The Avon Tyres British GT Championship returns this weekend as it heads to Rockingham for the latest round of the season.

Wrotham based Motorbase/Oman Racing will be looking to extend their championship lead at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Following a successful season opener at Oulton Park, the Motorbase-run squad heads into Sunday’s two hour race with a healthy 24 point lead in the championship standings. Rory Butcher and Liam Griffin lead the charge for the Kent-based squad in the #6 Aston Martin Vantage after taking the first race win of the season last month.

Speaking ahead of the weekend, Team Principal David Bartrum said: “It’s always great to head into a race weekend as championship leaders in both the drivers and the teams standings.

“The obvious aim is to leave Rockingham in the same position and hopefully extend our advantage. Its early days, but Liam and Rory did a fantastic job at Oulton Park and came away with some great results. There’s little reason why they shouldn’t be strong at Rockingham.

“It maybe not quite as well suited to the Aston Martin as Oulton Park was but the team have been doing their homework and I feel we’re well prepared to continue to get those all-important results.”

Meanwhile Ahmad Al Harthy and Daniel Lloyd will be looking to get their championship campaign back on track after a difficult start to the season.

Despite the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 carrying additional 75kg of ballast on board, Team Principal David Bartrum is hopeful that Al Harthy and Lloyd’s experience and race pace will see both Aston’s challenging at the front of the exceptionally strong British GT field.

He added: “Ahmad and Dan endured a pretty tough opening round at Oulton through no fault of theirs or anyone in the team.

“Partly due to the ballast they have to carry which hurt in qualifying, but equally they found themselves involved in incidents which couldn’t have been avoided from our part. It was just terrible luck and a simple case of the wrong place at the wrong time.

“That’s well and truly behind us now and their Championship challenge starts here.”

Following free practice sessions in the morning, the first of Saturday’s two qualifying sessions starts with the GT3 AM drivers at 15:35. Sunday’s two hour race is scheduled to commence at 13:35 with live coverage of round 3 broadcast on Motors TV.

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