We are indebted to Gary Harman (Scoop III – well known in Marcos circles) as he has been following the British GT Championship for us during the 2006 Season – following the exploits of Team Aero with driver pair of Keith Ahlers and Oliver Bryant.

Gary is an excellent sports photographer and we are very fortunate to be able to publish his “action shots” – almost as good as being there. Thank you Gary very much.To see them follow the links from the appropriate rounds (Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and Donnington) they are also available from our Gallery

The championship runs two qualifying sessions before the first race. For each venue they run two races. Each driver must run in a qualifying session: qualifying in session one means you start in race one and so on.

Coming first you are awarded ten points, second eight, third six, fourth five, fifth four, sixth three, seventh two and finally in eighth place you receive one. The title of British GT Champion goes to the Driver or Driver pair with the most points.

Here is the story of the season –so far.

Oulton Park Rounds 1&2 15/17th April

In race one and two the team had problems fine tuning the Aero with their new Avon Tyres, the rear in particular didn’t seem to give the grip required. From the published results for race one and two it appears that team Aero finished in eleventh position overall ahead of some Porches and Ferraris. The team banked three and four points respectively from race one and two in the GTC class - having finished sixth and fifth in their class in race one and two respectively.

Round 3&4 Donington Park 20/21st May

Unfortunately for this round of the championship Team Aero suffered engine problems which ultimately gave up and they were unable to finish. At one point the Morgan was running in fourth place – where would they have ended up if a gasket hadn’t failed. It was a sad end to the weekend after all their hard work. It was an oil pipe leak that sprayed oil onto the windscreen making vision impossible!

Rounds 5&6 Pau 4/5th June

Keith Ahlers and Oliver Bryant were much happier in the South of France – and who can blame them! The Aero was really flying over this weekend with many of their problems behind them. After some very exciting racing overall the Aero was placed 8th in race one, third in class and in race two they came in fifth overall and second in class. A couple of brilliant results with podium positions in both races! In race two there were only three GT3 Dodge Vipers ahead of them and one Porsche 996 Cup. This must indicate the true potential of the Aero in this class of racing. Pau was lucky to be able to enjoy some fine British GT racing. Team Aero were awarded six and eight championship points in race one and two respectively.

Rounds 7&8 Mondello Park 24/25th June

In race one the Aero was seriously challenging other cars in the GTC looking for over taking opportunities wherever possible. The battle was quite intense. Unfortunately after the hand over to Keith Ahlers, with Keith feeling quite confident in their position the Aero hit a major problem. The oil filter had cracked dumping oil under pressure so sadly the Aero was out. Thankfully the problem was not serious and the Aero was back out for race two. After an incident full race Team Aero came in second in class and fourth overall giving them a brilliant eight points. A truly promising result!

Their next race being Snetterton on 15/16th July 2006 for rounds 9&10.

Rounds 9&10 Snetterton 15/16th July

Team Aero had an interesting race one to say the least. Oliver Bryant found that the Morgan was under-steering to a massive degree. This impeded their progress some what. However, when Keith Ahlers took over they were in fifth position in their class and due to the retirement of the RPM Porsche the team finally finished fourth in their class and eleventh overall. This gave them a valuable five championship points. It turned out the under-steer problem was a broken shock absorber.

Traffic in race two held Keith Ahlers up for most of his stint with the hand over to Oliver Bryant joined the just ahead of the leading Trackspeed Porsche but a lap behind. However, the team managed to finish third in their class and eleventh overall gaining six championship points.

Rounds 11&12 Rockingham 12/13th August

With new tyres and Keith Ahlers not getting much track time before race one due to race commitments at the Nurburgring this was going to be a challenge. Oliver Bryant in his stint was held up and at one point due to locking up the Aero had a slight tap with the car in front. While in Keith Ahlers part of the race, Keith hit some fluid that a Marcos (are you noting this Gary) had lost during its demise. Unfortunately the Aero ended up in the gravel. Nevertheless, the Morgan recovered finishing sixth in class and ninth overall earning three championship points. Sadly the off had lost the Aero two places.

Race two saw some great racing; the safety car was called out at one point which did help Team Aero pick up a few places. The Morgan finished seventh overall third in their class giving them six valuable championship points. I was handed the car in p7 in class and 40seconds back, lapping fastest in class I caught back up and went from 5th to 3rd in the last 3 corners to score a memorable podium!

Rounds 13&14 Brands Hatch 27/28th August

With new tyres again it was looking good at Brands, however it was noticed that the differential was getting hot. It was found that the remains of a bolt had sheared within the diff. With no time before qualifying to change the diff the team decided to go out anyway. Sadly the diff let go and that meant Team Aero to their great disappointment had to miss race one.

The diff was rebuilt over night and the car was well on the pace during morning practice. Unfortunately, the Aero’s clutch failed as Keith Ahlers pulled away for a formation lap.

Oliver Bryant came to Brands in a strong joint 3rd position in the championship – missing these two races meant that sadly his championship hopes had disappeared. After such a strong season Oliver deserved better luck that this!

Team Aero could now just plan for a string finish at the final two hour race at Silverstone on 24th of September.

Round 15 Silverstone International 24th September

Keith Ahlers started the race and soon got into a good rhythm allowing Keith to keep up a reasonable pace. The safety car was deployed but it didn’t occur at a convenient pit window which would have allowed them to take advantage of a slow train of cars on the track, when they did they had to d o some repairs to a loose under tray that lost them a lap.

They couldn’t make this difference up and so they finished the race fifth in class and fourteenth overall gaining them four championship points.

Championship results

Team Aero finished third in the GTC Teams Championship with RPM and Trackspeed ahead of them, both of these teams run Porsches. Team Aero gained 53 points, RPM 85 and Trackspeed 111. While Keith Ahlers and Oliver Bryant finished joint 4th in the Drivers championship – Matt Allison won the GTC Driver on 86 points, Keith and Oliver both got 53 points.

This was a great effort and achievement bearing mind that Team Aero are the smallest team on the grid. Congratulations to the team, the drivers and all their sponsors. It is great to see a Morgan compete at this level of motor sport. They only have Porsches to beat now! I would like to thank Gary Harman again for the use of his excellent photographs and for Oliver Bryant’s gripping season reports that we have overviewed here.

I do hope that Team Aero will return to the Championship next year – we must beat the Porsches. If they do we will let you know the dates as soon as we can so that we can perhaps go along and support them. I also hope Gary will be there to capture the action for us.

I wish all the best to Team Aero for the 2007 season.

Take care – see you all soon
Roger.