Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway Race Ace to make Motorbase Performance debut in two-hour Brands Hatch race
Ross Wylie begins his assault on the 2016 British GT Championship when the Scotsman competes in the opening round of the nine-race series at Brands Hatch on Sunday (17 April). The two-hour race around the Brands 2.433-mile Grand Prix track will mark Wylie’s race debut for the local Kent-based Motorbase Performance team with his sights firmly set on securing the Pro-Am title in an Aston Martin Vantage come season end in September.
2016 marks Ross’s third consecutive year in BGT having won the 2014 GT4 title before finishing runner-up in the GT3 Silver Cup category last year. The 24-year-old from Thornhill near Dumfries partners fellow Scot Phil Dryburgh, from Fife, in the Aston for the first time.
Ross, who has added SDA Packaging (Kent) to his personal partner portfolio, had his maiden test in the Motorbase Aston in Portugal in late February and has subsequently only ran in one additional test at Rockingham earlier this month. Wylie started form pole-position and won the GT4 category in the corresponding race in 2014 – one of six podiums that season – and finished 10th last year in the GT3 category. He made his debut at Brands in an APR Volkswagen Racing Cup event in 2013.
Ross Wylie (GB): Age 24. Born & Lives Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland:
“Because of my limited test programme so far with the Motorbase Aston and the fact that we’ve not been at a test featuring all of the BGT cars, it’s difficult to say where we are in terms of our outright pace. That said, both Phil and I are very motivated and our aim is to score some healthy points at Brands. We’ve nothing to loose and everything to gain. It’s a long season but we are both there to race hard from the very first event. Once we’re into qualifying at Brands we’ll have a better idea of our competitiveness. I am looking forward to working with Phil and the Motorbase Performance team this season. With the Brands track being the ‘home’ race for the team. I can’t think of a better place to start. The Brands Hatch Grand Prix track is great circuit from a drivers’ prospective but a difficult one to race on. It’s a fast circuit with very few overtaking opportunities.”
