It is now confirmed that United Autosports will bring a three car attack to his summers Spa 24 Hours, aiming for victory in GT3 class.
That aim could translate into a push for overall victory, the GT3 spec cars the premier category at the Belgian endurance race for the first time ever. The Anglo-American team included a two car entry at last year’s race in their packed debut season, scoring a podium in the class with drivers Stefan Johansson, Alain Li, Mark Patterson and Emil Assentato.
Three-quarters of the team that took the Audi R8 LMS to third in class and ninth overall will return among a planned 12 man driving corps for the July 30-31 race. Patterson, Li and Johansson return. The entire four man driving squad for the other car, which finished one place further back in the overall standings. Mark Blundell will once more turn out for United Autosports (after racing at Spa in 2010 and in the Rolex 24 in January this year). Both of United Autosports co-owners were also announced as drivers, Zak Brown and Richard Dean being joined by American Eddie Cheever to complete the seven men already confirmed for the team.
“Racing at Spa last year proved to be a huge amount of fun while I was very impressed with United Autosports,” enthuses Blundell. “The team turned out superbly prepared racecars and it was fantastic to finish on the GT3 podium. But I believe there is some more to come and that is why I’m returning. I’ve already finished fourth with the team at Daytona last month and I’m very excited about going back to Spa to compete again in the Audi R8 LMS.”
The names of the drivers who take the remaining five slots will be revealed in the coming weeks, the team assuring that more ‘star’ names are still to join the team.
“I’m looking forward to running three Audi sports cars in this great race,” says Brown. “We achieved a tremendous result last year, almost winning our class, but came away with third and fourth positions – the best placed R8 LMS cars in the race. Mark and Stefan are re-joining us along with Alain who ran with us at Spa and then in Zhuhai while Richard is dusting off his crash helmet again as opposed to overseeing the team from the pit wall. It is a great endorsement for our still young team that these former F1 and IndyCar drivers are coming back to us for a second season.”
