Current British GT champion Jonny Adam admits that he isn’t sure where he’ll be racing in 2020.
The Aston Martin works driver has won the British GT championship the last two years with Flick Haigh and Graham Davidson and is eager to return to the series in which he has won the most races with 14.
“We’ve sold a lot of cars and we’ll wait and see where I am next year as we haven’t yet been assigned a programme for 2020. We won the championship in a car that was very new to everyone in March, second year round we know where to make the car nicer but it is a BOP championship so you can’t have the fastest car out there. That makes it easier to driver and makes it better all round. I’d love to be doing British GT next year.”
The flying Scotsman spoke about his coaching of Am drivers, a tool useful in a championship where professional racing drivers are usually paired with so called “gentleman drivers”.
“When I play golf I always go to the driving range before the first tee. The reason I do this is because of muscle memory, and it is the same when you’re racing these cars. You can’t test much because they cost an awful lot of money to run. The cheapest and easiest way to test the car and improve as a driver is by using the simulator. The sim model we have at base for me as an Aston employee is perfect because it’s got the same brakes, the same tub and it’s within a couple of tenths of what we do at the weekend.”
While there were some differences between Haigh and a hard-charging Davidson, Adam went back to basics with both drivers when he started to work with them.
“You change quite a lot (From Flick to Graham). Every customer driver wants to win, I have always been lucky in that the level of Am that I have had is always at a nice level and always have the aspiration to win the championship.
“I actually put both of them in a go kart in January and February because it is a great training tool anyway but also, these guys won’t have driven anything with an engine for three or four months in anger so it flushes out the cobwebs.
“It is all about the personality though and what information they will take onboard from coaching, and I don’t know that until I meet the person. My method always changes, even depending on the race weekend and the weekend before to make sure I get their confidence up. My coaching technique has not changed and I’ve been coaching now for five or six years, though I have been an instructor since 2003.
“For sure Graham is one of the fastest Ams out there and it is plain to see from the lap times, but the key with GT racing is being consistent. If you finish fourth in every race in the British GT Championship you’re in with a chance of winning the title so the days where you are looking at an awkward manoeuvre are the days where you sit and take the points. Sometimes it is about communication, I always like to speak to the driver as well and give them information, not too much but enough detail at the right time.”