Robertson Racing will debut a second GT class Ford GT at this year's Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta (September 29-October 2).
The 10-hour or 1000-mile race this year serves at the finale to the American Le Mans Series, where the small team are regular competitors. Furthermore this year the race serves as the American leg of the three round ACO organised Intercontinental Cup, meaning several of the world's biggest sportscar teams will be present at the Braselton venue.
The bigger stage, coupled with the fact the team, too, are based in Braselton made Petit Le Mans the “perfect venue” for the second car's debut according to the team.
The team's regular car, carrying no.40 will continue being driven at the event by David and Andrea Robertson, with Grand-Am driver Craig Stanton drafted in for the longer, three-handed race.
The new car, no.04, will include another of the team's regular drivers – David Murry. Murry will be joined by Anthony Lazzaro, whose racing CV includes NASCAR and Indycar experience as well as GT racing previous for Risi Competizione and outings in 2008 in a ALMS Ford GT, then running under the Black Swan Racing banner.
Completing the trio will be Briton Rob Bell, a regular in the Le Mans Series in Europe who drove for Drayson Racing at Petit last year.
“The Ford's going to be different to the other GT cars I've driven recently but as a professional racing driver you should be able to jump in any car and get to grips with it after a couple of laps,” he said. “In another sense it's also a good challenge to get in a different car and experience something new as it keeps you motivated. It's a one off at the moment but the way I always look at it is if you do a good job you never know what might happen in the future.”
“I'll help the team as much as I can because they're still developing the car, but we are going there to get the best result possible. I've not driven round Road Atlanta in a GT car before but have experience from racing the P1 Lola there last season. Obviously the two will be very different so I'll try and learn as much as I can from David Murry.”
“We have been working hard for some time now to turn this into a reality so it's fantastic to finally announce our expansion into a two-car squad,” said Team Manager, Andrew 'H' Smith. “The Series' GT class is probably the most competitive in world motorsport which makes running an independent team without works-backing very challenging.”
“But adding a second car, especially in the hands of such a talented trio that mixes speed with experience, marks a significant step forward in Robertson Racing's short history. Rob has been very successful in Europe while both David and Anthony are a pair of well established, fast Americans. In fact, David put the car on pole at Petit last season so we're certainly hopeful of a similar performance.”
