Today saw Mark Poole and Richard Abra confirm their 2014 race plans with confirmed full season entries in both the 2014 British GT and Blancpain Endurance Series with their distinctive black and red liveried Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3.

Previously racing in 2013 as MP-Motorsport (under the care of Barwell Motorsport) a recent team restructure including the appointment of a new team manager in Dave Wilcox has seen closer AMR factory links and resources being made available to them. In 2014 the the team has rebranded as MP-AMR.

Whilst publicly thanking Barwell Motorsport for all their professionalism and assistance with the drivers inaugural season Richard Abra was quoted as saying that the offers from Prodrive were simply "too good to be missed". We understand that the new arrangements will follow similar patterns to that currently enjoyed by Beechdean Motorsport.

Having also sampled the Blancpain Endurance series at Silverstone last year the excited duo also confirmed the addition of Joe Osborne as their third driver in the highly competitive Pro-Am class. The team shall expect a real baptism of fire in 2014 with the first round of the BES being at Monza 12/13th April and the British GT kicking off at Oulton Park the following weekend.

Watch on onboard as Abra takes the Barwell V12 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 round one of the fastest tracks in Europe during the second round the of British GT Championship.

Following hot on the heels of the news that Beechdean Motorsport will return to the Avon Tyres British GT Championship with it’s Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, 2012 Britcar 24 Hour winners Mark Poole and Richard Abra have confirmed they will also contest the full 2013 season of the leading national GT series with a Vantage GT3, prepared by front running team, Barwell Motorsport.

Poole and Abra debuted the stunning red and black JCam sponsored Aston Martin in the final round of the 2012 MSA British Endurance Championship at Donington Park, having campaigned a Class 2 BMW M3 GTR in previous rounds with mixed success; the 24 hour victory being the stand out highlight of the season for the pair.

In 2011, the duo competed together in the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge with David Appleby's crack outfit, Generation AMR. A race win at Silverstone and a second place at Donington Park didn't reflect the talent of either driver, whereas the four pole positions and three fastest laps showed more of their promise; Abra was also named 'Best Performing Driver' by AMOC (the Aston Martin Owners Club) in the same year.

Double Championship winner, Barwell Motorsport is expected to announce details of its full 2013 British GT campaigns in the coming weeks. The announcement of working with an Aston Martin will continue the team's established links with the top British sports car manufacturer’s racing division, Aston Martin Racing, having been an Official Partner Team of AMR since 2008.

Previously, Surrey-based Barwell Motorsport prepared multiple Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3s between the years of 2006 to 2011 in British and European competition, and at International endurance events including Sebring 12h and Spa 24h, with much success. The squad claimed the 2006 British GT3 Drivers and 2007 British GT Teams Championship titles.

As the 2013 season approaches, the Avon Tyres British GT Championship is in a healthy position with a host of GT3 and GT4 entries confirmed that include the brands, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Ginetta, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes, Porsche, and many more.

Round one of the series is at Oulton Park in Cheshire over the Easter weekend (30/Mar-1/Apr) with ticket details and more information available on the official Championship website, http://www.BritishGT.comand on the official Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/BritishGT.

Quotes
Mark Poole, Driver:
"This is only my third year of racing, and the most exciting season to date. I've worked with Richard at length and last year we took a big step forwards on our GT4 efforts the season prior, this year we need to do the same again and then some. The car is superb, and I'm viewing this season as a learning year, getting used to GT3 machinery - partnering with Barwell, who have a solid history of success preparing racing Aston Martins is without doubt the ideal place for Richard and I to be this year."

Richard Abra, Driver:
"For us, British GT has always been the aim of where we want to be, it's been the goal for a while now. Everything we've raced in so far, we've won in, but we're under no illusions about how big a step up this will be for us. There will be a lot to learn, everything from the tyres to the competition. Our aims for the year are realistic, if we can get on to the podium this year, given the competition, that would be great. As for winning, it would be a nice surprise, but let's start with some top-tens! The championship is going from strength to strength and while there's a lot of competition this year, I'm ready and excited to get started.”

Mark Lemmer, Barwell Motorsport Team Principal:
"We're thrilled to extend our highly successful relationship with Aston Martin Racing, and the Vantage GT3 is an exceptional car. We worked with Mark and Richard at the tail end of last year and they were unlucky to not come away with the win due to a racing incident. We see big potential in them and hope to enable both drivers to achieve their exciting goals in 2013 and beyond.”

British GT

2012 Britcar 24 hour winner, Richard Abra, will join Barwell Motorsport for a full season British GT Championship campaign. Richard will be partnered in the Barwell Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 by regular team mate, Mark Poole.

Abra made his debut in the Barwell Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 at the final round of the 2012 BritCar Endurance Championship at Donnington Park. Where he claimed a stunning pole position and looked set for the win until a late race incident dropped them out of contention. Although that was his first race in the new V12 Vantage, Richard was no stranger to racing Aston Martins. In 2011 he raced alongside Mark Poole in the Aston Martin Racing Challenge with Generation AMR, securing a race win at Silverstone, four pole positions, three fastest laps and was named ‘best performing driver’ by the Aston Martin Owners Club.

"Racing in the British GT Championship has been the goal for a while now" said Abra, "I couldn't ask for anything more than to do it with Barwell Motorsport in a brand new Vantage GT3! The championship is going from strength to strength and there's a lot of competition this year, but I'm ready and excited to get started!"

The 2013 British GT season gets underway at Oulton Park March 30th and will feature 6 rounds in the UK with the now traditional away-race taking place at Zandvoort, in the Netherlands. Competition is set to be fierce in GT3 with up to 30 cars expected in the premier class.

Image: Xynamic

Disappointed with forth last time out at Snetterton, the JCAM backed pairing of Richard Abra and Mark Poole came to Donington with their sights firmly set on getting back on the podium.

Saturday’s 3 hour race saw Richard Abra partnered with James Appleby and Anthony Scragg due to Richards normal team mate, Mark Poole, being unavailable due to family commitments. Richard Abra gives us an insight to new team mates, wet sessions and the strange world of motorsport.

“Mark still wanted the car out there for the 3 hour race on the Saturday, so he let James Appleby, Ant Scragg and myself drive the car. We were all very excited about this. It was good to team up with these guys, they have a lot of experience in these cars and are currently racing in the FIA European GT4 Cup with Generation AMR, so I couldn’t wait for the race to get underway!”

“Qualifying turned out to be wet and my first immediate thoughts was that Stuart Hall or Michael Mallock would easily take pole position in these conditions so I was a little apprehensive to start with. Neither James or Ant had ever driven our car, so the team sent them out first to put a few familiarisation laps in and to make sure they did the 3 laps required to qualify for the race. As I’d been testing the car two days previous it was decided that I would qualify the car. I waited in the pit garage until Jez Doncaster (Team Manager) gave me the nod. It was time to get in the car and I went out in horrible conditions and set a bench mark time. It was pole at the time but the rain then started to stop so we pitted and waited to see what everyone else would do. Vantage Racing, Stratton, Mallock and NMR all topped the time sheets at one time or another, but we waited until 10 minutes to go. I was dying to get out there, it seemed like the clock was stood still. With 5 minutes to go I went to start the engine and nothing happened, it wouldn’t start! We couldn’t believe it, we pushed the car back in the garage and the guys set about trying to fix it, I looked at the clock which seemed to be falling a lot quicker now and just thought there was no chance of getting out to do a flying lap, I almost took my helmet off. Jez just told me to sit tight, then “Big Dave” worked his magic and seconds later it burst into life. It turns out we had an air lock in the system and once it was released she started straight up!”

“I ripped it up down the pit lane and just concentrated on the job, unusually I was silent on the radio until I got to the straight, I saw the chequered flag so knew there wasn’t a chance of another attempt. I just said to the boys ‘please tell me that was enough... please!’ They screamed down the radio POLEEEE!!!! I went bonkers! 3 pole positions in a row and against the likes of Stuart Hall and Michael Mallock, I was absolutely over the moon, I knew this was only qualifying but I couldn’t help but have the biggest grin on my face!”

Ant Scragg started first in the car for the three hour endure race. After initially dropping to third in the opening laps, as he worked hard to get the tyres up to pressure and temperature, it didn’t take long before he retook the lead before and built a gap to second before handing over to Abra at the first round of pitstops.

“Ant came in the team did a fantastic job in the pits as always. The car was back on the ground with 25seconds to go! I was released just in front of the AM07 car and quickly got up to speed, with the team telling me we had now built a huge margin. The car felt great and it was game on for me in what was to be the first of 2 stints I would do in the race. Then all of a sudden one of the Stratton cars had a huge accident going down the Craner curves, breaking the concrete barrier! For safety reasons the race was cancelled and I had done all of half a lap and James didn’t even get in the car! Thankfully the Stratton driver was ok and walked away which is the main thing.”

With Saturdays race declared void the decision was made to extend the 90 minute race the following morning to a 120 minute race to try and recover some of the lost track time from round three. There would be no qualifying session for round four and the grid for the race would be taken from the qualifying session from round three.

“Mark was back with me and it was decided that I would start the race; I was excited but nervous. It was my first time starting and normally I maintain or chase a pace, this time I just had to get the best start and gain the most distance on the field as I could! “

“I got a great start and set the fastest lap on lap 3 which was great but I pushed just a little too hard on my tyres and they were losing grip rapidly. I had a 13 second lead until the rear tyres gave up on me going in to McLean’s and I had a little trip in the gravel trap! Luckily I kept my foot in and came back on the track just in front of Tiff in the Number 91 car, my tyres were dirty and I could feel the gravel stuck in them. The next couple laps I knew I had to take it easy but also make sure I didn’t let Tiff past, then I saw some traffic and used it to my advantage, pushing as hard as I could get the gap on the P2 car.”

“I finished my stint with a 47 second lead and handed over to Mark who did a much better job of managing his tyres than I did and he set about doing his best to fend off Stuart Hall who was rapidly chasing the field and had looked after his tyres perfectly. We were stunned to see him consistently do 1.13’s and worked out that this was going to be very close at the end. Jez was on the pit wall pushing Mark on the radios, who was doing a great in the car, but unfortunately Mark just couldn’t quite hold onto the lead and Stuart passed him with only 4 minutes to go and won by 8 seconds in the end. Overall, we were still over the moon with 2nd place against International standard drivers, seeing as we’re both amateurs! Lesson learnt on how to look after your tyres though!”

“Massive thanks must go to the Generation AMR Team who did a great job, once again providing us with the a great car, and also to our sponsors JCAM and Xynamic Photography for their continuing support and some awesome shots by Gary”

Second place at Donington mean Generation AMR maintained their championship lead which they’ve held since the start of the season. The Richard and Mark will miss the next two as they are concentrating on other projects but the duo will be back at Brands Hatch ready to challenge for the win.

Image: xynamic

After a very promising first round at Silverstone which saw Richard Abra and Mark Poole win on their debut in the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge with Generation AMR. Richard was disappointed to finish 4th at Snetterton after putting the car on pole by over a second and coming tantalisingly close to a second win.

“Snetterton didn’t go to plan from the start to be honest, starting from pole we dropped down to 6th when Mark spun on oil left by the Aston Martin Lagonda entered car after it made an ambitious move on another car only a few minutes into a 3 hour race which left it with a damaged sump and trailing oil on the track!”

“From there Mark was stuck behind the safety car for the rest of his stint. I then got in the car and caught the back of the pack before the safety car came in and set about making some places up until coming up behind a very defensive Alan Bonner, for me this really lost us the race, I spent far too long trying to get past, we were a lot quicker but to be fair to Alan he defended very well until his tyres went off. I got past eventually after he out braked himself going into turn one, I then went on to gain a 40 second lead! At this point I was feeling very comfortable and thought we had a strong chance of getting a good result"

Richard pitted from the lead on lap 42 handing the car over to Mark who kept the Generation AMR Vantage in the lead for the rest of his stint. On Lap 46 the safety car was brought back after a number of cars went off on the oil left by George Miller’s Tiger Coffee Aston subsequently reducing the teams hard earned lead to zero.

“The team made the call to pull Mark in early and gave me fresh tyres, but the safety car came in just after I left the pits so I couldn’t catch the back of the pack. 20 minutes before the end of my stint I was P2 chasing the NMR car, we were trading similar times until my tyres came back to me and we started to reel them in by over a second a lap! Just as we were on the same straight I got the call from the team that I had to make an unscheduled pit stop as Mark hadn’t been in the car long enough, I was devastated, I was so focused on P1 I was certain I could pass him”

After the pit stop mark rejoined in 3rd but dropped to 4th as it started to rain in the closing minutes of the race.

“NMR had a great race and Giles called it brilliantly on the pit wall so well done to them. Obviously we were hugely disappointed that a simple mistake costs us the win but we could have been disqualified had we not pitted.”

“After a very difficult and frustrating race at Snetterton the whole team is raring to go, I can’t wait to get back in the car; I think we have a good chance even though the entry list is starting to get more and more competition with a few very experienced drivers and even some gold level pro drivers, I’m on a mission to get back on that top step of the podium at Donington next weekend.”

Image: Xynamic