DSC can exclusively reveal that Phil Keen has completed an all-British line up in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche for the full ELMS season.
The 31-year old joins Mike Wainwright and Adam Carroll in the Porsche 911 RSR which sports the iconic Gulf blue and orange livery. The news comes after completing a successful simulator and track test evaluation which concluded yesterday at the official LMS test days at Paul Ricard.
“I just can’t wait to get started, especially after driving the car in the test yesterday,” said Keen. “It is a fantastic opportunity and I really feel at home with the Gulf Racing guys already. I really enjoyed working with Adam and Mike, so Silverstone can’t come soon enough. I think we will form a very strong and competitive proposition this year.”
Keen will make his race debut for Gulf Racing at Silverstone in two weeks’ time in the first round of the ELMS. His laps at Ricard, which consisted of laps on old and new Dunlop rubber, was the final part of a detailed evaluation process carried out by the team.
The assessment undertaken by Gulf Racing started with an intensive session in the Position One Motorsport full motion simulator. This was followed up with a series of tests at Bruntingthorpe proving ground before the six initial candidates were condensed to two. These were Keen and former GP3 racer Ryan Cullen.
Gulf Racing team manager Matt Beers was delighted to complete the driving team for the 2015 campaign and said: “We have been very impressed with Phil throughout the evaluation. He brings a good combination of speed and experience. He also fits very well in to the team already and it has been evident to all of us that his work ethic matches up to what we expect within the team. “
Cullen continued to impress the team at Paul Ricard on Tuesday, with Mike Wainwright commenting: “It was pleasing to see how much Ryan has developed as an all-round driver since we tested him this time last year. He has a full season of Porsche Carrera Cup this year but we will remain in very close contact with him through Adam (Carroll – who instructs and trains Cullen).”
With Keen also committed to a full British GT campaign with the Demon Tweeks squad in 2015 there is one clash with ELMS which is at Red Bull Ring for the third round in mid-May. The team and Keen are currently discussing a solution for this weekend. The team at least have experience of such scenarios as last season saw a similar fixture conflict at the Red Bull Ring round when Ben Barker was replaced by Michael Meadows.
For Gulf Racing the stability of confirming a very strong looking ELMS line-up is countered slightly by the unenviable ‘limbo’ of being a fourth reserve on the Le Mans entry list. The team remains in an alert state of readiness to take up the potential opportunity.
Gulf Racing continued its testing programme at Paul Ricard this afternoon with Adam Carroll and Mike Wainwright at the wheel of the Porsche 911 RSR.
