A fresh wind and grey skies beckoned the start to the 2026 British GT Championship on Tuesday as twenty-six GT3 and GT4 cars congregated at the home of British Motorsport for their annual Media Day presentation and test around the full Grand Prix circuit of Silverstone.
Whilst Mother Nature may not have been that complementary to start with, the bright livery designs soon warmed the day with the sun soon making an appearance as all the cars and crews enjoyed three test sessions around the circuit as well as a public presentation within the pit lane and press conference during the lunch interlude.
Unfortunately for us, there were no last-minute announcements as we were already aware of the five Aston Martin Racing powered crews who would compete full season within the Championship although one team was still hopeful of a late signing with discussions due to take place still at the test.
The Beechdean AMR team will be the sole AMR Vantage GT3 powered team within the front running class after the Blackthorn AMR had earlier announced their 2026 racing programme within the European theatre for their driver clientele.
Andrew Howard would return to the battles within the Pro-Am class alongside Ross Gunn who returns to the team after a number of years away from the championship and in addition to his already declared IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championship with the Heart of Racing AMR team within a car sporting a livery design reminiscent of that raced by the team in the then brand new Vantage GT3 at the Gulf 12hr back in 2018.
Whilst people still climbing the GT ladder were describing their challenges stepping up from either Ginetta Series or GT4 classes in terms of driver/car interactions, Gunn was the only one suffering a simple issue downgrading between his GTP/Hypercar charge elsewhere to that of quickly familiar Vantage GT3.
Then, within the GT4 class there are the brightly coloured quartet of AMR Vantage GT4’s from Full Send Racing, GBR Stratton Motorsport, MK Racing and the Townsend Racing powered by Fox Motorsport teams – all fielding one car apiece despite the earlier hopes of some to race two cars.
AMR Factory driver Darren Turner and Dan Lavery within the #27 Grange Racing by Full Send Racing have their names out there the longest of the AMR powered runners and half already undertaken numerous test sessions around the country. They too had hoped to field two cars, but we understand from the team that they first wanted to get the team/car/crew functioning within the right direction before considering a second car, but we may get to see their black liveried car competing within the GT Cup Championship later this season.
The team did suffer from an understeer issue at the test which saw them sit out most of session three as suitable adjustments were made.
James Townsend takes a progressive step up the racing ladder this season having started within the Ginetta family and this year sees his first competitive racing steps within the GT4 class with his own Townsend Racing team operating under the watchful eye of the more established Fox Motorsport team.
Speaking at the press conference, Townsend spoke about the importance of a coherent ladder system – something that the governing SRO body have embraced this year by taking the Ginetta Junior and Ginetta GT Championships under their wing this season. He will be joined by the more GT4 savvy Joe Wheeler within their pink and purple coloured #40 car.
Townsend would suffer from a puncture during the day, but he was able to bring the car home with little to no damage from the flailing rubber.
Originally posted out as an MKH Racing entry but later revised to just an MK Racing Vantage GT4 entry (after Stuart Hall stepped away from the team last year) saw the Peter Montague lead team buck the Aston Martin Racing Pro-Am classed entry with a silver class entry for both Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins.
Orton endured something of a ‘challenging’ GT4 European Series experience last year with the Racing Spirit of Leman team after he and Marc Warren enjoyed a successful year together with the then Forsetti AMR team in 2024.
Likewise, the Aston Martin F1 Ambassador Jess Hawkins had a similar experience with the Comtoyou Racing team within the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series last year where she found herself without a race car (due to earlier damage) at several of the rounds.
Competing within the highly competitive silver class, this year will be their chance to see what they are made of.
That leaves the solo #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport entry of John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson which sees the venerable Hartshorne step down to the GT4 platform after previous years with the Vantage GT3 and GTE with TF Sport whilst Pearson steps up to the rear wheel driven GT4 platform for the first time.
Continuing to utilise the driver coaching opportunities ‘within the team family’ of Jonny Adam, emphasis will be getting Pearson literally up to speed within the car before the opening round of the season at Silverstone in just three weeks’ time. That coaching continued after media day as the team reverted back to their home track of Snetterton the next day on that very matter.
With the opening Silverstone 500 round in late April being a three hour introduction into the season as opposed to a more traditional two – one hour sprint races around the tight and twisty Oulton Park circuit, that should at least give the rookie drivers and teams room to ‘manoeuvre’ around the Grand Prix loop and represents a sensible choice by the series considering the number of opening weekend shunts we have seen in the past in Cheshire.