Gary Ayles

Gary Ayles (born September 25, 1964) is a race car driver born in the United Kingdom.

Ayles raced in the British F3 championship in the late 1980s before making the switch to touring car racing. He competed in the British Touring Car Championship in 1991 driving for Toyota alongside Andy Rouse, and filled in for one race in 1992. He was offered a drive with the factory Peugeot team in the Superturismo series as teammate to Fabrizio Giovanardi. In his three years with the team he finished runner up in the championship in 1992 to the Italian and scored several wins during his time in the series against such names as Gabriele Tarquini, Roberto Ravaglia and Emanuele Pirro.^[1] Ayles returned to the BTCC in 1996, again driving for Andy Rouse in a Nissan, but did not enjoy the same success.^[2] In 1997 he raced a McLaren F1 GTR in the FIA GT Championship for Parabolica Motorsport. He has entered the Le Mans 24hr four times with a best finish of 4th in class and 18th overall in 1995.^[3]

Ayles became a team owner in 2000, when he established GA Motorsport, which has entered cars in the BTCC since 2000, racing as Team Sureterm for much of 2004.^[4] At the beginning of 2005, Ayles sold his share in the team to Mike Thompson, which Thompson since rebranded as Quest Racing. After planning to enter a new team in 2006, he formed the A-Tech team, which entered the BTCC for 2007, with a pair of Alfa Romeos for David Pinkney and Richard Marsh. Currently (2011) he is involved with Lotus UK's GT4 race programme with the Evora.^[5]

He co-owns a heritage vehicle shipping and delivery company, Bespoke Handling.^[6]

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded all in 1996 only) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap - 1 point awarded 1988-1989 in class)

1. ^ – Race was stopped due of heavy rain. No points were awarded.

‡ Endurance driver.

References

External links

• Profile on Historic Racing