Gary Patrick Ayles (born 25 September 1964) is a British

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. 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 The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

in 1991 driving for

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

alongside

Andy Rouse Andrew Ernest Rouse (born 2 December 1947) is a British racing driver, most notably in the British Saloon Car Championship. He won the BSCC in 1975, 1983, 1984 and 1985. Andy Rouse is one of the most successful drivers ever to appear in the ...

, and filled in for one race in 1992. He was offered a drive with the factory

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

team in the Superturismo series as teammate to

Fabrizio Giovanardi Fabrizio Giovanardi (born 14 December 1966 in Sassuolo) is an Italian racing driver. During his career he has won ten touring car racing, touring car titles, including European and British crowns making him the most successful touring car driver ...

. 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 Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and , and World Touring Car from to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in with SEAT; ...

Roberto Ravaglia Roberto Ravaglia (born 26 May 1957) is an Italian former racing driver, who currently runs ROAL Motorsport, who operate a Chevrolet operation in the World Touring Car Championship. Before retiring in 1997, he was one of the most successful tourin ...

and

Emanuele Pirro Emanuele Pirro (; born 12 January 1962) is an Italian racing driver who competed in Formula One from to . In endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing, Pirro is a List of 24 Hours of Le Mans winners, five-time winner of the 24 Hours of L ...

. For 1995, he drove for the factory-backed Ferrari Club Italia team in the

1995 BPR Global GT Series The 1995 BPR Kärcher Global Endurance GT was the second season of BPR Global GT Series. It was a series for Grand Touring A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving with performance and l ...

, driving a Ferrari F40. Ayles returned to the BTCC in 1996, again driving for Andy Rouse in a

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

, but did not enjoy the same success. In 1997 he raced a

McLaren F1 GTR The McLaren F1 GTR is the racing variant of the McLaren F1 sports car first produced in 1995 for grand touring style racing, such as the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship. It was powered by the na ...

in the

1997 FIA GT Championship The 1997 FIA GT Championship was the inaugural season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The FIA GT Championshi ...

for Parabolica Motorsport. The team achieved a brace of top six finishes against the factory teams, regularly the top privateers. This car is replicated within the video game

Project CARS 3 ''Project CARS 3'' is a racing video game developed by Codemasters subsidiary Slightly Mad Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was released on 28 August 2020 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game marks a departure ...

. The year also included a one-off outing at Silverstone in the 1997

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports G ...

, where he took the overall victory. He has entered the Le Mans 24hr four times with a best finish of 9th in the LMGT1 class and 18th overall at the

1995 24 Hours of Le Mans The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by the #59 McLaren F1 GTR driven by ...

driving a Ferrari F40. 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. 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 Gary Patrick Ayles (born 25 September 1964) is a British racing driver. 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 driv ...

team, which entered the BTCC for 2007, with a pair of

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian carmaker known for its sports-oriented vehicles, strong auto racing heritage, and iconic design. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, it is a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe and one of 14 brands of mu ...

s for

David Pinkney David Lee Pinkney is a British businessman and auto racing driver. He competed in the British Touring Car Championship on and off between 1989 and 2011. Racing career James Weaver talked David into racing and he started out in the Uniroyal Sa ...

and Richard Marsh. Currently (2011) he is involved with Lotus UK's GT4 race programme with the Evora. He co-owns a heritage vehicle shipping and delivery company, Bespoke Handling.

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) # – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded. ‡ Endurance driver.

Complete Italian Touring Car Championship results

References

External links

Profile on Historic Racing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayles, Gary British Touring Car Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers British Formula 3000 Championship drivers 1965 births Living people English racing drivers People from Robertsbridge 20th-century English sportsmen Team Goh Motorsports drivers