> 911 joins two Ferraris on expanded GTC entry
Team Parker Racing has added a GTC entry to its Intelligent Money British GT Championship line-up for the Silverstone 500 where Porsche Carrera Cup GB class champion Karl Leonard joins GT3 race winner Tim Bridgman.
The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is one of three GTC class contenders set for the three-hour season finale non November 7/8 after Scott Sport and Simon Green Motorsport confirmed one-off Ferrari 488 entries.
Both drivers have accrued extensive Porsche experience.
Leonard, who won the Carrera Cup GB Pro-Am championship with Team Parker last season, has raced 911s domestically and in Europe since 2008. However, Silverstone’s British GT season finale will be his first foray into multi-marque endurance racing.
“It will be great to be back with Team Parker Racing,” said Leonard, who has sat out the 2020 season up to now. “We had some brilliant times together, especially last year when we won the championship, so I can’t wait to get back out there with everyone and race with Tim for the first time. I’ve known him for a long time now and it seemed like a good opportunity to try this together.
“I’ve missed being out on track this year but once you get behind the wheel it all comes flooding back. It’ll be a different sort of challenge racing the Porsche in GTC, but we’ll get stuck in and enjoy the weekend.”
Bridgman, too, has spent most of his senior career racing 911s all over the world after winning domestic Formula Palmer Audi and Formula BMW single-seater titles. The Porsche Carrera Cup GB crown followed with Team Parker in 2009 before scoring a victory and two further podiums en route to seventh in British GT’s 2011 campaign with Trackspeed.
“I’ve been friends with Karl and his family since we crossed paths at Team Parker Racing in 2009 in the Carrera Cup,” he said. “He had a very successful 2019 and I have been badgering him to get into endurance racing for some time. I think the Silverstone 500 is the perfect event to get stuck into; it’s a nice long race and will give him a taste for endurance racing and the comparison from sprint events.
“There’s a lot of familiarity with Stuart and Team Parker Racing so it will be nice to be back with everyone for the first time since 2010 when we did the Porsche Supercup, so it’s been a while! I have fond memories of British GT from the 2011 season, also in a Porsche, so things have fallen into place quite well.”
Further race-by-race entries – including several new and returning GT3s – will be announced before the season-high entry is revealed next week.
Covid measures will prevent spectators from attending British GT’s #SilverstoneShowdown. However, fans around the world can watch the three-hour season finale live on British GT’s Facebook page and website, as well as SRO’s GT World Youtube channel, from 12:45 GMT on November 8.