Blancpain Endurance Series regulars MP Motorsport AMR will field an all British driving quartet for the Total 24 Hours of Spa next month.
The British team, who combine their BES outings with a full season campaign in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, will be bolstered by the addition of Aston Martin racing works man Darren Turner to their usual driving squad of Mark Poole, Joe Osborne and Richard Abra.
“I’m really looking forward to the Spa 24 Hours, as it’s always a great event,” said Turner. “I’ve worked with Mark and Richard on a few test days this year, which have gone really well and it will be good to race with them at Spa, along with Joe. There’s no reason why we can’t get a good result at Spa. Everything is in place: we all have a lot of miles in the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 under our belts, we just need to keep calm and keep it on the black stuff.”
“The 24 Hours of Spa is a race I’ve always wanted to do so I’m thrilled to be going there this year, and with a great team,” said Abra. “We’ve scored great results in the Blancpain Endurance Series already this year, and I believe we can continue that form at Spa. Of course, you need a bit of luck to do well in endurance racing, but everything we can be prepared for, we’ll be prepared for! Bringing Darren in is fantastic, and it’s a sign that this team is only moving forward. He’s one of the world’s best GT drivers – I’m really pleased to work with him again.”
The Total 24 Hours of Spa (July 23-27) is the centre piece of the Blancpain Endurance Series with up to 80 GT3 cars set to line-up on the grid, including a number of works supported Aston Martin teams led by reigning British GT Champions and current points’ leaders Beechdean AMR.
They qualified second for the race last season, while Turner suffered a DNF as part of the Belgian based GPR AMR team.
Taking a season’s best result of second in the class at Silverstone in May the MP Motorsport team currently lie seventh in the Pro-Am Cup points’ standings. However, with additional points on offer for both the Spa 24 Hours and for the 1000km of the Nurburgring event that forms the final race of the season the destination of the title in all three of the series’ classes is still far from decided.
