The Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3s will hit the track in their brand new racing colours for the first time today at Silverstone Circuit. Resplendent in blue and white, the team’s Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup entries will be driven by the full 2019 Garage 59 driving squad.
In the #59 PRO class entry, Le Mans winning Aston Martin works driver Jonny Adam will be joined by Garage 59’s 2016 Blancpain Endurance Cup winner, Côme Ledogar, and AMR Junior and former McLaren GT works driver, Andrew Watson. This fast squad will be gunning for a repeat of Garage 59’s 2016 Blancpain Endurance Cup PRO championship victory.
“I think we have a competitive package in the #59 Vantage,” said Adam. “I know that Côme has a very strong racing pedigree and I have known how talented Andrew is since I coached him during the early stage of his career. Garage 59 is a good team and they know the Blancpain championship inside and out. Combine all of that with the new Vantage GT3 and you get the ability to forge the consistent assault you need to go after championship victories. Don’t get me wrong though, the PRO class is highly contested and we will face extremely tough opposition but I don’t see any reason why we can’t turn up at the first race and get a strong result.”
Garage 59’s #188 AM class Aston Martin will be raced by three men who have a score to settle. Team Owner Alexander West is joined by Aston Martin Expert High Performance Test Driver Chris Goodwin and BBC Top Gear presenter Chris Harris. This trio finished as runners up in last year’s championship so now they are back to fight for the title.
“We were pleased to earn the runner up spot last year but we’re all very competitive people so of course we want the title,” said West. “The new Garage 59 is just as focused on winning titles as the old one and we believe we have the right partner in Aston Martin to do so. It’s going to take a lot of hard work from Garage 59 and Aston Martin Racing but testing has gone well so far and we are all fired up for the challenge and looking forward to getting stuck in at the first race at Monza.”
“I’m pleased with the driver line-ups we have secured,” said Team Principal Andrew Kirkaldy. “We worked with Andrew and Côme for many years on the McLaren GT programme. I’ve always been impressed with them and it is great to welcome Jonny to the team as an Aston Martin works driver who has been involved in the development of the new car. The AM squad was a case of getting the band back together so they can go after the title again.”
Since announcing its new partnership with Aston Martin in February, the team has been out testing its pair of new Aston Martin Vantage GT3s and completing an extensive re-branding programme.
“Pre-season testing has been good,” said Kirkaldy. “We’re learning the new car and building a new relationship with Aston Martin Racing. As a team we still have much to learn and we’re all eager to see how we go at Monza. We’re very pleased to welcome Bayliss & Harding as a new partner for 2019. You’ll also notice our livery features the Aston Martin Drivers Club logo as this is a programme operated by Garage 59. We’re delighted with this collaboration and we’re enjoying working on such an exciting programme.”
The Garage 59 team will complete pre-season testing at the end of running tomorrow at Silverstone. The next stop for the team will be Monza in Italy for Round 1 of the Blancpain GT Series on 14 April.
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