Leading Renault UK Clio Cup outfit Team Cooksport will not enter any cars in the championship this season, with their focus turning to endurance competition.
The Bristol-based team, led by 2014 series vice-champion Josh Cook, have competed as an established team in the BTCC support series for the past two seasons.
From the team’s 2016 line-up, Lee Pattison has moved to WDE Motorsport, Shayne Deegan has set up his own team, whilst Rory Collingbourne is set to announce his 2017 plans soon.
Earlier this year, Cooksport made their endurance racing debut in the Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai, impressively securing a second place finish in the A2 class in a Clio.
Whilst Cook hasn’t ruled out a return to the Clio Cup in the future, he says their focus now is on entering more Creventic endurance events this season.
“We are taking a bit of a sabbatical from the Clio Cup, which is a decision that was quite difficult,” the current BTCC racer told Motorsport News.
“We planned to have another shot at it this year, but at the beginning of the year we did the Dubai 24 Hours and that changed our perspective and direction we wanted to go in as a team.
“We are now concentrating on endurance programmes. It seems to fit a lot better to what we would like to achieve as a team and we’re looking at doing some more of the Creventic events.”