Two-time British GT champion and Beechdean Dairy Ice Cream owner Andrew Howard has officially announced his retirement at the end of the 2026 season.
This year’s Brands Hatch finale on 26-27 September will mark the team principal’s last hurrah before bringing his esteemed 27-year full-season driving career to a close.
He debuted in British GT in 2006 and went on to become their first ‘Amateur’ driver to win the championship outright in 2013 and 2015, and also achieved an overall victory at the 24 Hours of Silverstone in the latter year.
Howard is one of British GT’s most prolific gentlemen drivers, at the helm of Beechdean Motorsport, which has remained loyal to the Aston Martin brand and Prodrive since 2008.
His achievements stretched beyond British GT, including winning the 2016 European Le Mans Series GTE title, taking part in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, the 24 Hours of Spa thrice, and earning two podium finishes in the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
Last year, he won the British GT GT3 Silver-Am title with Tom Wood and returned to the GT3 Pro-Am category this year with Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn, who himself won a British GT GT4 title and shared the 2015 24H Silverstone win with Beechdean.
Beechdean expects to continue GT3 racing in 2027, as outlined in an interview with Howard.
Q: Why have you chosen to end your full-time driving career now?
Andrew Howard: “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 per cent to racing any more.
“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.
“I still have my first racing car – a Mini Miglia racer in which I was Rookie Champion in my first year in 1999, and brought it out for a track day recently. It was so much fun to drive, and it reminded me of how enjoyable it is to race for racing’s sake.”
What have been the key highlights you think of when reflecting on your career?
AH: “Racing the GTE Aston Martin was incredible; the hardest-to-drive car I’ve raced, but definitely the best and the most satisfying when it all clicks.
“All the titles were fantastic in their own right; 2013 in British GT because it was my first, 2015 because we just did everything right, and then in the European Le Mans Series in 2016… It’s the title we should never have won, but we dug deep, got those vital points when we needed them, and won out.
“From a team point of view, 2015 was remarkable because we won the GT3 and GT4 titles in British GT, I became the first two-time champion, we had the first female champion with Jamie Chadwick (Ross Gunn’s 2015 co-champion) in GT4, and then we won the Silverstone 24 Hours with a GT4 car as well.
“But from pure driving, nothing beats the GTE Vantage.”
How important have the relationships with Aston Martin Racing and Prodrive been for your career behind the wheel and for the success of Beechdean Motorsport?
AH: “I can say with 100 per cent certainty that without both of them, there is no way we’d have had the success we’ve had.
“Winning championships in the UK and Europe and coming so close to a Le Mans podium was a true team effort and both have been integral to that.
“What’s great is that year on year, we’ve had faith in each other to strengthen our relationship, enter into races like the Spa 24 Hours or into complete seasons in the ELMS or GT World Challenge Europe and really push the boundaries of what we can achieve as a team.
“It’s been a fantastic relationship and one that I hope will continue for many more years, even with me stopping driving.”
If you could change one thing from your racing career, what would it be?
AH: “If we could have finished on the podium at Le Mans in 2017, that would have been the icing on the cake, even across everything else I’ve achieved as a driver and that we’ve achieved as a team.
“I’ve had podiums at Le Mans in the Le Mans Cup and other races, but we missed the chance by something like 40 seconds and finished fourth – that’s nothing in a 24-hour race.
“Then we missed the class win at the Spa 24 Hours last year by something like 30 seconds, which is also hard to take, but Le Mans is Le Mans, and everybody knows it doesn’t get bigger than that.”
What does the future hold for Beechdean Motorsport?
AH: “We plan to continue competing in the highest level of GT3 racing possible in 2027 and are actively looking for drivers for that programme, as I’ll be taking a strictly off-track role.
“Whether it’s British GT or something continental will depend on the ambitions of the driver or drivers in question.
“We also plan to diversify into historic racing. We have some fantastic Aston Martin GT racing cars in our stable, and I’d be very keen to see some of those on track.
“I’d like to be able to continue racing some of our historics, but we’ll have to see how that pans out with the time I have available.”
What would it mean to you if you could end your top-level career as British GT Champion?
AH: “Wouldn’t that be something? I think if Ross [Gunn] and I could do it this year, that would be the best achievement of my career.
“British GT is the number one national Pro-Am championship in the world, and if you win it, it’s the biggest thing for a bronze driver from the UK.
“I’ve been fortunate to win it twice, and it’s felt massively cool each time. A third time would be even better.”
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP, Ade Holbrook/AdrenalMedia.com
