Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing has announced that team owner Martin Short is to be step back from driving duties and factory AMG driver Adam Christodoulou will partner Richard Neary for the remaining rounds of the 2017 British GT Championship.
For the three-hour Silverstone round, however, Christodoulou, Neary and Short will drive as a three-man Pro/Am crew.
Silverstone will be Christodoulou’s first experience of British GT GT3 competition.
“I’m really excited to be racing a GT3 car in British GT for the first time,” said Christodoulou. “Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do Snetterton because I was racing at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, but Silverstone is a track we all know well, so we just have to make sure that we make no mistakes and use everything to our advantage.
Christodoulou has extensive experience in GT racing, having started his GT career in the 2010 International GT Open series and Grand-Am Rolex Series. He won the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours in the #4 AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with Bernd Schneider, Manuel Metzger and Maro Engel.
Martin Short has no regrets about stepping into a management role with the team.
“Richard and I started out on this adventure together and he’s very keen for me to continue racing but I increasingly felt the time was right to stop in GT3,” said Short. “So I contacted AMG who sent me a list of available drivers and Adam’s name stood out. He tested our car at Snetterton before the British GT round there and was immediately two seconds a lap faster, which confirmed everything I needed to know.”
“We’d have actually put him in for Snett were it not for his Nürburgring 24 Hour commitments but his schedule allows him to do the remaining British GT rounds, so it makes complete sense for Silverstone to be my championship swansong as a driver. I’ve got absolutely no regrets, and would rather watch them get results from the pitwall than drive around at the back! I’ll still be racing in other categories but it’s highly unlikely I’ll race in British GT again.”
The lights go out for the three-hour Silverstone round of the 2017 British GT Championship at 13:35 on June 11.
