![\"Marco-Attard-wins-the-2014-Avon-Tyres-British-GT-Championship\"](\"http:\/\/www.tyretrade.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Marco-Attard-wins-the-2014-Avon-Tyres-British-GT-Championship.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMarco Attard\u00a0became the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Champion at the end of a dramatic season finale at Donington Park last weekend. For the third year running, the title went down to the wire with another intense and unpredictable showdown.<\/p>\n
For Attard, an engine change after warm-up for the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 was followed by an early retirement and then an agonising wait to see how the race would unfold before discovering whether he would be the champion.<\/p>\n
Attard\u2019s retirement opened the door for\u00a0Ahmad Al Harthy and team-mate Michael Caine\u00a0to potentially take the championship. Sharing the #4\u00a0Oman Racing Team\u00a0Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which started in pole position, the pair needed to win the race to snatch the title.
\nThey led for more than three-quarters of the two-hour duration before Phil Keen finally overcame Caine\u2019s resistance to take his and Jon Minshaw\u2019s third win of the year in the #63 Trackspeed Porsche, giving the GT3 drivers\u2019 championship and the Blancpain Gentleman Driver Trophy to Attard.<\/p>\n
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The Trackspeed Porsche drivers Minshaw and Keen were joined on the podium by the #18 FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia pairing of Gary Eastwood and Ollie Hancock, with United Autosports taking their first podium of the year with a spirited race from Mark Patterson and Matt Bell in their Audi R8 LMS Ultra.<\/p>\n
The #4\u2019s eventual fourth placed finish did confirm Oman Racing Team as the GT3 teams\u2019 champions, but Al Harthy and Caine\u2019s points tally was insufficient to topple Attard\u2019s drivers\u2019 championship lead. Third in the standings went to Alexander Sims.<\/p>\n
GT4 was a tense affair too – nothing less than a win for the TF Sport Aston Martin would wrestle the GT4 Championship from the grasp of the #407 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin GT4 Challenge of Jake Giddings and Ross Wylie going into the two hour final round. Although this concluded in favour of the championship leaders, the fight was not without drama.<\/p>\n
Avon Tyres Motorsport General Manager, Paul Coates, said, \u201cWe wish to congratulate Marco Attard for winning this closely-fought title. Even though on-track at Donington it wasn\u2019t the final race result he was looking for, Marco had done enough in the previous races to ensure that he became the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Champion, and it is a well-deserved accolade. It has been a thrilling conclusion to a year that has seen the British GT Championship elevated to a new level. All of us at Avon Tyres are delighted to be involved in such an exciting race series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avon Tyres, title sponsor of the British GT Championship, also unveiled at Donington a new slick tyre for the 2015 season. Next year there is a compound change for the new Avon slick, which will be supplied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marco Attard\u00a0became the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Champion at the end of a dramatic season finale at Donington Park last weekend. For the third year running, the title went down to the wire with another intense and unpredictable showdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[360,649,653,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avon","category-brands","category-motorsport","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n