Protyre Formula Renault BARC team MGR Motorsport and Ginetta Junior driver Max Coates have joined forces to compete in this weekend's Ginetta Junior Winter Series, marking MGR's first move into the tin-top series.
The move comes a couple of weeks after MGR declared interest in running a team in the 2012 Ginetta Junior Championship. The team, led by Mark Godwin, competed in the BARC single-seater championship this year, taking one win with rookie Matt Mason in the final race of the season.
Coates joins the team after running as a privateer for the past two seasons in the championship. The Yorkshireman took three podiums in 2011 on his way to sixth in the championship and is looking to win the Winter Series, after finishing runner up in the mini-championship in 2010.
Max said: “I am very excited to be able to race this weekend, I didn't think I would be this time last week. I would like to say a big thank you to MGR and Mark for supporting me with this challenge. They have run a successful team in the Renault BARC championship winning the last race at Silverstone so you can't question their ability. I am really looking forward to racing this weekend and I hope I can back up their decision to run me this weekend by winning the championship.”
Mark Godwin from MGR added: “We want to run a team in next year's Ginetta Junior Championship so doing the winter series with Max should put us in the eyes of potential competitors for next year. Max has now had two years of experience in the category and has impressed so we are going to learn things from this weekend which will help us next year. We want to be able to help him too and hopefully by running with our team he can win this weekend.”
Testing begins on Friday at Snetterton with two half hour sessions, before qualifying and four races over the weekend.