Strictly star’s British GT Bentley quickstep

March 5, 2020 0 Comments

Strictly Come Dancing winner Kelvin Fletcher, who wears a Stilo ST5 GT helmet supplied by Nicky Grist Motorsport, will contest this year’s Intelligent Money British GT Championship driving a Bentley Continental GT3.

The former Emmerdale actor won the GT4 Pro/Am title in 2019 in a Beechdean AMR Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4, and has moved to JRM Racing for 2020 with Martin Plowman, who partnered him to the class title last year. Fletcher has also raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and BTCC.

“JRM’s stature within motorsport as World Championship winners in GT racing is something we’re really going to benefit from – their engineering expertise and how they use data to approach their car, season and races is unparalleled so I’m looking forward to using that to develop my driving as we go into [British GT’s] senior class,” said Fletcher.

“To be able to couple that with the best-sounding and best-looking car on the grid in the Bentley Continental GT3 is a win for us – Bentley have proven themselves not only to be a leader in luxury cars but also in motorsport too with this incredible race car.”

The British GT Championship has received a capacity entry, featuring 19 GT3 cars (the largest number since 2014) and 16 GT4 cars. At least 35 cars are confirmed for all seven rounds, while additional race-by-race entries will also compete from Silverstone onwards.

The senior class’ current full-season ensemble features four more entries than last year when the championship experienced an initial resurgence in GT3 interest. That trend has continued into 2020 when new teams and driver pairings will battle for outright and class titles.

Several factors have contributed to the increase, including renewed Silver Cup interest, plus the addition of GT4’s last two Pro/Am title-winning crews and its current overall champion, Tom Canning.

Both reigning GT3 champions also return, albeit split across TF Sport’s two entries, offering the potential for more British GT history to be made. Graham Davidson will attempt to become the first amateur to successfully defend the GT3 crown, while Jonny Adam could win a record-extending fifth title with as many different co-drivers.

Barwell are expected to confirm their second pairing in the coming weeks while the 19th entry represents a seventh manufacturer not currently amongst the confirmed GT3 list.

As such, this year’s British GT Championship will be the first since 2014 to feature more GT3s than GT4s.

Nevertheless, the latter remains as competitive as ever, and not least given the debut of Speedworks’ new-for-2020 Toyota Supra.

McLaren now holds the numerical advantage with eight 570S GT4s, the same number as raced for much of last season, while defending Teams’ and Drivers’ champions TF Sport fly the flag for Aston Martin. The team has chosen Media Day to confirm its second entry will feature former British F4 and Ginetta Junior champion Jamie Caroline plus Porsche Carrera Cup GB front-runner Daniel Vaughan.

Steller – whose Audi won twice last season – take on two-car teams like Century Motorsport (BMW), Academy (Ford), HHC and Balfe (both McLaren), which has expanded its British GT commitment in 2020.

Two former GT4 champions – Graham Johnson (2016) and Matt Nicoll-Jones (2008) – feature on the list along with McLaren’s four Driver Development Programme members who have again been placed with 2019 Teams’ Championship runner-up, Tolman Motorsport.

Ollie Millroy also makes his first British GT appearance since 2012 as part of Optimum’s new-look McLaren GT4 programme, which also features Brendan Iribe, Nick Moss and James Pickford.

McLaren also returns for a fifth season as British GT’s official Safety Car partner. The Formula 1-liveried 720S, which is capable of 212mph, will control proceedings at all seven rounds this year.

Oulton Park hosts the first of this year’s seven British GT rounds over Easter Bank Holiday Weekend (11-13 April).