We are delighted to be supporting Barwell Motorsport in the FIA GT Championship in 2007. The reigning British GT3 Champions, Barwell Motorsport, are competing in the FIA GT Championship with an Aston Martin DBR9 in 2007.
Stay up to date with the progress of the Grandstand sponsored Barwell Aston - all race reports will be added to this section of our site as soon as they become available.
Race Reports
British GT Rounds 13 & 14 - Rockingham - 29 & 30 September 2007
In the last race of the season, the Barwell drivers were very narrowly pipped at the post, to eventually finish a respectable 2nd and 3rd in the Championship. It was a case of “Close, but no cigar” for Barwell Motorsport’s British GT drivers, when an extremely tight battle for the Drivers’ title came down to a straight fight in the very last race of the season.
In summary, this has been an absolutely incredible year for Barwell Motorsport and their three Aston Martin DBRS9 British GT cars. Out of 41 total race starts, they have taken 19 podium finishes including five wins (more than any other team), and one of their driver pairings has been on the podium in every race apart from at Rockingham. They have also only had one retirement from a race due to a mechanical failure (again at Rockingham!) – a superb record across three 550bhp GT3 cars. Read on...
Barwell Motorsport wins Avon Tyres British GT Teams’ Championship
Barwell Motorsport has won the 2007 Avon Tyres British GT Teams’ Championship title, after claiming a pair of second places in the penultimate event of the season at Croft last weekend. The title was actually decided after race one at Croft, when Barwell had built up a 33 point lead with only 30 points left available to score.
All three of the Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9s have won races so far this year, with the Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker and Ben de Zille Butler/Guy Harrington crews taking two victories each and the Tom Alexander/Michael Bentwood squad one. Our five team victories from the 12 races to date is the highest wins tally of all the British GT teams. We have also had at least one driver pairing on the top three podium in every race, underlining the quality of the season-long performance from the Barwell crew.
With two races left at Rockingham on September 29/30, De Zille Butler/Harrington lead the Drivers’ Championship by just a single point from Drayson/Cocker, with three other rival driver crews also still in the hunt for the title.
(8 September 2007)
British GT Rounds 9 & 10 - Thruxton - 25 & 26 August 2007
Barwell dominated the racing weekend at Thuxton with a double victory, and Drayson and Cocker re-instating themselves at the top of the championship.
A fantastically successful weekend at Thruxton, Barwell scored a double win in the latest rounds of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship. Sharing the spoils were the Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker and Guy Harrington/Ben de Zille Butler cars, who both took their second wins of the season. Both these crews backed up their victories with other podium finishes, and Paul/Jonny have now retaken the lead of the Championship in the Bio-Ethanol fuelled Aston, with Ben/Guy moving up to third crew in the drivers’ points.
These results were the result of great performances by the driver crews and the Barwell team alike, who had to contend with extreme tyre wear and fuel consumption issues at the super-fast and abrasive Hampshire circuit.
Barwell extended the teams' championship lead with 100% podium record at Silverstone. They once again demonstrated how important slick team-work in the two-hour British GT races is, after some stunning pit-stops helped Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker to their fifth successive podium of the year at Silverstone.
British GT Rounds 6 & 7 - Brands Hatch - 14 & 15 July 2007
Barwell maintained their 100% record podium finishing record for this season at Brands Hatch.
All six Barwell drivers in each car put in some of their best individual driving performances of the year, and all fully deserved to come away with some top results and a strong haul of championship points. In the end it was the Tom Alexander/ Michael Bentwood pairing that had the most successful weekend, with Tom putting in some gritty drives despite inflaming an old rib injury and being in a lot of pain. Michael again put in his customary polished performance and these two have now moved themselves up to be our top representative in the series standings, just one point off the championship lead in second place.
British GT Round 5 - Snetterton 2 Hours - 3 June 2007
It was a landmark victory at Snetterton for the Bio-Ethanol Aston Martin.
Barwell Motorsport made further motor racing history, when Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker claimed the first race win for Paul’s Bio-Ethanol-fuelled Aston Martin DBRS9.
Backing up third victory of the season for Barwell were two further solid results from the sister Aston Martin DBRS9s of Guy Harrington/Ben Butler in third position (their third podium in a row), and Tom Alexander/ Michael Bentwood in fifth place. This continues Barwell's incredible 100% finishing and points-scoring record for the 2007 season, with all three Barwell Motorsport cars claiming top eight points-scoring finishes in the five races held to date.
Silverstone - FIA GT Championship Round Two - 6 May 2007
Barwell Motorsport competed in the second round of the FIA GT Championship, with its GT1 class Aston Martin DBR9. Having qualified an impressive 9th out of 19 GT1 entries, drivers Jonny Cocker and Piers Johnson were embroiled in a hard fought four-car battle for 8th place throughout the race, and eventually claimed 10th overall. This marks the second top 10 finish in a row after our first two GT1 races, with the Gigawave-supported Aston having claimed 8th place in Zhuhai, China in March.
British GT rounds 3 & 4 - Donington Park - 21 April 2007
Barwell made British GT History at Donington Park, with the first British GT win for Aston Martin in race one and the first ever 1-2-3 team result in race two. “We came, we saw, we conquered” would aptly describe Barwell Motorsport’s visit to Donington Park at the weekend, after we utterly dominated proceedings in the latest two rounds of the British GT Championship.
British GT Championship Round 1 - Oulton Park - 9th April 2007
Barwell Motorsport’s three-car Aston Martin British GT squad enjoyed a highly successful Easter raid on Oulton Park, scoring a pole position (the first ever for a Bio-Ethanol fuelled car), two runner-up spots and all cars in the points in both races. We were tantalisingly close to achieving the race wins on both occasions, and the Jonny Cocker/Paul Drayson car led the way for much of race one. The three stunning Aston Martin DBRS9s were undoubtedly the stars of the GT show at Oulton Park, with rows of people queuing to get a look into the Barwell garage during Monday’s feature day. Fittingly we now lead the Avon Tyres Team’s Championship after the first two rounds of the series.
There was controversy amongst the 24-strong British GT field, however, as the newly upgraded Ferrari 430 was run by two teams according to the new FIA Homologated car specifications, and the small amount of 25kgs of weight ballast it carries is woefully short of what is required to bring it into line with the performance of the rest of the GT3 grid.
FIA GT Championship at Zhuhai, China - 24/25 March 2007
Barwell Motorsport proved that it can race with the world's best GT teams, when drivers Jonny Kane and Jonny Cocker brought the
Gigawave-supported Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 car home in eighth place overall
(and second Aston) in round one of the FIA GT Championship at Zhuhai, China.
In doing so Barwell scored an FIA Championship point on its debut at this
level.
This year's FIA GT championship features one of the toughest GT1 entries
that has been seen for many years, with the world's top teams, cars and a
star-studded list of drivers. In an eventful opening race the Barwell
Motorsport Aston led the field at one stage during the pit-stops, but then
our long first-stint strategy was seriously compromised by a lengthy safety
car period shortly after our first pit stop. Although a top six finish had
been on the cards at one stage, we still fought back to claim eighth place
after winning a dramatic fight with the JetAlliance Racing Aston DBR9 of
Karl Wendlinger in the last five minutes.
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Barwell made British GT History at Donington Park, with the first British GT win for Aston Martin in race one and the first ever 1-2-3 team result in race two. “We came, we saw, we conquered” would aptly describe Barwell Motorsport’s visit to Donington Park at the weekend, after we utterly dominated proceedings in the latest two rounds of the British GT Championship.
