With an eye towards preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009, Drayson-Barwell will enter the American Le Mans Series for the first time in 2008. The team will field a new Aston Martin Vantage GT2 car in the GT2 class from Long Beach onwards (and prior to that its FIA GT3-specification Aston Martin DBRS9) - an entry fuelled by E85 Bio-Ethanol as the Series expands its alternative energy platform. The team, operating as Barwell Motorsport, has previously competed in the FIA GT (GT1) and British GT Championships, claiming the '07 British GT Teams' Championship and '06 GT3 Drivers Championship titles with its Aston Martin DBRS9s. Drivers Jonny Cocker and Paul Drayson, a former British Government Minister for Defence Procurement and a member of the House of Lords, finished overall runners-up in the 2007 British GT Championship standings in their E85 bio-ethanol DBRS9, and scored the first ever British national series race win for an alternative-fuelled car. Drayson-Barwell is an official partner team of Aston Martin Racing.