Steve Tarrant

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019 – “Speed Kings – Motorsports’ Record Breakers”

Tuesday July 9th, 2019Tuesday July 9th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

As always, the Goodwood Festival of Speed served up a fantastic menu of motorsport machinery and action over the last weekend, with plenty of history from the past, some current machinery, and a nod or two to the future including car launches for the new Audi R8 LMS GT2 and the Porsche 911 RSR GTE race car. Large and small, two or four wheels, old and new – there was something for everyone who attended. A number of anniversaries were celebrated across the event, the 80th birthday of Sir…

Race Report – Bailey and Schulz Again – A Convincing Win This Time

Monday May 20th, 2019Tuesday May 21st, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Brands Hatch – 11th May – Race 2 In intermittent sunny and cloudy conditions for the late-afternoon race, Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz confirmed their dominance of the day in the SB Race Engineering Ferrari 488 Challenge with a convincing win. It could have been so different though – despite pre-race predictions that the “aero” cars – the Praga and the Sakers – would struggle to compete on the tight confines of the Indy circuit, this was proving, rain or shine, not to be the case, and Paul Rose accentuated…

Race Report – A Win for Bailey and Schulz in Difficult Circumstances

Tuesday May 14th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Brands Indy – 11th May 2019 – Race 1 Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz, in the SB Race Engineering Ferrari 488 Challenge, took the win in Saturday lunchtime’s opening race of the day, victorious in a race blighted by attrition, Safety Cars, biblical rain and penalties. It all started early in the race; Sarah Moore brought the Ginetta G50 in after five laps with a broken diff bracket. The reduced Tockwith crew (Nigel Moore was away on ELMS duty) got to work to fix it, and Moh Ritson rejoined just minutes…

Race Report – JMH Automotive win round 2

Monday April 29th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

John Seale and Marcus Clutton, in the JMH Automotive Lamborghini Huracan, won the second race of the day with a clear lap advantage over the opposition, but in the opening laps once again had to give best to the VR Motorsport Praga. With 33 cars on the circuit, even the pace lap was a bit close, and as the red lights went out for the start, Ben Sharich’s Taranis leapt from the second row to make it three abreast towards Abbey, though Tim Gray had got ahead by the time…

2019 British GT Championship is GO-GO-GO!

Monday April 22nd, 2019 Steve Tarrant

RAM Racing’s Ian Loggie claimed his maiden British GT pole position at Oulton Park on Saturday, ahead of today’s two season-opening British GT races. Phil Keen starts Race 2 up front for the second successive year, while Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx handed Multimatic Motorsport’s #15 Ford Mustang a double GT4 pole position. GT3 Q1: LOGGIE UNTOUCHABLE IN OULTON’S SUNSHINE RAM Racing’s Mercedes-AMG had looked fast in practice and Loggie converted that potential into a maiden British GT pole position during the first of today’s 10-minute qualifying sessions. Team Parker…

Race Report – VR Motorsport’s Praga Wins Season Opener

Tuesday April 2nd, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Tim Gray, driving the stunning VR Motorsport Praga R1T, took a convincing win in the opening round of the Championship, striding away from the field at the start, then responding to a late-race challenge. The Praga had signalled notice of intent on the early-morning Free Practice session, but in Qualifying had to give best to the new Lamborghini Huracan of car owner John Seale and pro-driver Marcus Clutton, just half a second separating the two front-row starters, which the modest Clutton put down to luck as much as anything; “I…

Bumper entry for Britcar first round

Thursday March 28th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

A capacity entry of thirty six cars have entered for the first round of the 2019 Dunlop Britcar Endurance Championship, running this weekend on the Silverstone International circuit. There is plenty of potential action in stall with a revised race format this year, replacing the past where all cars would start together and those entered into the sprint car class would leave the track at the timed conclusion of their race, while those in the endurance class would continue. Now, having listened to the wishes of entrants, each championship round…

VR Motorsport Bring Praga to the Britcar Grid

Tuesday March 12th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Founded in 1907, and possibly most famous for the V3S off-road truck, Praga are based in Prague in the Czech Republic. Based on the R1R road car, their R1 race car, first built in 2012, is powered by a mid-mounted Renault Sport-sourced 2 litre turbocharged inline-four cylinder engine. VR Motorsport’s Vincent Randall takes up the story “VR Motorsport started racing 10 years ago in the 750 club RGB class, running Spire and Mittell cars. In 2016 we decided to stop running multiple cars and concentrate on one more specialised car,…

McLAREN AUTOMOTIVE EXTENDS CHAMPIONSHIP PARTNERSHIP FOR 2019

Tuesday March 5th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

McLaren Automotive has confirmed the partnership with the British GT Championship has been extended for the 2019 season, further strengthening the relationship with the leading GT series in the UK. This announcement will see a variety of models from the range of sports and supercars lead the grid through the supply of the Safety Car for the seven-round calendar. For the fourth successive season, McLaren Automotive will support the SRO-managed series with the supply of the Safety Car at each of the six UK rounds, plus the one overseas…

Biggest full-season entry in championship’s 27-year history

Tuesday March 5th, 2019Tuesday March 5th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

A record 38 full-season entries will contest the 2019 British GT Championship, which stages its annual Media Day at Donington Park later today (March 5). The series’ 27th campaign maintains the trend of recent seasons by featuring more cars than ever before. Although one-off entries have occasionally resulted in larger grids at specific events, this year’s full-season total across GT3, GTC and GT4 surpasses the previous SRO Motorsports Group era record of 36 set in 2018 and 2014. It is also believed to be the largest since the championship was…

2017 champions reunite for centenary GT3 assault

Monday March 4th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Rick Parfitt Jnr, Seb Morris and Bentley will reprise their championship-winning partnership in 2019 after joining forces with former GT1 world champions, JRM. The Pro-Am duo claimed 2017’s British GT3 crown aboard a Team Parker Racing-run first generation Continental GT3. Now, after a season spent contesting different series, they’re back with Bentley’s latest specification GT3 car, which has been made available to customers for the first time. The deal also sees JRM return to British GT for the first time since the end of 2017 when it made a one-off…

GT4 race winners join to race Optimum Motorsport’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Thursday February 28th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

British GT4 race winners Mike Robinson and Patrik Matthiesen will join forces this season aboard Optimum Motorsport’s second latest-specification Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4. The reigning GT3 Drivers’ champions concentrated on the senior class in 2018 but confirmed their GT4 return in January by announcing Jack Butel and Connor O’Brien as the first of two pairings. It has now added a second Silver Cup duo in the form of Robinson and Matthiesen, who spent last season with different teams racing different cars. While Matthiesen remained a championship contender with HHC…

Mike Moss returns with BMW to Britcar Endurance

Wednesday February 27th, 2019Wednesday February 27th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

It doesn’t seem long ago that Mike Moss took his first racing steps in the Trackday Trophy, and in a fairly short space of time he has claimed three Britcar titles and a class win in the 2017 Silverstone 24hrs race – all in his Moss Motorsport BMW M3 E46, which last year, in the hands of Kris Prosser and Jon Watt, took the Britcar Sprint crown. Moss himself, meanwhile has been concentrating on his team’s unique BMW 1M E82, the innovative machine engineered by Moss Motorsport’s engineering associates Ash…

Porsche’s new 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport to enter British GT

Wednesday February 27th, 2019Wednesday February 27th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Porsche’s new 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport will contest British GT this season with manufacturer specialist GT Marques plus Pro-Am duo Chris Car and Carrera Cup GB runner-up Dino Zamparelli. It brings the number of manufacturers confirmed for this year’s British GT4 class to eight and also represents Porsche’s first entry since 2017 when the previous-generation Cayman raced. The list of debutants also extends to both drivers and team, although two of the three are no strangers to the German manufacturer. GT Marques is something of a Porsche specialist having previously…

GT4 champions return to defend title

Wednesday February 27th, 2019Wednesday February 27th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

GT4 Pro-Am champions Nick Jones and Scott Malvern will defend their British GT title with Team Parker Racing in 2019 after revealing their Mercedes-AMG’s new livery at Donington. The duo return for a fourth season together after initially racing both a Ginetta and Porsche before switching to the Mercedes-AMG at the start of 2018. The combination of a new-generation GT4 car and Team Parker’s expertise paid off for Jones and Malvern who claimed two class wins en route to the Pro-Am title. They will face renewed competition to retain their…

Century Motorsport add second BMW M6 GT3 to championship programme

Wednesday February 27th, 2019Wednesday February 27th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Century Motorsport has expanded its 2019 British GT Championship programme to include a second BMW M6 GT3 for Pro-Am duo Dominic Paul and Ben Green. The reigning GT4 Teams’ champions initially revealed their senior class entry in December by confirming Adrian Willmott and Jack Mitchell, who also won the 2018 GT4 Drivers’ crown with Century. However, since then the Fenny Compton-based squad has been working on a second M6 entry that now sees last year’s GT4 runner-up Green remain with Century for a third season. The same combination also finished…

KTM added to GT4 runners in British GT

Tuesday February 26th, 2019Tuesday February 26th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

KTM will return to British GT for the first time since 2011 this season when Track Focused make their championship debut with the X-Bow GT4. Pro-Am pairing Mike McCollum and Sean Cooper will race the canopied second-generation X-Bow, which is yet to contest a British GT race, at all seven rounds. Its open-top predecessor won the GT4 Drivers’ title in 2011 courtesy of ABG Motorsport’s Peter Belshaw and Marcus Clutton, who now acts as one of Track Focused’s development drivers. However, McCollum and team manager Cooper are no strangers to…

Porsche return to top class of British GT

Tuesday February 26th, 2019Tuesday February 26th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

Porsche will return to British GT’s senior class for the first time in four years this season when G-Cat Racing debuts the new 911 GT3 R. Shamus Jennings and team owner Greg Caton comprise the amateur driver crew scheduled to compete at all seven rounds. The team’s Porsche is believed to be the first 2019-spec 911 GT3 R in Britain. The opening round at Oulton Park will also represent the first time that any Porsche has contested the championship’s senior class since Trackspeed entered an earlier-iteration GT3 model at Silverstone…

2011 British GT champion Glynn Geddie to partner Ryan Ratcliffe aboard Team Parker Racing’s Bentley Continental GT3

Thursday February 21st, 2019 Steve Tarrant

The news comes just over a month after the team initially confirmed it would enter the second-generation Bentley, which makes its domestic debut this year. Geddie won the overall drivers’ title aged just 21 with his father Jim eight years ago but hasn’t raced a GT3 car full-time since 2012. His last British GT outing came with United Autosports in 2014, the same year he contested the entire British Touring Car Championship campaign. His connection with Team Parker stretches back to 2008 when they won Porsche Carrera Cup’s Pro-Am 2…

New McLaren 720S GT3 to enter British GT

Wednesday February 6th, 2019Wednesday February 6th, 2019 Steve Tarrant

The McLaren 720S GT3 will make its UK competitive debut with Balfe Motorsport, as the multiple championship-winning customer team confirms a return to the British GT Championship in the GT3 class for 2019. The decision also sees McLaren Automotive Factory Driver Rob Bell make a return to the British GT grid as part of a Pro-Am line-up alongside team owner Shaun Balfe, reuniting the driver pairing that took the 2017 International GT Open Pro-Am title. Bell brings significant experience of the McLaren 720S GT3 with him, having played a key…