GetSpeed, one of the confirmed international teams competing in this year’s much-anticipated revival of the Suzuka 1000km, has announced its Pro-Am driver line-up for the event, led by Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver Philip Ellis.
Ellis, the reigning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTD Champion for Winward Racing, will drive the #69 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO alongside Bronze drivers Steve Jans of Luxembourg and Anthony McIntosh of the United States. All three drivers will make their first-ever race starts at Suzuka.
Based out of the Nürburgring industrial park, GetSpeed was named Mercedes-AMG’s most successful customer racing team for 2024, in a season which included Gold and Silver Cup class wins at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. GetSpeed has been part of this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge, GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, International GT Open, Asian Le Mans Series – and has made cameo appearances in the IMSA Daytona 24 Hours and the Road To Le Mans support races.
Ellis’ racing credentials include class victories in the major endurance races at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, the Nürburgring, Spa, and Dubai – plus race victories in DTM.
McIntosh was one of sports car racing’s more successful Bronze drivers last season, picking up titles in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche Endurance Challenge North America, and the Italian GT Sprint Cup. He recently made his FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 debut at the 6 Hours of São Paulo.
Jans has been with GetSpeed for over a decade – most recently, he won one of the Road To Le Mans support races on the eve of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
One of the local teams in this year’s Suzuka 1000km, Team 5Zigen, has also announced its drivers in the #500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3: Regular GT World Challenge Asia drivers ‘Hirobon’ (Hiromasa Kitano) and Yu Kanamaru will be joined by Japanese sports car racing veteran Takayuki Aoki, who will make his 16th Suzuka 1000km start.
Aoki is a two-time class winner of the event, winning the GT300 class in 1999 and 2001, during a seven-year period in which the Suzuka 1000km was run as a non-championship event. He has several years of experience with the GT-R NISMO GT3 platform – and other Nissan sports cars – during his lengthy tenures in SUPER GT and the Super Taikyu Series.
Full-timers Hirobon and Kanamaru achieved a milestone overall victory in last year’s GT World Challenge Asia round of Suzuka, taking the win in Race 2 – Nissan’s first GT3 win in an SRO-sanctioned event since 2021.
Entries for the 49th Suzuka 1000km will be finalised on 4 August.
Images © Frozenspeed, SRO Motorsports Group
