{"id":5218,"date":"2019-07-09T18:48:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T18:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wrda.itcscloud.co.uk\/historic_site\/web\/?p=5218"},"modified":"2020-01-21T19:58:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T19:58:46","slug":"welsh-drivers-set-for-super-spa-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wrda.itcscloud.co.uk\/historic_site\/web\/welsh-drivers-set-for-super-spa-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh GT stars get ready for 2020 + New Bentley Boy Seb Morris and others head to Bathurst"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Drew Gibson<\/p><\/div>\n

BENTLEY FACTORY DRIVER MORRIS ANNOUNCED AS ‘PRO’ RACER FOR FRENCH\u00a0TEAM CMR IN GT-3 EUROPE RACING.\u00a0Bentley factory driver Seb Morris has been announced as the \u2018Pro\u2019 driver for French team CMR\u00a0 (Classic & Modern Racing\u2019) in this season\u2019s five-round GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup \u2013 adding to the Welshman\u2019s works commitments in the global Intercontinental GT Challenge.\u00a0Seb , will dovetail his driving duties with the manufacturer\u2019s full works squad, run by M-Sport, with his new role at CMR in GT World Challenge Europe at the wheel of a customer Bentley Continental GT3. Seb is already a proven force in the championship formerly known as Blancpain Endurance Cup, he immediately established himself as a driver to watch and one of the quickest on the grid. Now entrusted by Bentley with the Pro driver role at CMR, the 24-year-old is delighted to be making a return to the pan-European championship for a third year and extremely happy to remain part of Bentley\u2019s expanding customer race programme as part of his prestigious works role.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic news to be placed with CMR by Bentley for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup\u201d I\u2019m really looking forward to starting work with the team and getting preparations underway for the start of the season in April at Monza. Obviously, it\u2019s a huge honour to be entrusted by Bentley with the Pro driver role in one of CMR\u2019s Bentley Continentals this year and, along with my factory drive in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, I\u2019m determined to deliver the absolute best performances I can for Bentley throughout 2020. It\u2019s set to be a very exciting year, I\u2019ve never looked forward to a season in racing as much!\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a two-day official test for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup competitors at Paul Ricard in France on 12th\/13th March, the opening round will take place at ultra-fast Monza in Italy over the weekend 18th\/19th April.<\/p>\n

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Starting with the Bathurst 12 hr race at Mount Panorama in Australia, the growing band of Welsh drivers in International racing action are headed by Seb Morris, who has joined the official Bentley team for the 2020 season having been chosen as one of new breed of young drivers to become \u2019Bentley Boys! Seb who won the 2017 British Gt Championship, and amongst his awards\u00a0 were the 2011 WRDA Welsh Young Driver of the Year and the 2016\/17 <\/strong>Neil Cunningham Memorial Trophy<\/strong> .<\/p>\n

2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge consists of 5 races, starting with the Bathurst 12 hr race, the Bentley team will run 2 cars, one for the highly experienced team of Maxime Soulet (Belgium\u00a0 Jules Gounon (France)and Jordan Pepper (South Arica). In the other car is a British trio of Seb Morris with Oliver Jarvis and Alex Buncombe as his team-mates. \u201cIt\u2019s actually been a textbook route from customer racing into the works team for me,\u201d said Morris, who won the British GT title in 2017. \u201cI first raced the Bentley Continental GT3 in 2016 for Team Parker Racing in British GT, which we went on to win! (and won 10 races in 3 years with numerous fastest laps and track records) . Thanks to race all those race wins Seb was selected last year to join the works team in several long distance races\u00a0 in 2019 and impressed with his raw pace!. Seb summed up\u2019 Now as a fully-fledged works team driver, I can\u2019t wait to start my career as a Bentley Boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bentley\u2019s Director of Motorsport, Paul Williams, added: \u201cWe\u2019ve been very careful to grow and adapt our programme in a way that is sustainable for us and beneficial to both our new and old customers, and I am very pleased that we have attracted teams that operate at the highest level. Bentley Team M-Sport has been instrumental in enabling us to grow our customer programme and build the Continental GT3s required for 2020, while also preparing for Bathurst 12 Hours and planning an extensive test schedule that will benefit all of our teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also at Bathurst for the 12hour race are Welsh Legend Jules Westwood<\/strong> (Lamborghini) and Cardiffs Matthew Parr<\/strong>y (Aston Martin)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile stepping into the seat at JRM that Seb has vacated will be \u2018Strickly Come Dancing\u2019 star Kelvin Fletcher who with Martin Plowman will race with JRM Racing and Bentley this season.<\/p>\n

Devaudens Nick Jone<\/strong>s and team-mate Scott Malvern will race with Team Parker Racing and Bentley this season, taking the place of Llanellis Ryan Ratcliffe<\/strong> who will move to the Porsche GT Cup that supports the heavily televised British Touring Car Championship!<\/p>\n

Andy Meyrick<\/strong> has re-signed for a fourth season with Spanish team, Bullitt Racing for 2020 as the team take on the Michelin Le Mans Cup in a Bentley Continental GT3.<\/p>\n

Meyrick, has considerable experience of the Bentley\u00a0 taking wins in 2014 Silverstone and Paul Ricard as well as podiums at the 2015 Paul Ricard, Monza and N\u00fcrburgring endurance races.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to take the next step with Bullitt with the eventual target of a place on the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid,\u201d said Meyrick. \u201cI have enjoyed a great relationship with Bentley for a long time now and combining this with my three years at Bullitt Racing; I\u2019m very excited for the 2020<\/p>\n

The Michelin Le Mans Cup comprises of five two-hour races at the Barcelona, Monza \u00a0Paul Ricard (F) and Spa-Francorchamps with the finale in Portugal. Moreover, the series includes a \u2018blue riband\u2019 double-header supporting the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, made up of two 55-minutes races in the middle of June.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to have Andy back as driver and Team Performance Director for Bullitt Racing\u2019s fourth season of racing and the step up to GT3,\u201d said Stephen Pattrick. \u201cAndy has been instrumental in making the change to Bentley and to race the Bentley Continental GT3. Meanwhile Andy and his wife Becky are expecting their first baby shortly.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile. Cardiff\u00a0 boy Jann Mardenborough @Jannthaman <\/u>is starting his 5th year in Japan<\/p>\n

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Seb & Rick battle through at Donington in the last race in the 2019 British GT Championship, but Ryan Ratcliffe & his new teammate posted a\u00a0 non-finish after gearbox failure, meaning that Ryan\u2019s fine drive went unrewarded!<\/p>\n

In qualifying Seb & Rick were only able to post the 11th<\/sup> fastest time whilst Ryan and his new teammate Jordan Witt were dead last in the GT3 class.\u00a0 However the Team Parker mechanics found that one of the cars turbos was faulty and having changed it, a recovery drive was in prospect for the no. 7 Bentley Continental.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in the JRM pits, the highly experienced Team Engineer Welshman Jules Westwood, explained why the new generation Bentley Continental GT3 car had only One British GT race all season! \u2018The Balance of Performance (i.e Handicap) given to us by the organisers has really hurt us, as they use the same factors as they use for the European races. It\u2019s better on European tracks as there are lots of sweeping corners but in the UK there are lots of Slow hairpins. The drivers say the car handles well but it\u2019s slow through the speedtraps so what we gain on one part of the circuit we loose on the rest. It\u2019s up to the manufacturer to appeal against the BOP, and we understand they have appealed but we haven\u2019t seen any change, and we have a weight and power penalty to carry today\u2019 Running 60kg of ballast more than the team had at the beginning of the year, plus less turbo boost, the JRM Bentley was the slowest GT3 car through the speed traps and consistently between 3mph and 4mph down on the competition on the straights!<\/p>\n

\"Dream<\/a>

Dream Team- Rick & Seb meet the public<\/p><\/div>\n

At the start of the race, the 300th race in the British Gt Championship a clash at the back of the grid brought out the safety car. It what seems to be a series trend, the safety car went so fast that the grid was spread far and wide when the race restarted! Even so Rick Parfitt Jnr in the 31 JRM car and Ryan Ratcliffe in the no 76 car powered forward. \u00a0However Rick dropped down to 30th<\/sup> place after being forced into a spin by a hit from an Aston Martin. Rick then put in a \u2018Drive of the Day\u2019 to hand over the car to Seb \u00a0in 11th<\/sup> place!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meanwhile Ryan Ratcliffe (still waiting for his hair to regrow after \u2019Braving the Shave\u2019) had risen to 6th<\/sup> place but shortly after handing over to his new team-mate Jordan Witt the car was back in the pits and out of the race with gearbox problems!<\/p>\n

Joining the action in 12th place, Seb ever the professional racer had a major task with a 16 second gap to the Aston of Valentin Hasse-Clot. Setting the quickest first sector of anyone as he began his stint, Morris certainly declared his intent and was soon into the top 10 and s closed to within almost eight seconds of Hasse-Clot. However a Safety Car period meant Morris got ever closer to the Aston and stalked him and passed Hasse-Clot for eighth. Seb was on fire and he \u00a0caught, and passed, Bradley Ellis\u2019 Aston Martin on the final lap \u2013 the car which earlier made contact with Parfitt Jnr \u2013 even though the JRM machine was badly squeezed.\u00a0 Completing a superb recovery Sebs \u00a0his best lap of the race, 1m28.280 seconds, was just 0.4 seconds shy of the fastest of all to underline the tremendous performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur car on Sunday was one of the best cars I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure to drive and Rick drove the best he has all season, he was the closest to me in qualifying he\u2019s ever been\u201d, added Morris, \u201cJRM put together a brand new team for this year and they\u2019ve done a superb job, I\u2019m looking forward to hopefully being back with them next year \u2013 if they want me!\u201d<\/p>\n

With the British GT season now completed, Morris\u2019 focus returns to his Blancpain Endurance Cup season where he will reunite with Team Parker Racing for the fifth and final round at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain on Sunday, 29th September.<\/p>\n

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Morris gets a Bentley boost & gets set for Suzaka 10 hrs!<\/p>\n

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Wrda member Seb Morris has received a big boost after he was confirmed as part of the official works Bentley entry for the Suzuka 10 Hours, the fourth round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.<\/p>\n

\"Seb<\/a>

Seb ready to race- images courtesy Jakob Ebrey Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

The race which takes place on Sunday, 25th August will be Morris\u2019 first ever visit to Japan and Suzuka, the classic drivers circuit that is the home of the Japanese Grand Prix.\u00a0 Chester-based Morris will team-up with highly-rated pros Maxime Soulet and Andy Soucek.\u00a0Combining forces in the Gold No.108 Bentley, the trio will start next week as genuine contenders for the podium and, quite possibly, victory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful to Bentley for this opportunity\u201d, said \u00a0Morris, \u201cI\u2019ve never been to Suzuka, so it\u2019s a real boost the team trusts my abilities to be able to go there and do the best job. \u00a0Having worked with Bentley through its customer team programme for over four years now, I feel very comfortable in the Bentley environment and ready to perform. The Continental GT3 produces great downforce and performs well in high-speed corners, and I fully expect to be competing for top spot on the podium. It\u2019s going to be my first time partnering Maxime and Andy, both fantastic pro drivers, so as well as being determined to deliver the very best performance I can, it will also be an incredible chance to learn a huge amount from two of GT racing\u2019s most successful drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzuka, of course, needs little introduction as one of the world\u2019s most well known and high-profile motor racing circuits. Home to the FIA Formula One World Championship\u2019s Japanese Grand Prix, the uniquely challenging 3.6-mile, 18-turn track has featured in some of international motorsport\u2019s most thrilling battles at the pinnacle of single-seater and GT endurance racing. This year\u2019s Suzuka 10 hours, sponsored by BH Auctions is the 48th staging of the race. The entry list eads like a Who\u2019s Who of GT racing competition and notably features 1998 and 1999 Formula One World Champion Mika Hakkinen. \u00a0\u00a0The \u00a0first track action at Suzuka will come during pre-event practice next Friday, 23rd August, with additional practice and qualifying following on Saturday, 24th August \u2013 the latter getting underway at 13.00 (local time). Pole position shoot-out for the fastest 20 cars from qualifying will commence at around 17.30 (local time). On Sunday, 25th August, the Suzuka 10 Hours will begin at 10.00 (local time), 02.00 UK time.<\/p>\n

The official website is https:\/\/www.suzukacircuit.jp\/10h_en\/<\/p>\n

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2019 British GT Championship -Brands Hatch<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Before<\/a>

Before the dramas! Rick leads Glen before Glen crashes out of the race!<\/p><\/div>\n

Bentleys mobile sauna fries Seb at Brands. Trying month for Seb Morris ended last week with a frightening incident.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Edited by Rob Allender. Photos by British GT.com)<\/p>\n