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 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. For 1995, he drove for the factory-backed Ferrari Club Italia team in the 1995 BPR Global GT Series, driving a Ferrari F40.
Ayles returned to the BTCC in 1996, again driving for Andy Rouse in a Nissan, but did not enjoy the same success. In 1997, he raced a McLaren F1 GTR in the 1997 FIA GT Championship 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. The year also included a one-off outing at Silverstone in the 1997 British GT Championship, where he took the overall victory. He has entered the Le Mans 24hr four times with a best finish of ninth in the LMGT1 class and 18th overall at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans 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 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.
Ayles 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)
Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DC Pts Class 1988 ICS plc Ford Sierra RS500 SIL OUL THR DONovr:10‡cls:8‡ THR SIL SIL BRH SNE BRH BIR DON SIL 62nd 0 25th 1989 Arquati Racing Team Ford Sierra RS500 OUL SIL THR DONRet‡ THR SIL SIL BRH SNE BRH BIR DON SIL NC 0 NC 1991 Kaliber ICS Team Toyota Toyota Carina SIL9 DSQ DON4 THRRet SIL8 BRHRet SILRet DON1Ret DON2DNS OULRet BRH13 BRH2DNS DON14 THRRet SIL10 14th 19 1992 Peugeot Italia Team Peugeot 405 Mi16 SIL THR OUL SNE BRH DON1 DON2 SIL KNO1 KNO2 PEM BRH1 BRH2 DON7 SIL 19th 4 1996 Rouse Sport Nissan Primera eGT DON1Ret DON211 BRH111 BRH213 THR1DNS THR2DNS SIL115 SIL212 OUL112 OUL212 SNE110 SNE214 BRH1Ret BRH210 SIL113 SIL215 KNO1Ret KNO2DNS OUL1 OUL2 THR111 THR213 DON111 DON2Ret BRH1DNS BRH212 21st 2 – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.
‡ Endurance driver.
Complete Italian Touring Car Championship results Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 DC Pts 1992 Peugeot Talbot Sport Peugeot 405 S2 MNZ13 MNZ2Ret MAG1Ret MAG28 MUG13 MUG2Ret BIN13 BIN23 VAL1Ret VAL23 IMO13 IMO23 MIS14 MIS22 PER12 PER22 VAR12 VAR21 MNZ12 MNZ2Ret 2nd 192 1993 Peugeot Talbot Sport Peugeot 405 MNZ14 MNZ23 VAL13 VAL23 MIS19 MIS21 MAG18 MAG26 BIN14 BIN24 IMO14 IMO25 VAR15 VAR25 MIS12 MIS2Ret PER14 PER23 MUG13 MUG2Ret 4th 186 1994 Peugeot Talbot Sport Peugeot 405 Mi 16 MNZ16 MNZ212 VAL16 VAL29 MAG110 MAG29 BIN110 BIN2Ret MIS18 MIS2Ret VAL18 VAL28 MUG110 MUG2DSQ PER1 PER2 VAR1Ret VAR214 MUG1DNS MUG211 14th 28
References
External links Profile on Historic Racing