsport Pro-Am

Mark Poole
Richard Abra
Joe Osbourne
Darren Turner

#44 Oman Racing Team Pro

Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Caine
Stephen Jelley

Live Race stream http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live

Live timing http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live#live-timing

Photo Credits - Leonard Motorsport / Aston Martin racing / Blancpain

With the teams having made their way across the Channel to the iconic Circuit De Spa Francorchamps earlier in the week for what would Round 5 - races 7 and 8 and final double header of the season, fans will need to make themselves available for what is a rather unusual timetable.

As the British GT was acting in almost  'support' of the now infamous Funcup 25Hr Of Spa race both free practice and qualifying was held earlier this afternoon in readiness for two 60minute races BOTH taking place tomorrow Saturday 12th July.

With the exception of the Aston Martin GT4 teams all of the GT3 Vantages had already enjoyed a day's test at the Spa circuit a week or so ago at the Official Spa24Hr test so track data had already been set. Come the end of Free Practice this morning a notable achievement for an Aston Martin team was made when Paul White (who hadn't attended the previous test day) was only just pipped to the post for being fastest by non other than WEC regular Toni Vilander in the #15 AF Corse Ferrari - a margin of just 0.070seconds.


Qualifying 1

With the Amateurs having the first qualifying session early times were being set by Jeff Smith who was returning to the #5 Oman Racing Team car with Rory Butcher after his initial Snetterton outing. With 5minutes to go Andrew Howard was in P2 behind the quicker Ecurie Ecosse. In GT4 the Beechdean and TF Sport Vantages were holding 3rd and 5th respectively in class.

Then another red flag halted the proceedings and with little over 3minutes of the session remaining the organisers waved the remaining time and with many teams getting caught out the Race 1 grid would look like this.

GT3

P2 #4 Oman Racing
P3 #1 Beechdean
P4 #5 Oman Racing
P11 #6 PGF Kinfaun
P17 #28 HPR
P21 #38 MP Motorsport
P22 #21 Strata21

GT4

P28 #49 TF Sport
P29 #407 Beechdean

Qualifying 2

With the red flag issues being quickly settled it was then the turn of the professional drivers to ply their trade. Early paces were again being set by AMR teams with Onslow-Cole squabbling for bragging rights with the Nissan Academy driver Wolfgang Reip.

With only moments remaining Beechdean's Jonny Adam slotted his car home in P2 just half a second behind the pole setter. A very elated Tom Onslow-Cole nets a great fourth just 0.7 seconds off pole but notably about a second off his best time set at the Spa24Hr test! Taking it easy maybe?!

The qualifying grid for Race 2 was set to be almost an inverse of that in Race 1.

GT3

P2 #1 Beechdean
P4 #21 Strata21
P6 #6 PGF Kinfaun
P14 # Oman Racing
P16 #38 MP Motorsport
P20 #4 Oman Racing
P21 #28 HPR

GT4

P29 #407 Beechdean
P32 #49 TF Sport

With the title battle now really heating it reigning champion Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam have at least got the closest championship rivals, the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 within eyesight but we all know has treacherous this circuit can be if the weather turns against them and the pressure it places the car and driver under.

With some live streaming video and timing being available at http://www.vwfuncup.eu/stream.aspx all will become apparent very soon.

Reaching the halfway point of the 2014 season the British GT Championship took itself to the 2.99mile former wartime airbase circuit at Snetterton in Norfolk for what would be Rounds 5 and 6 and the second double-header meeting of the season.

Coming away from the previous round at Silverstone with five Vantage GT3's in the top ten all the aston martin Customer teams were hopeful of similar results from an equally fast circuit. Fingers were  being crossed however as to avoid the torrential rainfall that blighted the meeting twelve months ago.

Coming into qualifying 1 on the Saturday only the MP Motorsport car threatened the top three but they were still over a second behind the pole sitting BMW Z4. Qualifying 2 however was a slightly different story with Beechdean claiming pole with a half second advantage over the chasing pack.

Prior to Race 1 the GT racing family would pay tribute to their fallen competitor with a minute's silence representing the one year anniversary to the day of the tragic loss of Allan Simonsen at Le Mans.

Like many say - "Gone but never forgotten".

Come the race all the Aston Martin GT3's again struggled for pace and weren't able to improve too much on their starting positions. Come the compulsory stops Beechdean was P6, MP Motorsport P7 and both Motorbase cars in P9 & 10 respectively were the pick of the bunch. Back in GT4 the Beechdean duo of Wylie and Giddings were fairing a little better in 5th.

Contact between the Eastwood's Ferrari 458, the MP Motorsport's Vantage and the 888 BMW Z4 would prove controversial at the end. At the chequered flag Mark Poole was to finish in 5th position on track but was to have his result excluded for 'conduct unbecoming' in that collision with the Ferrari together with 4 penalty points added to his race licence. Beyond that John Gaw was the highest placed Aston Martin GT3 finisher in 4th with the Beechdean GT3 close behind in 5th. Better luck was to be had for Aston Martin in GT4 with the #407 Beechdean of Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings finishing again on the podium in P2.



Race 2 was to be equally eventful as the first.

Firstly, whilst MP Motorsports were desperately dealing with a brake issue they missed to the pit lane closing and they would be forced to start from the pit lane and not their qualification position. Following the warm up lap and the green flag chaos was to ensue at Riches with 3 cars being punted off the circuit and heavily into the barriers - red flag.

Cars involved were the #888 BMW of Luke Hines, the #28 Horsepower Racing Vantage of Andy Schulz and the #6 of PGF-Kinfaun and John Gaw all with serious damage but thankfully no injuries being reported to the drivers. Many suggestions state that the cause was an poorly judged move by the Kinfaun car. Also seriously damaged was the armco and tyre wall and that would take the best part of an hour to repair to a satisfactory degree to allow a restart. The misfortune for some was also fortunate for others in allowing MP Motorsport to move back into their original starting position of P9 when the restart finally came about less than an hour before the circuits curfew time. As a result of this the final Ginetta GT5 race would be scrubbed from the timetable such was the delay.

On the restart Jonny Adam was soon able to stretch out a decent lead over the chasing pack of over 14 seconds. Michael Caine wasn't being so fortunate with black and white warning flags being shown to him for exceeding track limits with the now infamous MSV electronic sensors! With Adam being almost the last car to pit Andrew Howard jumped in at the change over to inherit a 14second lead with Paul White in his Strata21 in P3 and Mark Poole back in P7. Back in GT4 things were heating up just as well with Wylie chasing down the leading Ginetta of Adrian Barwick for P1 whilst TF Sport's Andrew Jarman was in P4.

Then things started to get a little 'nervous'. The Beechdean car was initially loosing time hand over fist to Gary Eastwood's Ferrari before Andrew Howard was able to stabilise the gap whilst in GT4 Ross Wylie in the #407 Beechdean received a stop and go penalty for a too short a pit stop - that would destroy their race. Then, having hauled himself up to P2 Andrew Jarman had some sort of incident that left him stranded on circuit without power and tumbling down the order before he was able to set off again.

Moments later Andrew Howard was able to bring the Beechdean GT3 home in first position a comfortable 13seconds ahead of Eastwood in his Ferrari as it turned out but who in turn was only 10 seconds ahead of the #21 Strata 21 pairing of Paul White and Tom Onslow Cole for their first British GT podium finish. Seeing that the #21 wasn't their normal stead I'm just wondering if they would prefer to keep this one whilst theirs is having a well earned rest??



Beechdean now take an 11.5 point lead in GT3 away with them ready for the next round at the Spa Francorchamps circuit in three weeks time. Back in GT4 the Beechdean sister car also takes a 7 point lead over the chasing TF-Sport Vantage of Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell for the third and final double header of the season.

Photo Credits - British GT / Jacob Ebrey

Having had to test and set up their cars in almost impossible conditions on the Friday and Saturday before it came as some relief that race day was under warm and clearing skies.

Full season entrants MP-Motorsport and Oman Racing Team featured their planned driver line-ups with  Abra/Osborne/Poole in Pro-Am and Al Harthy/Caine/Jelley in Pro Class respectively. For the Silverstone round the Aston Martin Vantage line up was further increased with one off entries from British GT entrants Beechdean Motorsport (Pro-Am) and Horse Power Racing (GTR) with another GT3 car from full season VLN entry Leonard Motorsport (Pro).

Driver line ups had also been adjusted between the two of these additional customer teams - namely Jonny Adam assisting Leonard Motorsports' Paul Wilson and Stuart Leonard and Beechdean boss Andrew Howard being joined by Porsche Carrera Cup Scholarship winner Daniel Lloyd and again with Craft Bamboo WEC driver Alex MacDowall. HPR would be drive by car owner Paul Bailey and regular Andy Schulz.





The starting line up would be the #38 MP car starting in 8th position with Richard Abra behind the wheel, the #107 Beechdean car two places back with Daniel Lloyd, the  #44 Oman Racing car with Stephen Jelley in 19th, the #32 Leonard car in 28th spot with Jonny Adam and finally the #128 HPR car in 30th with Andy Schulz starting in a starting grid of 44 cars.

With the traditional GT rolling start trouble was only half way around Copse corner when the #128 HPR car was tagged into a spin on the opening lap. Difficulties extracting the car from the gravel trap would lead to waved yellows at that corner for the next couple of laps. That was Paul Bailey/Andy Schulz's raced destroyed immediately.

The inevitable 'madness' in 43 cars jostling for position around the GP circuit took well over 15minutes to calm down with MP and Beechdean line a stern in 7th and 8th respectively with Jonny Adam having a great 10 car plus scrap down in 10th before all had to avoid the debris of the 888 BMW Z4's accident, again into Copse and it would be at this point a few minutes later that Adam would be penalised with a drive through penalty for a yellow flag violation.

He wasn't the first and he certainly wouldn't be the last to receive such a penalty from the race stewards.

Towards the end of the first stint, and after some terrific racing between them would see Daniel Lloyd finally take Richard Abra for position for second position in the Pro-Am class. The #44 Oman Racing and #128 HPR cars also both received a drive through for benefiting in time under a yellow flag.

On the hour the first pit stop - driver changes - full service started with Jelley first in to swap with Al Harthy followed a few minutes later by both the Leonard and HPR cars. Abra and Lloyd would be able to sneak a few more laps into their stints before fuel limits dictated their pitting but a slicker turn around from the MP Motorsport crew would see their position relative to the Beechdean car reversed but both were still 2nd and 3rd in class.



With Joe Osborne now at the wheel of the #38 MP car it wasn't long before he had hooked onto the back bumper of the class leading #80 Nissan GT-R and a few laps later a svelte slip streaming move coming out of Stow and into Club would see him take the class lead with the chasing Andrew Howard still a third of a lap behind.

Coming to the top of the hour again would see the second and final pit stops but this time Osborne would stay out nearly 15minutes longer than the rest of the field, briefly take the overall race lead and helping to minimise the work that would be handed on to team owner and team amateur driver Mark Poole.

With only 45minutes left in this three hour endurance Osborne pits and Poole takes charge - a charge that would immediately require him to take avoiding action from the debris created by Andy Schultz loosing the back end of his HPR car and tank slapping his car into the barrier under the Hanger Straight bridge. The car suffered both front and rear damage but thankfully Schulz extracted himself from the car unaided and uninjured if not a little annoyed with himself.

Safety Car!

The Safety Car eventually came in leaving a thirty minute dash to the line - a dash that saw Mark Poole get swamped with Pro class cars along the International pit straight allowing the chasing #80 Nissan Academy GT-R to retake the class lead with only a few minutes left.

Come the chequered flag the #44 Oman Racing Vantage would be first across the line in 10th followed by the #38 MP Motorsport car in 11th overall and second in Pro-Am. A great result following their disappointment in Monza.



MacDowall would bring the Beechdean car home in 17th overall, the Leonard car would finish a very credible 23rd in their first Blancpain outing and sadly the Bailey/Schulz HPR car would be a DNF.

For some the next Blancpain event would be at Paul Ricard in June but for others their domestic season would see them return to Silverstone next weekend for the third round of the British GT. For Paul Wilson and Stuart Leonard we wait to see if Blancpain will be added to their 2014 plans or whether the lure of he Nordshleife is just too great!!.

Photo Credits - Blancpain Series/Brecht Decancq

Tuesday 8th April saw the official Media Day for the British GT series take place at the Donington circuit. Although a bit on the chilly side and with a stiff breeze those who made the trip were blessed with 27 out of the now confirmed 36 cars turning up for the test.

Reigning champion(s) Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam return in their Beechdean liveried Vantage GT3 to defend his (their) 2013 title. Despite a slightly smokey issue with the car during the lunchtime VIP laps the duo were still able to clock the fastest time in the second session.




At the end of the 2013 season team owner Andrew Howard expressed a desire to help promising young racing drivers in reaching their potential with the creation of a new Beechdean GT4 team for 2014. Confirmation of this was made when Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings were formally announced to the world at the Autosport International Show audience back in January. With only a couple of GT4 testing sessions under their belts the young duo will be on a steep learning curve indeed.




MP Motorsports, who raced under the umbrella of Barwell Motorsport in 2013 have this year received full Partner status from Aston Martin Racing and have thus rebranded to MP-AMR. Competing this year with full season entries in both British GT and Blancpain Mark Poole and Richard Abra will have their work cut out managing their increased workloads.

The menacing urban camouflaged red and black machine MP Vantage GT3 was sadly missing from Donington on Tuesday as this weekend sees the opening round of the Blancpain GT Series at Monza. 



This week also saw Richard Abra being confirmed as an Aston Martin Racing rostered driver, the same as Beechdean's Jonny Adam last year - well done and well deserved to him.

Last year's Porsche running team saw Motorbase's arrival with their new two V12 Vantage GT3 cars with Ahmed Al Harthy and Michael Caine in the blue #4 and GT returnee's Rory Butcher and John Hartshorne in the red #5.  


Whereas the #5 car reported good track times its sister car was somewhat hampered with a front wheel hub issue that called for prolonged, factory attention in the garage. 

Business executives Phil Dryburgh and John Gaw return in their PGF-Kinfaun GT3 car for another full season having finished 19th overall last year. Unlike last years round when Dryburgh managed to damage the radiators in an accident at the start of the race the pair ended the day just 0.70seconds behind the leaders were both looking forward to next weekend's opening round at Oulton Park.





Being only set up at the turn of the year, full Partner status team TF Sport will enter two cars into the championship. First being the Vantage GT3 of the highly competitive and race winning pairing of Paul Bailey and Andy Schulze who will race under the Horsepower banner within the team.


Paul Bailey was being comically candid in his garage saying that despite all his racing experience he was actually 'cr@pping himself' about entering a grid with the depth of what was being displayed. Those fears were obvious unfounded as the man fresh from that Rolls Royce programme finished his gorgeously coloured Vantage a very credible sixth on the timing sheets.





The second TF Sport car was for reigning Aston Martin Challenge Champion Andrew Jarman and Renault Clio UK driver Devon Modell with their new Vantage GT4. Reading what was being issued prior to the event it was somewhat of a surprise to see the liveried car there at all.




"I'm obviously well aquatinted with the V8 Vantage, I know its a great car and the goal has to be to win the GT4 title buts its a strong field of drivers and teams and I've got no doubt of the challenge ahead" said Andrew Jarman at the recent team announcement. His body language at the track showed that he was more than keen to get out there in the car finishing mid table in the GT4's which for a first time pairing wasn't bad.

The final surprise of the day was to see the Silverstone Auctions sponsored car of Aston Martin Racing Accounts Manager Harry Whale again. Obviously entering the series at the final event at Donington last year with AMR works driver Richie Stanaway was obviously too much excitement for someone to miss. This year Whale is joined by former GT Cup champion and businessman Andy Ruhan in their V8 Vantage GT4.


The first round of the British GT series starts Easter Weekend at Oulton Park with raceway being on the bank holiday Monday to comply with local track restrictions. The weekend also sees the opening round of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge support race.