JRM hands over its British GT racing arm
Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher’s Paddock Motorsport outfit has taken over the running of their Bentley Continental GT3 in British GT, following JRM’S decision to cease its racing activities due to financial concerns.
JRM, which won the opening 2019
British GT3 race with Seb Morris and
Rick Parfitt Jr, has been involved with the championship and other series for a number of years, notably winning the 2011 FIA GT1 drivers’ title with Michael Krumm and
Lucas Luhr, and finishing sixth overall at the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours.
The team ran the Bentley for Plowman and Fletcher at this year’s opening
British GT event at Brands Hatch, but the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the company, which is now undergoing a restructure and will cease its involvement in racing for the immediate future.
“It’s no surprise that companies like ours have been hit by the pandemic, which has left us in a difficult financial position,” said Jason King, managing director at JRM. “What we’re trying to do at the moment is restructure, rebuild, but there’s certain parts of the business like the racing that was never profitable and we did it for a marketing exercise more than anything.
“But we agreed with Martin, Kelvin and Mark Plowman, Martin’s dad, that they would continue with the racing and that we would support from an engineering side of the business.”
King confirmed JRM, which mainly deals with major projects for clients such as Subaru and Bentley as well as manufacturing, is “much smaller than it was originally but sometimes you’ve got to go backwards to go forwards” and that it hasn’t entered into receivership. “The racing side of the business was probably 10% if not less,” added King. “Certainly, going forward, we won’t be out there running teams.”
Plowman and Fletcher, 2019 British GT4 Pro-am class champions, had originally planned to race with JRM in British GT last year but the pandemic meant they deferred their entry. Their Paddock Motorsport squad was set up in 2019 and contested the Mazda MX-5 Supercup, and expanded its programme to run two Mclaren 570S GT4S in the GT Cup this season before taking over the operating of the Bentley from the Silverstone round last weekend.
“Paddock Motorsport has taken over the running of the Bentley for the remainder of the season,” confirmed former Indycar driver Plowman. “We’ve carried over the core crew, engineers, staff, mechanics, and we’re just determined to see out the season. As a team, we’re really excited to take this step up and be put in this position to make this transition into GT3 racing.
“It backs up the hard work we’ve done in GT4 in the GT Cup, which made it a lot easier to step up. I’m really proud of all the people involved in the last six months. It’s been fun and surreal to be team owners and drivers, but we’re coming to the track with our driver hats on.
“We’re looking to finish the season, funding dependent. To do as much of the season as we can depends on COVID. We really need to bring sponsors and guests in so we hope they will start easing the restrictions.”