2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup champions Garage 59 Racing announces it will return to the series next season with a multi-car entry in the 2018 Blancpain GT Series.
The UK-based team, which is affiliated to the McLaren GT racing division, will campaign the McLaren 650S GT3 model with which it won the 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup Drivers’ and Teams’ championships.
In light of the steps taken by the SRO, the series organiser, to safeguard Pro-Am driver line-ups as the emphasis of GT3 racing, Garage 59 plans to run at least one car in the Pro-Am category alongside its PRO class entries.
Garage 59, which was formed in 2016, will also continue to run a two-car team of McLaren 570S GT4 racers in the GT4 category. Under the Black Bull Garage 59 banner, this year the team was vice- champion in the British GT Championship’s GT4 Teams’ Championship. For 2018, branching out into the SRO’s new European GT4 championship – in which the schedule tallies with the Blancpain GT Series calendar – is also under strong consideration.
In GT3, Garage 59 this year concentrated on the International GT Open Championship. In the Pro-Am division of the series, drivers Alexander West and Michael Benham finished third and seventh in the championship – co-driven by Factory Driver Côme Ledogar and Duncan Tappy respectively – and notched up three race wins between them.
West also raced with the team to a finish in his maiden 24-hour race at July’s Spa 24 Hours.
Garage 59 has already begun a schedule of winter testing with both GT3 and GT4 cars, and more details of Garage 59 Racing’s dual programmes will be revealed in the near future.
