Garage 59 is set to continue racing in the Blancpain Endurance Cup in 2019, but with a new brand. The team, which has competed with McLaren in GT3 competition in recent years will race with Aston Martin going forward.
The Endurance Cup championship-winning British team, led by Team Principal Andrew Kirkaldy, will run two new Vantage GT3s, one car in the PRO class of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and one car in the AM class. The team will also enter one car in selected rounds of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
The team said it has chosen Aston Martin’s new challenger “as its predecessor, the V12 Vantage GT3, was a very strong GT3 car with great driveability.”
Team boss Andrew Kirkaldy said: “The Vantage GT3 looks great. It’s a very high-end GT car based on a strong foundation car so we have high hopes for the season ahead. We’re looking forward to working with Aston Martin Racing.
“It has been an interesting and enjoyable process to re-brand the team. All you can see at the moment is the new logo but we’ll soon be ready to show you our new racing livery, which we are working on now.”
Garage 59, which operates from a state-of-the-art Technical Centre in the East Midlands of the UK, was originally named after the McLaren that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995 that bore the race number 59. It is also an auspicious number for Aston Martin as 1959 was the year that Aston Martin claimed its outright victory at Le Mans.
The team is currently at Paul Ricard in the south of France, preparing to run the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the first time during a two-day test that starts tomorrow.
Chris Goodwin, Andrew Watson and Jonny Adam will drive the car at this test but the full season driver line-ups of the two Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3s will be announced at a later date. Goodwin though has been confirmed by the team as a driver for the season.
“That Garage 59 has chosen to race with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in 2019 is a strong endorsement of the potential of our new car and of Aston Martin Racing’s ability to deliver competitive customer-focussed machinery,” said President of Aston Martin Racing, David King.
“We’re very pleased with this latest addition to our partner team roster and we can now look ahead to the year in the full knowledge that we have a compelling presence in several significant and important GT series around the world.”
