Jonny Adam will return to the Intelligent Money British GT Championship this weekend at Brands Hatch partnering with Andrew Howard in the Beechdean Aston Martin.
Adam returns to the championship for a one-off race after being forced to miss the 2020 season due to COVID-19 pandemic issues. Beechdean are also sitting out most of this year appearing at just a select few races.
This reunites a partnership that has already won two British GT titles back in 2011 and 2015 and to add to the occasion the team will drop its usual blue and white colour scheme to instead carry a retro navy and yellow scheme which adorned their title winning DBRS9 in 2011.
“I’ve put all my focus and energy into Beechdean the business over the last few months but there is light at the end of the tunnel and I feel capable and ready to go racing again,” said Andrew Howard.
“Obviously, Jonny and I have a great history together so when I knew he was available for Brands it was a no-brainer, really. We haven’t raced together in British GT or elsewhere since winning the championship in 2015, but everything slotted back into place when we went for a simulator session last week. His dulcet Scottish tones over the radio took me right back!
“I’m there to have fun and enjoy a close battle with the other Ams but we’ll go about it in a very professional way, as if we’re fighting for the championship. Jonny knows how to get the best out of his Ams – he practically wrote the handbook – and I’ve no doubt he’ll be eager to remind everyone of what they’ve been missing so far in 2020.”
This will be the only outing for Adam in British GT this year as Andrew Howard will be partnering with Frenchman Valentin Hasse Clot at Snetterton and with another yet to be announced AMR factory driver at Silverstone.
“We tested together at Brands last Friday and it was just like the old days: our working relationship and the team atmosphere were exactly the same,” said Adam. “We’re under no illusions – there are some very fast pairings this year – but the Aston is also more amateur-friendly than it was 12 months ago. It’s an area Prodrive worked really hard on over the winter but not something we’ve been able to show thus far. I think that’s maybe why we didn’t see the best of Andrew last season, but he’s always been quick at Brands and I’ll be doing my best to help him find that extra lap time this weekend.
“He’s there to have fun but make no mistake: he’s also taking it seriously. We’ve already had one sim session and will do another before testing again this Friday. That extra hour around the GP Circuit’s going to be a massive bonus as we don’t get many opportunities to test on it and Andrew hasn’t raced for nearly a year.”
Listen to the latest GT REPORT Podcast covering the first two races of the British GT season and featuring interviews with Scott Malvern and Connor O’Brien.
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