ABBA Racing will run the father-son pairing of Richard and Sam Neary for a second consecutive season in the 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship, having taken promising strides forward in 2020.
Richard is entering his sixth British GT season and his fifth with the previous-generation Mercedes-AMG GT3. Pro-Am Mercedes rivals RAM Racing ran two Evo models in 2020 and finished second in the Teams’ Championship, with Yelmer Buurman and Ian Loggie, and Patrick Kujala and 2019 runner-up Sam de Haan.
Richard told britishgt.com,
“We had a chance to upgrade to the Evo kit but are really comfortable with what we already have and would rather not introduce something that requires more testing and development to be fully optimised.
“Our pace wasn’t far off RAM’s Pro-Am champions last year, and Sam compared very well against Yelmer Buurman, so I don’t see a need to chase incremental improvements while we’re still unlocking our own potential.”
ABBA Racing’s pairing took the Silver Cup in 2020, which has become the Silver-Am class for 2021. This will allow Bronze and Silver-graded drivers to challenge for class and overall honours.
Sam Neary impressed in 2020, especially in unpredictable conditions, and the 18-year-old’s performances in the dry also took a step forward as the season progressed. The team took a season-best sixth-place finish in Race 1 at Donington Park in August, while RAM Racing took second and third.
Sam will be entering his second British GT campaign in 2021, and told britishgt.com:
“It was nice to show what I could do while also improving as the season progressed.
“We’re not expecting miracles – the difference in experience and resources between us and the bigger teams is clear – but Silver-Am gives us something tangible to fight for while also targeting a first overall podium with my old man.”
Richard’s best result in British GT was a second-place finish at Oulton Park in 2019 with Adam Christodoulou, and will hope to build on 2020’s promising campaign.
His most recent British GT seasons have yielded a 12th-place finish in 2019, ninth in 2017 and 14th in 2016.
