Barwell Motorsport is one of the UK’s most successful privately-owned professional racing teams, having been competing at the forefront of different motorsport categories during the past five decades.

The Surrey-based company is renowned in British and European motor racing circles for being one of the most passionate, colourful and spirited teams in the paddock. It is a family business, founded by Richard Lemmer in the 1960s, and during the ‘60s and ‘70s it enjoyed success in a variety of racing disciplines including saloon, single-seater and sports cars. Richard’s eldest son, Mark Lemmer, then took over the reigns of the current incarnation of the team in 1988.

The team cut its teeth in the hard-fought environment of various manufacturer ‘one-make’ saloon car and GT championships in the 1990s (claiming three overall titles and over 50 race victories), before stepping up to the UK’s premier ‘tin-top’ series - the British Touring Car Championship - in 2000. It was here that Barwell Motorsport really established itself in top-flight motorsport, taking an impressive 30 class race wins over four years and claiming the Production Class Drivers’ and Team’s titles in 2003. During this time we also contested two Spa 24 Hours events with factory support from Honda, and had successful forays in the ‘World Cup’ of Touring Cars – the Macau Guia race.

Since 2004 we have continued the Barwell theme of previous decades, and branched out into single-seater and GT series competition – claiming national championship titles in both! We have also achieved significant success in endurance saloon car racing, culminating in a saloon class win in the inaugural Silverstone 24 Hours event. In our debut year of GT racing in 2006, we took the British GT3 Drivers’ title and then followed that up with the overall British GT Teams’ Championship crown in ’07 (both these titles with the Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3 chassis).

In 2007 we twice created British racing history, initially when Barwell Motorsport scored the first ever British GT team 1-2-3 podium lockout result, and secondly by notching up the first ever UK national series race victory for an alternative-fuelled car with our E85 Bio-Ethanol Aston Martin. 2007 also provided our debut at FIA GT (world) Championship level, when we ran a GT1 Aston Martin DBR9 in selected events and claimed a Championship point in the opening round at Zhuhai, China.

We expanded our international GT experience in ’08, under the banner of the ‘Drayson-Barwell’ joint venture with Lord Drayson, when we contested the world’s most challenging GT/sportscar series – the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Not only did we have to overcome the logistical issues of contesting a whole American championship as a UK-based team, but also tackle 11 of the toughest road and street tracks with a brand new GT car, the Aston Martin Vantage GT2.

During the season we have developed the new GT2 machine into an increasingly competitive proposition, against the might of the established Porsche, Ferrari and Panoz squads. On top of that, we also continued to run the car on ‘2nd Generation’ E85 bio-ethanol fuel – the only GT2 car in the world to do so. Another fact to be proud of is that our elite team crew kept a clean sheet with series officials IMSA, incurring zero rules penalties throughout the entire season.

Barwell Motorsport has also been involved in the historic motorsport scene for the last 13 years, and looks after two of the most iconic racing cars of all time – a Porsche 917 and a Ford GT40. These are regularly run at various international historic events, including the prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival meetings.