Jake Giddings heads to Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit this weekend, 12th/13th September, for the final race of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship season – an event which the Wisbech driver hopes will deliver one of the JWBird Motorsport team’s best results of 2015.

Long overdue a trouble-free outing, Jake and team-mate Kieran Griffin head to the East Midlands a few days from now determined to sign-off the campaign with a strong performance after several race meetings battling ongoing power issues with their Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Following the most recent round at Snetterton 300 Circuit a couple of weeks ago, the No.47 car was taken back to the Banbury headquarters of renowned specialist Prodrive – the engineering strength behind Aston Martin’s motor racing programme.

With a full investigation of the engine required to try and get to the bottom of the issue which had a major impact on the team at Spa-Francorchamps, Brands Hatch and Snetterton, the Prodrive experts gave the powerplant a full check-over and with key focus on the cam timing sensors and actuator.

Testing the re-fettled Aston Martin at Donington last Thursday, 3rd September, Jake reported the outing went extremely well initially but the power-sapping problem did frustratingly return. With an Aston Martin technician in attendance, more work was done to try and cure the issue and ahead of next weekend’s action a fresh ECU and control module will be fitted to the JWBird car.

“Testing was going really well on Thursday, I really thought we’d got the problem sorted out but the lack of power came back”, explained the Finesse Paving & Civil Engineering, Cowley Road Garage and Toppesfield-backed racer, “The Aston technician did manage to stop the power problem at the time, but he was convinced it would come back so they’re going to change more parts on the car now.”

Ahead of round nine of the season, which will be screened live on Motors TV on Sunday, Jake and Kieran hold 10th position in the overall GT4 standings and with 150% points up for grabs in the final race of the year – due to its two-hour duration – there is a mathematical possibility for the duo to end the season in the top six.

In the Pro-Am title battle the team-mates holds fifth place going into the finale while, in the entrant standings, JWBird Motorsport is ninth. Having finished on the podium at Rockingham in May, a repeat of that sort of result would be a deserving way to end, what has been, a challenging season for 2014 GT4 Champion Jake.

“Hopefully the car will be sorted for next weekend and we’ll be back on form, Kieran is raring to go and we both really want to end the year with a good result – I want to go out for a win”, added the Aston Martin Evolution Academy driver, “I haven’t always had the best of finishes at Donington, but since I’ve been racing GT I do enjoy the track a lot more so I’m looking forward to it.”

Opening free practice at Donington Park will take place at 10.10 on Saturday, 12th September, with the second session following at 12.15 ahead of GT4 qualifying at 15.55. On Sunday, 13th September, after a brief morning warm-up round nine will get underway at 13.00 – the live Motors TV broadcast will begin at 12.45.

Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Driver Standings (after Rd8):

10th Jake Giddings/Kieran Griffin, 52.5pts

Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Pro-Am Standings (after Rd8):

5th Jake Giddings/Kieran Griffin, 80pts

Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Team Standings (after Rd8):

9th JWBird Motorsport, 49.5pts