25 years since they won the C2 World Sports Car Championship, legendary Scottish team, Ecurie Ecosse, is set to make a major comeback in 2011.
The illustrious team which won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1956 and 1957 has been dormant on aninternational level since the 1990's when the team won the British Touring Car Championship runningworks Vauxhalls.
A driver line-up comprising of Alasdair McCaig, Andrew Smith, Joe Twyman and Oliver Bryant are setto contest The Total 24 Hours of Spa in July 2011 with Ecurie Ecosse as a partner team of AstonMartin Racing in a DBRS9 GT3. Ecurie Ecosse will sub-contract the running of the car to BarwellMotorport, a highly experienced and successful Aston Martin Racing Partner Team, and will becontesting for outright honours in the race which sees GT3 now being the top class as a result of arecent format change.
Team boss Hugh McCaig, who is behind the return and intends to use the 24 Hours of Spa as astepping stone for Ecurie Ecosse to return to Le Mans, commented:
“This is a very exciting development for Ecurie Ecosse. I have been looking for an opportunity to takethe team back into sportscar racing for some time, but the overall package had to be right. Now, witha team of ambitious and talented young drivers, together with a competitive manufacturer-backedcar run by experienced engineers, I am extremely pleased that we can now take this major stepforward. We have partnered with Aston Martin before and it is great to be doing it again some 20years later. Ultimately we want to be back at Le Mans and this is a fantastic starting point.”All four drivers have had highly successful historic racing careers so far, together with relevant andimpressive modern experience, especially in the case of BRDC member Oliver Bryant who’s CVincludes strong results in both the British and FIA GT series:
“I am very excited to be a part of the Ecurie Ecosse comeback. Our drivers all have substantialexperience racing at Spa, and we have all driven together successfully before. The DBRS9 GT3 is alsoextremely well suited to the fast, flowing nature of Spa, and having tested it before myself, I have nodoubt that our combination of car, drivers and team will be highly competitive.”
In 2010 Twyman won his class in the 24 Hours of Spa driving a Jota Sport Aston Martin, and in 2009Smith claimed a front row grid position and fastest lap of the race at Spa in his British GTChampionship debut.
