TF Sport Pull GT3 Entries Due To COVID-19

TF Sport have been forced to call time on a six year run of competing in the top class of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship as a result of the compressed calendars due to COVID-19. The #1 and #7 Aston Martin V8 Vantage AMR GT3s of Graham Davidson and Tom Canning, and Ahmad Al Harthy and Jonny Adam respectively were hot favourites for the 2020 title but clashes with the World Endurance Championship would have left the crew too thinly stretched.

Only One Former Class Champion Remains.

The decision means that all four reigning British GT overall class champions will not be on the grid, it is believed to be the first time in championship history that not a single overall class champion has attempted to defend their title. TF Sport took both overall titles in 2020 and claimed the GT4 Teams win on the way. The GT4 effort will remain for 2020 so a title defence is on the cards for the outfit.

In the drivers championship though the news now means that only Pro/Am Champion Sam de Haan for Ram Racing and the Am Cup Champions Greg Caton and Shamus Jennings will be attempting to defend their titles.

The only former overall champion in the field as a result of the decision is Beechdean AMR‘s owner and Am driver, Andrew Howard. The Beechdean crew are also the only team left running GT3 specification Aston Martins in 2020. A remarkable turn of events given that Aston Martin took a astonishing 5 of 8 available titles in 2019.

“Everyone at TF Sport is very disappointed not to have an opportunity to defend the British GT3 title this year,” said team principal Tom Ferrier. “We’ve run GT3 cars in the UK since 2014, won our first race a year later and have claimed championships in almost every season since. Two fantastic line-ups meant we had a very good chance of maintaining our proud GT3 record this year, but that just won’t be possible now due to Covid-19 circumstances specific to the team. Nevertheless, we are really looking forward to fielding two GT4 entries and are fully focused on retaining the Teams’ and Drivers’ crowns. British GT is a fantastic championship and we will be back in full force in 2021.”