British GT stars team up in M235i

Four drivers from British GT squad Barwell Motorsport will team up to share a BMW M235i Racing in this weekend’s Silverstone 24 Hours.

Barwell team boss Mark Lemmer, Mark Poole, Richard Abra and Timur Sardarov will race one of the three-litre coupes for the Belgian JJ Motorsport team. The car will run in the dedicated M235i Cup Class.

Lemmer won the saloon class of the race – formerly the Britcar 24 Hours – in 2005 racing a Honda Accord, while Poole and Abra won the event outright in both 2012 and 2013 in a BMW M3 GT and Aston Martin Vantage GT3 respectively.

The JJ team has a strong history with the M235i, having won the single-make Belgian class last year and taken a class win in the Zolder 24 Hours.

Lemmer said: “Mark and Richard wanted to do the race as they have a very strong record in it, and for Timur and I it’s a bit of fun before the season starts.

“The M235i is well balanced so it’s easy to drive and light on its tyres, which is exactly what you want for an endurance racing car. It’s not as fast as the top-class M3 GTRS, CSLS and SEATS, so I’m not sure the overall win is on. But we have a lot of experience in the driver line-up so a class win is definitely the aim.”