Revised Full Season Entry List Reveals Changes.

The 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship will finally get underway at Oulton Park on 1st of August, with practice and qualifying ahead of the opening two rounds of the championship. The revised full season entry list has now been revealed, and as expected, it makes for worrying reading. The original 35 car full season entry prior to COVID19’s onset has been reduced to just 23 cars. A further three cars are set to compete as race by race entries.

The bad news has been trickling in over the past month and has been covered on the site and show. Defending champions TF Sport were forced to withdraw from the GT3 class, though their two car GT4 campaign remains. Luckily the GT3 bad news was tempered by the announcement of a new car from AF Corse UK. The Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin are a welcome addition to the reduced overall lineup.

Also missing from GT3 are the names of Optimum Motorsport‘s antipodean pairing of Nick Foster and Martin Berry. They’ve been replaced in the team however, so Ollie Wilkinson and Lewis Proctor take their spot on the entry list for a Silver Cup campaign. Disappointingly, the #22 McLaren 720S GT3 of Balfe Motorsport doesn’t make the start of the season, Shaun Balfe and Rob Bell taking the year out. Replacing them at selected events instead will be a Balfe run GT3 entry for Stewart Proctor and Joe Osbourne.

A new entry into the revised lineup comes from Jenson Button‘s Jenson Team Rocket RJN. This means a change for Michael O’Brien, who moves up a class having secured a new drive, following Balfe Motorsports GT4 entry withdrawal. Partnering him in the McLaren 720S GT3 will be James Baldwin, the World’s Fastest Gamer.

Aston Martin missing from top class of revised full season entry list.

The same news announcing the Proctor GT3 run also announced former champions Beechdean AMR stepping back to a single car. The Silver Cup effort for Valentin Hasse-Clot and Jack Mitchell is also facing the cut. However, the two Silver drivers will instead share three outings between them alongside team boss Andrew Howard in the #99.

This news means that there is no Aston Martin full season entry within GT3. In fact, it’s the first time in 15 years there’s no Aston Martin featuring in the top class of the opening round of the British GT Championship.

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GT4 overall entries reduced by almost half.

The original full season entry list saw 16 cars set to compete for the GT4 British GT Championship crown. The continued impact of the pandemic sees this reduced to just nine entries in the revised full season entry list.

Tolman Motorsport were one of the first casualties of the season. The withdrawal of their GT4 drivers Katie Milner, Harry Hayek, Michael Benyahia and Alain Valente was made by mutual agreement with McLaren following the announcement of their Driver Development Program‘s suspension this year. Tolman confirmed in June that they were still hopeful they would be able to take part this year and were actively looking for drivers to fill the empty spots, but it looks like it wasn’t to be. The four drivers withdrawn this year have been confirmed to be returning to the McLaren DDP in 2021 though, so we look forwards to their return.

In addition to the changes to Optimum Motorsports’ GT3 lineup, there was also the announcement of the withdrawal of their GT4 entries. Optimum said in their statement that the changes to the calendar have led to these cars now being unable to compete in this years British GT Championship.

Century reduce entries and also partner with Team Tegiwa

Both Century Motorsport and Academy Motorsport have reduced their entries to a single car in the wake of lockdown. Academy Motorsports’ remaining Ford Mustang GT4 will be driven by Jordan Albert and Matt Cowley, with Will Moore and team boss Matt Nicoll-Jones‘ #61 sadly missing from the full season entry list.

Century’s remaining entry leaves Andrew Gordon-Colebrook and Ben Hurst as Silver cup contenders in the BMW M4 GT4. Century have however also teamed up with Team Tegiwa to prepare their maiden entry into the British GT Championship. Drivers Luke Sedzikowski and Dave Whitmore will be competing as an Am/Am entry on a race by race basis. The Team Tegiwa #33 BMW M4 GT3’s first outing will be on the championship’s opening weekend at Oulton Park.

The vastly changed landscape of teams and drivers means we are now guaranteed new winners in the upcoming championship. In fact only Ollie Wilkinson returns to defend his crown from last season. Other winners from last year have either been drafted elsewhere, or have sadly withdrawn. The changes to GT4 means that competition for the Silver Cup will be hard fought. We’re confident that in spite of these changes, it will be an exciting season of racing all round!