Cumbrian racing driver Alex MacDowall produced a true champion’s performance during the sixth and final round of the European Le Mans Series at Estoril in Portugal on Sunday to help Beechdean Motorsport earn a dramatic race victory and, with it, the prestigious LMGTE title.

Going into the final weekend of the season a full 20 points behind the JMW Motorsport Ferrari entry, the 25-year-old from Carlisle and Aston Martin Racing team-mates Darren Turner and Andrew Howard overturned the deficit to seal an unexpected championship triumph by five points.

Even though qualifying didn’t go to plan for the Beechdean squad, a sensational opening stint from MacDowall elevated the No.99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE into the class lead from eighth on the LMGTE grid, inside just 10 laps.

During four hours of unpredictable drama for the AMR trio’s rivals, the Aston Martin ran faultlessly and MacDowall took the chequered flag at the end of his second stint a lap clear to seal the team’s second victory of 2016.

As well as the drivers’ championship, the result also secured the team title.

“Our aim in Estoril was to finish the year second, not to win,” said the elated Briton, MacDowall.

“We started the year with a win and finished with a win and the championship.

“There have been ups and downs along the way this season, and I’ve had so much bad luck in my career, so it’s nice things have gone our way this weekend.

"We made our own luck though, we had to deliver and the whole team did.”

From eighth on the LMGTE grid, MacDowall produced a simply outstanding performance to carve his way into the class lead inside just 15 minutes of intense action – laying the foundations for the eventual title glory.

Officials declared the contest a wet race at the beginning, with damp patches offline due to earlier rain, but the track was certainly dry enough where it mattered for slick Dunlop tyres on the No.99 Aston Martin and the Briton stormed away when the action began.

Light rain threatened during the closing stages but didn’t pose any problems, with MacDowall going on to take the chequered flag a lap clear in LMGTE.

“At the start, I got into first place quite quickly, avoided the chaos, but Rory was pretty fast so I let him go”, explained MacDowall.

“Andrew did a good job in the second stint, Darren was quick as always, and we had a healthy gap to second during the last hour.

“It’s fantastic to win the title!”