Lebbon stays with Elite Motorsport for GB3 title challenge

Tom Lebbon has become the second driver to be announced for the 2022 GB3 Championship season. 

The 2020 Ginetta Junior champion returns for a tilt at the title with Elite Motorsport, in what will be his fourth season with the team.

Lebbon won the 2020 Ginetta Junior Championship with Elite, and spent his maiden GB3 campaign with the team who also made their first move into single-seaters last year.

Though he only took one podium, in Race 3 at Donington Park in July, the 16-year-old was one of the season’s most consistent performers. From 24 races, Lebbon took 18 top-ten finishes and qualified inside the top ten at every roun, setting the fifth-highest qualifying average on the grid.

Of those top-ten finishes, nine came in the top six, and the #34 Elite Motorsport car only retired from one race, that being Race 1 in the Championship’s first visit to Silverstone.

Lebbon’s five-year karting career led him to Ginetta Junior, where he took the overall title in his debut season after contesting the Ginetta Junior Winter Series in 2019.

His sole Ginetta Junior season yielded 15 overall podiums from 21 starts, with five outright race wins and 13 Rookie Class wins, making it a no-brainer for Lebbon to stay with the team for its maiden GB3 season.

Ahead of its second campaign in the Championship, Elite will run three Tatuus MSV-022 chassis’, featuring increased power, more downforce and a halo.

Tom Lebbon said after the announcement: “My aim for next year is to challenge for the overall Championship.

“It would be great to be a consistent contender for podiums and race wins as we showed good pace this year.

“I’m staying with Elite for 2022 as I’ve developed a strong bond with the team and believe they have the potential to go forward.

“The 2022 car looks great and I’m sure it will also be cool to race with the added downforce, power and halo.

“I came into GB3 this year from Ginettas and the Championship was just as hard as I thought it would be but I learnt so much.

“I showed strong pace at many tracks throughout the season but the high point this year was claiming a podium at Donington.

“It has been a pleasure to race for Elite again this year and I can’t wait for the 2022 season to start.

“I must thank my partners wefinanceanycar.com, TMJ Interiors, Credo Asset Finance, Movac Group Limited and Octane Finance, my parents and everyone at Elite.”

Eddie Ives, Elite Motorsport Team Owner and Manager was equally pleased to secure Lebbon’s signature for another season.

“I am very, very excited to be continuing through to the planned second half of a two-year programme with Tom,” he said.

“Because of his phenomenal season in Ginettas last year, it’s easy to forget that 2021 was only Tom’s second year out of karts and his first year in single-seaters.

“Moving up from Ginetta Juniors into a GB3 car was a big step, as it was for us, but we all learnt a lot.

“I’m really looking forward to getting our hands on the new 2022 car and turning it into a front-running package.”