Ginetta GT5 Challenge champion Oli Basey–Fisher will graduate to the GT4 class of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship this season while remaining with the Academy Motorsport team he drove for in 2013.
The Suffolk based driver will share a Ginetta G55 GT4 with Academy team manager Matt Nicoll–Jones for the championship’s season which begins at Oulton Park on the Easter Weekend.
“British GT4 is the perfect stepping stone I was looking for this year”, said the 18-year-old “It’s a great opportunity for me to gain experience in GT racing while also keeping my career progressing in the direction I would like it to go. To be able to partner Matt this year is simply fantastic. He mentored me to the Ginetta GT5 Championship title last year and so to now race alongside him, considering his wealth of experience, will surely benefit me greatly.”
The move into the GT4 class – which promises to be very competitive this season, with several new teams and cars set to be involved – is the latest step in Basey-Fisher’s rapid progression up the Ginetta ladder having entered car racing as the recipient of the Yorkshire based manufacturer’s scholarship program.
Last year we beat Academy teammate Will Burns to the championship on the final weekend of the season at Donington Park.
“It’s great to be coming back to the British GT Championship,” said Nicoll-Jones, who won the GT4 class in 2008, sharing a Ginetta G50 with Stewart Linn. “The idea of driving with Oli for this season was very tempting having spent 2013 mentoring him to the Ginetta GT5 Challenge win. I know how committed and capable he is as a driver and believe that the combination of the two of us will be very competitive in GT4.
He continued; “fortunately, I have a great partner in DCB (Kent) who shares this vision. The level of competition this year in the GT4 class was a key driving force behind my decision to pursue the championship assault – we want to prove our team. Both our car and drivers are capable of beating the strongest opposition and I believe we can do so in 2014.”
