ALMS GT2 Competetion heating up

With some Corvettes moving to GT2, a privateer AM team joins in with a 2 year comitment.


Barwell to run GT2 programmes in both ALMS and LMS
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Barwell Motorsport has announced extremely exciting plans for the 2008 season, which include competing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in the GT2 classes of the American Le Mans Series and the (European) Le Mans Series. The Surrey-based outfit is currently evaluating the car options for its programme, and the most logical choice (as an existing Aston Martin team) would be the new Aston Martin V8 Vantage-based GT car (as seen in last week’s Autosport), which is currently being evaluated by Aston Martin Racing (Prodrive) as a potential new GT2 chassis.

© DPPI

Since Barwell switched to GT racing in 2006 it has been loyal to the Aston Martin fold, having run the GT3 DBRS9 as a front-runner in both the British and European GT3 Championships and the GT1 DBR9 in selected FIA GT rounds during the last two years. This relationship culminated in winning the 2006 British GT3 Driver’s Championship with Leo Machitski, as well as the ’07 British GT Teams title, and pioneering E85 Bio-Ethanol fuel in Paul Drayson’s British GT race-winning DBRS9.
Barwell and Paul Drayson will continue their ground-breaking Bio-Ethanol campaign, with both cars being built to run on ‘2nd Generation’ E85 (85%) Bio-Ethanol fuel. Paul will be moving up from the British GT Championship to drive one of the new GT2 cars, which will be entered in the American Le Mans Series using E85 Bio-Ethanol fuel (as allowed by ALMS from 2008). Alongside this, Barwell is seriously evaluating a plan to run another car in a selected (European) Le Mans Series programme, which would also be developed and tested as an E85 Bio-Ethanol car, although this may have to switch back to running on the 2008 LMS-Championship spec E10 fuel for the race events themselves. Barwell is also keen to evaluate other energy efficient technologies in the future.
Commenting on the announcement Paul Drayson said: “Barwell, Jonny and I have had a great season in 2007, achieving a historic first win for a green fuelled racecar. We have been delighted by the interest and support for our green racing project and we are keen to take it to the next level. For the first time next year the American Le Mans Series will allow bio-ethanol cars to compete and so this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase British motorsport technology for environmentally friendly racing. I’m going to give it 100% commitment and focus.”
The GT2 programme has been set up as a minimum two-year plan, with the aspiration of competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2009. With regards to other drivers, Drayson and Barwell will continue their relationship with his British GT partner, Jonny Cocker, with the 21-year-old joining Paul in the ALMS attack. A third driver would then be added only for the 1000-mile Petit Le Mans race in October. No drivers have been finalised for the European series car, but discussions are ongoing with all of Barwell’s ’07 drivers and other interested parties regarding the seats available.
“The timing for this fantastic new project is perfect” says Barwell Motorsport MD, Mark Lemmer, “The team, Paul and Jonny have gelled superbly over the past two seasons and the GT2 project gives us the ideal global platform to showcase our ‘Green-thinking philosophy’. The programmes in both Le Mans Series will also hopefully give us the chance to continue working with some of our other up-and-coming existing Barwell drivers from our 2007 GT3 and GT1 squads.”
Barwell may still have an involvement in the British GT Championship, but this will be scaled down from its successful three-car 2007 team. It is currently considering providing engineering support to Aston Martin entrants in the GT3 and GT4 classes of either the British or the FIA (European) GT3 series.
(Barwell Motorsport)