Ecurie Ecosse makes McLaren move for Pirelli-backed British GT
The Ecurie Ecosse team has joined forces with McLaren for its assault on the British GT Championship in 2016.
With a heritage that dates back to wins at Le Mans in the 1950s, Ecurie Ecosse will field a McLaren 650S GT3 in British GT, which will be exclusively supplied by Pirelli from the coming season in a new multi-year deal.
The team successfully ran BMWs in past seasons, taking Marco Attard to the drivers’ crown in 2014. Its new car will be driven by Alasdair McCaig and McLaren factory driver Rob Bell.
McCaig has previously raced for Ecurie Ecosse in the Blancpain Endurance Series, a championship which is also supplied by Pirelli and one in which Bell scored wins at Silverstone and Nurburgring last year.
Andrew Kirkaldy, Managing Director at McLaren GT said: “The level of competition in British GT has always been high but is rapidly becoming one of the world’s toughest GT3 championships, and it will be great to see a McLaren wearing the famous Ecurie Ecosse colours for the first time.”
Pirelli drivers lead Irish Tarmac scorers on West Cork Rally
Pirelli-backed drivers again filled the top three positions among those scoring points towards the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship on round two, the West Cork Rally.
As in Galway last month, Keith Cronin scored maximum points with an overall second-place finish in his Citroen DS3 R5.
Cronin was 1m38.5s ahead of Sam Moffett, who beat his brother Josh Moffett by just 3.6 seconds after 14 stages. The Ford Fiesta R5 duo were never separated by more than a few seconds throughout the event.
Alastair Fisher had been a close second among Irish Tarmac scorers behind Cronin before crashing out on stage eight.
Cronin and the Moffett brothers headed to West Cork fresh from the opening round of the MSA British Rally Championship in Wales. The next event in both championships is the Belfast-based Circuit of Ireland Rally on 7-9 April.
Payne pinches final-stage win on Malcolm Wilson Rally
Charlie Payne stole victory on the Malcolm Wilson Rally, the second round of the BTRDA Rally Series, on the final stage.
Driving his Pirelli-equipped Ford Fiesta on the Cockermouth-based event, Payne overcame a 13-second deficit to Ford Focus WRC driver David Wright on the eighth and final test.
Added to his second place on last month’s Cambrian Rally, Payne now leads the BTRDA standings.
Cambrian winner Luke Francis was a retirement out of third place on stage three. Stephen Petch inherited the position but suffered mechanical issues on his Ford Fiesta two stages later.
Round three of the BTRDA Rally Series will be the Somerset Stages in Minehead on 16 April.
Pirelli-supported Payne is now top of BTRDA standings
Haslam delighted with tests ahead of return to British Superbikes with PirelliLeon Haslam has declared himself “very happy” with how his pre-season testing programme is going ahead of returning to the British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli.
Haslam’s new JG Speedfit Kawasaki team completed seven days of testing at the Cartagena and Guadix circuits in Spain with the new ZX-10R Superbike. The team will next be in action at Silverstone on 29 March before the season begins at the same circuit on 8-10 April.
“It’s been a really great few days with the team and I’m very happy,” said Haslam, who’s returning to the British series after eight years in the world championship. “We managed to work through everything we had planned and although it was very cold here, we managed to do a lot of laps and gather a lot of information – I even left with the quickest time.
“We’re still waiting for a few more parts ahead of Silverstone but our race pace is really strong and I’m feeling confident, so we’ll head to the final test ready to get a good set up sorted ahead of the first round, where we’ll come out fighting!”
Top BRDC F4 squad HHC hires Hingeley for Pirelli-supported seriesHHC Motorsport has completed its 2016 line-up for BRDC Formula 4 by signing Ben Hingeley ahead of the opening round at Snetterton on 27-28 March.
Hingeley joins Sisa Ngebulana and Omar Ismail at the team that took Will Palmer to the 2015 crown in the Pirelli-supported championship.
The 18-year-old from Abergele in North Wales steps up to F4 after winning the Formula Jedi title in his first season of single-seater racing last year, winning eight races and setting three lap records in the process.
“I am thrilled to be competing in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship this year with HHC Motorsport,” he said. “I've had the chance to do some limited testing and I've found the car awesome. HHC is a fantastic team with their knowledge and experience and I hope to be up to speed very quickly.”
Also joining the BRDC F4 field for 2016 is Denmark’s Jan Jonck, who has signed with Sean Walkinshaw Racing. He moves up to the championship’s new and more powerful Tatuus-Cosworth car from the ADAC F4 series in Germany, and was runner-up in Danish Formula Ford in 2014.
