| Ferrari 430 Scuderia sponsored by 360 Vision Predator CCTV will participate in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship 2011 |
Phil Burton and Adam Wilcox - podium finishers in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship in 2009 and '10 - are to return to the series this year with their Ferrari 430 Scuderia sponsored by 360 Vision Predator CCTV , the duo announced today.
Often a qualifying pacesetter last season, Wilcox hopes that the bad luck which sometimes affected their race results will be a thing of the past: "We have had some misfortune in British GT over the past year, but that said we were always up there and on the pace when it was all together. The Ferrari has been rebuilt over the winter and a few problems have been highlighted, so we are all confident we can be right at the front of the field yet again but this time come away with the results. We lost a couple of chances for victory last year due to minor problems; hopefully 2011 will be our year for some luck."
A new squad will be preparing the Scuderia for Lichfield-domiciled Wilcox, 34, and his Cheshire-based co-driver Burton, Gerry Wainwright Motorsport taking over from Rowan Racing for 2011.
Burton and Wilcox are the latest in a long line of British GT competitors to announce their intentions to enliven the grid for 2011. The MTECH team plans a twin-Ferrari attack with race winners Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin driving one of the squad's new 458s, while 2009 champions David and Godfrey Jones are set to debut the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in the UK.
Other teams to have declared their intentions include reigning champions Trackspeed, which plans to have two Porsche 911 GT3Rs in the pack, and new team Scuderia Vittoria, planning to field a Ferrari 458 and an Ascari KZR1. United Autosports will field two Audi R8 LMS machines. Further exciting announcements about new cars, teams and marques are expected in the coming weeks.
I am sure that they will be a competitive force with the Ferrari 430 Scuderia sponsored by 360 Vision Predator CCTV... |
"It is great to see Phil and Adam returning with the Scuderia," says championship manager Benjamin Franassovicci, "and I am sure that they will be a competitive force with the Ferrari 430 Scuderia, which I expect to be competitive this season even with the arrival of new machinery. I am very pleased also that entries in the GT3, GT3 Class B, GT4 and GT Cup classes are shaping up already and I am confident that we will have a minimum grid of 20."
The first event on the British GT calendar is the 8 March media day at Silverstone and the following full-day test event. The championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.