Ollie Millroy has signed to drive the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3 (run by Barwell Motorsport) in the opening round of this season’s Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza, Italy, on April 13-15.
The former BMW Scholarship recipient will join Andrew Smith and Joe Twyman in the championship’s Pro-Am class that this season boasts an incredible 50+ grid of top-quality GT3 entries.
Monza will be the 21-year-old’s maiden GT appearance having previously enjoyed successful karting and single-seater careers that included stints in both Formula BMW and Formula Renault. In preparation, Millroy conducted a familiarisation test aboard the team’s BMW Z4 GT3 last week at Silverstone where he was immediately able to set some very impressive times on used tyres.
“This is a great opportunity for me to join the famous Ecurie Ecosse team in their race-proven BMW Z4 GT3 run by the highly experienced team at Barwell Motorsport,” said Millroy. “It is an incredible car to drive and handles beautifully. I immediately felt at home and confident during my test at Silverstone and knew instantly that I would be able to drive the car to its limit. I’ve done a lot of laps around Monza and know the circuit well so will hopefully be on the pace right away. The high profile Blancpain Endurance Series is going to be very competitive so I feel it’s a great place to start my GT career.”
Millroy’s initial deal only covers the Monza round but he is hopeful of securing the additional budget required to complete the season with the team.
Ecurie Ecosse driver Andrew Smith added:“Ollie is a perfect fit with Ecurie Ecosse. He has a great attitude and we were all highly impressed by the way he jumped into the car with next to no prior GT experience and was fully dialed in after just a few laps. Joe and I are really looking forward to partnering him at Monza and we very much hope he will be in a position to stay with the team for the rest of the season.”
The 2012 Ecurie Ecosse programme also includes the British GT Championship with team drivers Oliver Bryant and Alasdair McCaig set to contest the opening round at Oulton Park on Easter Monday (April 9) .
