GT3 Stalwart Howard to Retire After End of Season

GT racing veteran Andrew Howard will bow out of top-line GT3 competition at the end of the year, it has been announced.

The 62-year-old Briton has elected to call time on his full time driving career that yielded two British GT Championship crowns, in 2013 and 2015, when the current series concludes at Brands Hatch next month.

He also won the 2016 GTE title in the European Le Mans Series, and made two appearances in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016-17.

Howard explained that he is hanging up his helmet mainly because of the changing nature of Pro-Am competition in GT racing, amid the constant arrival of younger and better-prepared FIA Bronze-rated drivers.

“In short, despite the competitive fires burning in me just as intensely as 10 or 15 years ago, I just don’t have the time and energy to commit myself 100 percent to racing any more,” he said.

“The game has moved on over the past decade and it’s clear that younger Am drivers, who can race weekend after weekend in a variety of series, train in the gym every day and spend lots of time on the simulator, are at a big advantage.

“If you can’t do all that, your performance suffers, and when that happens, it’s harder to enjoy it.

“I don’t want to stop racing completely, but I think if you’re going to see me on track in the future, it will be in historics.”

One of the best-known gentleman racers in the UK, Howard made his fortune with his ice cream company Beechdean before becoming involved in racing in the club-level Mini Miglia series in 1999, only later turning his hand to GT racing in 2006 in British GT.

That turned out to be the start of a virtually uninterrupted two-decade stint in the championship, and he has continually driven Aston Martin machinery since 2008, initially in the GT4 class before stepping up to GT3s the next year.

Howard clinched both of his British GT titles sharing driving duties with works Aston driver Jonathan Adam, while for his title-winning ELMS campaign he drove alongside Alex MacDowall and Darren Turner.

At Le Mans, he achieved a best finish of fourth in the GTE-Am class in 2017, having finished seventh on his debut the previous year.

Howard, who remains in contention for this year’s British GT title alongside Ross Gunn, made it clear that Beechdean will continue to participate in GT racing going forward.

“We plan to continue competing in the highest level of GT3 racing possible in 2027 and are actively looking for drivers for that program, as I’ll be taking a strictly off-track role,” he clarified.

“Whether it’s British GT or something continental will depend on the ambitions of the driver or drivers in question.”