Equipe Verschuur will join the British GT Championship’s GT4 ranks this season after confirming that Scottish duo Finlay Hutchison and Dan McKay will race the team’s McLaren 570S.
It’s the second 570 GT4 so far confirmed for this year’s championship, which reveals its full-season entry list during next Thursday’s annual Media Day at Donington Park.
The Dutch squad and Hutchison had already announced plans to contest a second season of the GT4 European Series together after finishing fifth in last year’s Silver Cup standings with the same McLaren. However, 2018 will mark the 18-year-old Dundee native’s first ever full campaign in any UK category after previously graduating from karting to Formula Renault 2.0 NEC.
“I’m really looking forward to racing in the UK as well as Europe this year, it’s a great opportunity to be doing a double programme with all of the extra seat time it will give me,” said Hutchison. “Dan has some good experience so it’ll be great to work with him, I’m sure we’ll be a strong pairing and we know Equipe Verschuur will deliver a competitive car.
“The weather conditions will be a lot colder at the British tracks than I’m used to in the European championship, so I’ll need to adapt my driving style a little bit to suit that, but it’s a great challenge and I can’t wait for the first round at Oulton Park.
“I do prefer the longer endurance races, so the two-hour races and the big three-hour at Silverstone are the ones I’m most looking forward to in British GT4,” he added. “It’s going to be a busy year, but I can’t wait to get started.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based McKay, 26, made a one-off British GT4 outing aboard an In2Racing-run McLaren at Brands Hatch last year but now embarks on his first full season in the category after finishing eighth overall in 2017’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB standings.
“I can’t wait to get going with Finlay and Equipe Verschuur for this year’s racing,” said McKay. “I had a chance to sample a McLaren 570s GT4 last year and liked the overall feel of the car, and could feel there was more potential in there. With Finlay and Equipe Verschuur I feel we’ll be able to extract all of that to race right at the front of the increasingly competitive British GT4 Championship.
“With new cars from BMW, Audi and Mercedes into an already competitive field I’m under no illusions it’s going to be easy. The record of the guys at Equipe Verschuur speaks for itself, though, and I have no doubt in my mind we will have the best McLaren on the grid. Having a Scotsman as my team-mate is an obvious bonus – I won’t have to worry about anyone not understanding me!”
