2024 British GT Championship: Season Preview

Spring is in the air, Easter is just round the corner, and that can only mean one thing – the British GT Championship is ready to burst back into life.

This season is yet again, another capacity entry with 36 cars set to do battle around some of Britain’s best circuits – and one of Belgium’s – with 19 GT3s and 17 GT4s all promising action, new machinery and intrigue all season long.

To make sure you don’t miss any of the entries, we’ll run through all the runners and riders to make sure you’re aware of everything going on.

GT3

BMW

BMW’s M4 GT3 powered Darren Leung and Dan Harper to the title last year, but while the car returns the one of the champs don’t as Leung elects to move up to the FIA World Endurance Championship and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe.

The team that took them to the crown – Century Motorsport – is back and with an expanded two-car entry. Both crews should be familiar as they take the step up from BMW M4 GT4s, to the bigger beast. The first pairing is Carl Cavers and Lewis Plato, while the other was meant to be Michael Johnston & Chris Salkeld but on the week of the season opener, Salkeld has been replaced by Dan Harper as Johnston looks to hit the ground running.

Joining the BMW brigade was the surprising face of RAM Racing. Formerly a Mercedes-AMG devotee, John Ferguson has elected to swap to an M4 and in so doing, he’s maintained his links with the manufacturer’s newest factory driver: Raffaele Marciello.

Aston Martin

The British marque is back with a handsome-looking evolution on the always reliable Vantage, and three of the face-lifted creations are on the grid.

Two come from Blackthorn Motorsport, which has done a couple of races in the past – normally with David Macdonald behind the wheel – but while Macdonald isn’t joining, the line ups will very familiar to keen championship followers. The first comes from British GT’s GOAT, yep Jonny Adam is back on familiar ground after a few years in Mercs, and is looking to add a fifth title alongside Giacomo Petrobelli, who has mostly been racing in Europe in recent years.

The team’s second entry is for Matt Topham – previously a GT4 Pro-Am champ – and Josh Rowledge, who’s been picking up trophies of his own in GT4, but now both are stepping up to GT3 for a full-season after Topham did a couple of races with Enduro Motorsport last year.

Making up the trio is a much-anticipated duo. Familiar in the sense that Andrew Howard is returning with Beechdean AMR, the real exciting aspect is that his co-driver is Aston Martin F1’s ambassador Jessica Hawkins, who is making her GT debut after proving pretty handy in touring cars in the past.

Audi

Just one example of the four rings’ finest is on the grid this year, and even that’s just part-time, as Hugo Cook jumps up from GT Cup in his J&S Racing Audi R8 LMS. He’ll be joined by Sacha Kakad for a campaign which, at the time of writing, encompasses Oulton Park, Silverstone, both trips to Donington Park and the away adventure to Spa.

Lamborghini

Barwell once again enters a pair of Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2s, which have always proved handy in the right hands, but never really sparked the imagination of prospective customers like some other manufacturers.

Nevertheless, the two cars entered this year feature a duo that have won the title in a Lamborghini in recent years, but have found themselves split over the entries. Notably, Sandy Mitchell is carrying on in the championship – along with his growing reputation as a Lambo racer – and is being joined by Alex Martin, who has raced a bit of everything over the last few years including the BTCC and the Michelin Le Mans Cup.

Speaking of the BTCC, the second car is headed by a pair who are pretty familiar with the workings of touring cars as Rob Collard – who won the 2020 title alongside Mitchell – is joined by son Ricky, the first of two father-and-son crews we’ll see competing this year.

McLaren

As has become somewhat familiar since the launch of the 720S, the most popular car in the field comes from McLaren and the new Evo update has only enhanced the machine’s popularity.

Seven of them are on the entry list – although one, the RACE LAB example of Euan Hankey & Lucky Khera, won’t be seen at the Oulton Park opener – and have a mix of old hands and new faces.

Starting from the top of the entry, Team RJN is back and carrying the #2 as Alex Buncombe returns to British GT for the first time since 2014 alongside Simon Watts for the rest of the season but Watts can’t make the Oulton starter so Alex’s brother Chris will be occupying the other seat.

Paddock Motorsport also return, and retain familiar faces with team boss Martin Plowman continuing with Mark Smith, who was continuing his steady rate of improvement last year.

There’s a bit of change at Optimum Motorsport, which is back with McLaren and Mark Radcliffe but his Pro team-mate is now Tom Gamble, who is making his full-season British GT debut after a couple of one-offs over the last couple of years.

Simon Orange comes back too, with his Orange Racing with JMH outfit, and he’s joined by a new team-mate for his British GT campaign which will be very familiar to regular watchers of GT Cup, as Tom Roche steps up to replace Michael O’Brien.

Finally, Garage 59 are running a pair of csrs, with one being run by Shaun Balfe – who is moving across from Barwell’s Lamborghinis – and he’s joining reigning Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Adam Smalley, who will be competing in this championship for the first time.

Rounding things off is a well-known pairing in unknown surroundings as Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton elect to shake off the stress of running their own team, and let Garage 59 do that heavy lifting instead.

Mercedes-AMG

The three-pointed star makes up the remainder of the field, with four examples lunging in to the battles.

2 Seas Motorsport come with a brace – the first is for Kevin Tse, who has raced a few different marques over the recent years, but he’s not being joined by regular team-mate Chris Froggatt. Instead, he’s being joined by Mercedes’ ace Maxi Götz to propel themselves up the order.

Although, the other side of the garage isn’t exactly full of novices. Ian Loggie – a man who’ll race anything, anywhere – is back and looking to take his second title, but he won’t be partnered by Jules Gounon, instead he’ll be with British GT’s most successful driver (in terms of wins) – Phil Keen, who’s aiming for his first crown.

Team ABBA Racing continue undisturbed and unchanged, with the second father-and-son pairing in what should be an unofficial class this year, as Richard Neary is joined once again by son Sam in their green-chrome machine.

Completing things for Mercedes, and in GT3, is Greystone GT who continue on with Mike Price and Callum Macleod.

GT4

There’s a bit more variety in the secondary class, with some cutting edge machinery being joined by familiar and returning metal to make up what should be a captivating title hunt.

Aston Martin

There’s a new shape machine in GT3, and the baby GT4 Vantage has had a makeover too as the new ‘Evo’ model makes its British debut.

Forsetti Motorsport, which has been racing in the GT4 Winter Series and is also running a pair of older-spec Astons in GT Cup, brings two cars which are sure to be right up at the sharp-end of the points standings. They’ve also split their entries across the categories with Mikey Porter and Jamie Day tackling the Silver Cup while Marc Warren steps up from the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB to join Will Orton in a Pro-Am effort.

Audi

There’s a part-time GT3, but a full-time GT4 as Tim Docker and Jordan Albert – again, known to GT Cup regulars – join Steller Motorsport for an attack on the Pro-Am and overall GT4 titles. They’re in safe hands, with the team running Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams to the class title back in 2022.

BMW

BMW has always had a thinner presence in the GT4 category and just two cars – run by Century Motorsport – come back for this year.

Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley raced together in a McLaren last year, but have now elected to move to Century and try their luck in the Pro-Am standings in an M4. Also in an M4 is Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson. The latter ends a long association with Ginetta as a factory driver to join Century, while the former has also proved himself a handy Ginetta racer – he won the Ginetta Academy title in 2022 in his first season of racing.

Ford

We now get to our reigning champions. Academy Motorsport has decided to not break up a good thing as Matt Nicoll-Jones’ squad upgrades to the newest of American muscle with the new Ford Mustang GT4. Nicoll-Jones puts himself in one of the camo-machines alongside regular co-driver Will Moore.

In the other, reigning champion Erik Evans comes back to try and make it two-in-a-row (in what would be a first for the secondary class) but is joined by semi-regular Academy racer Marco Signoretti, as he returns to British GT following a year out.

Ginetta

Yorkshire’s finest returns, but with a minimal presence this year – indeed there’s just one example of the G56 GT4 Evo gracing the asphalt this year and that’s for Colin White, a man who’s raced Ginettas for 15 years and raced pretty much everything else – including ASCAR – for decades.

Joining him at his own CWS Racing squad is Thomas Holland, who had experience of the un-Evo G56 last year.

Lotus

Isn’t this a turn up for the books? The last time anyone raced a Lotus for a full-season was in 2015 when Oz Yusuf and Gavan Kershaw were just pipped to the GT4 title by Ross Gunn and Jamie Chadwick in one of a handful of Evoras.

Now, the Norfolk builders are back with the new Emira and Mahiki Racing has taken up the mantle of keeping the spirit of Colin Chapman alive. Both cars will be in the Pro-Am ranks, with Ian Duggan switching from a Ginetta to join Gordie Mutch, as Nathan Harrison switches from one-make Porsche racing to join Steven Lake in the other example.

McLaren

The Arturas carry on after what was a relatively successful debut in 2023, although form certainly dipped towards the end of the year. Nevertheless, there’s three back on the books and should all be pretty solid.

Paddock Motorsport’s example is back, with Alex Walker and Blake Angliss – a winner in the Ginetta GT Championship – tasked with pedalling the black, white, and red machine.

Jack Brown – who looked so certain to win the GT4 title before late season technical misfortune robbed him of the title – is back with Optimum Motorsport, but has a new co-driver as Zac Meakin switches from Team Parker’s borrowed Artura.

RACE LAB also return, and their car has an intriguing combo – Callum Davies and Sai Sanjay stormed to GTH success in GT Cup appearances at Donington and Snetterton last year, and now they’re looking to transfer that speed to British GT.

Mercedes-AMG

There’s three entries for the three-pointed star and all offer a certain level of intrigue – they’ll certainly be interesting to keep an eye on throughout the season.

The first features one of our two reigning champions as Matt Cowley swaps from Academy’s Mustangs to join Ed McDermott at Paddock Motorsport, as the team adds a bit of variety from its regular McLaren efforts. McDermott’s regular co-driver Michael Broadhurst has decided to step back to be a more behind-the-scenes driver coach for 2024.

Also running a Mercedes is RAM Racing, which elects to stick with tradition in its GT4 offering, with Harry George continuing in an AMG alongside Ginetta Junior graduate Luca Hopkinson.

There’s a champ rounding out the Mercedes contingent with Seb Morris making his return to British GT alongside Charles Dawson – again another pairing that bedded themselves in at GT Cup- and they’ll be racing with Team Parker Racing, the team that took Morris to the GT3 title alongside Rick Parfitt.

Toyota

Rounding things out is the much-welcomed return of Toyota, with Speedworks Motorsport – under the guise of Toyota Gazoo Racing UK – running a Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo.

The racers tasked with continuing where Toyota left off – a Supra won the 2022 Donington Finale – is Dan Vaughan, who won the 2020 British GT4 crown with TF Sport in 2020, and Kavi Jundu – who was constantly improving in Paddock’s Artura in 2023, and won his class in the very same Supra at the Abu Dhabi 6 Hours over the winter.

Calendar

There’s no surprises with the 2024 calendar, with Spa-Francorchamps reinstated as the overseas trip after the Portugal excursion last year. The only real change is the lack of a Donington Decider, with Brands Hatch assuming the position of season finale, a Brands Battle Royale perhaps?

Rd1 – Oulton Park – 30 March / 1 April – Two one-hour races

Rd2 – Silverstone – 27 / 28 April – One three-hour race

Rd3 – Donington Park – 25 / 26 May – One three-hour race

Rd4 – Spa – 22 / 23 June – One two-hour race

Rd5 – Snetterton – 13 / 14 July – Two one-hour races

Rd6 – Donington Park – 7 / 8 September – One two-hour race

Rd7 – Brands Hatch – 28 / 29 September – One two-hour race