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Estre Named McLaren Factory Driver

Kevin Estre lands factory driver status with McLaren GT…

estre

McLaren GT announced Friday the addition of Kevin Estre to its factory driver lineup for 2014.

The 25-year-old Frenchman, who won the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland title last year, has been one of the sport’s rising stars, having been runner-up and Rookie-of-the-Year in the Porsche Supercup in 2012, while also recently making his endurance racing debut.

“My aim was to become a works driver when I decided to focus on a career in GT racing,” Estre said. “I’m delighted and very honored at the trust placed in me by Martin Whitmarsh and Andrew Kirkaldy.

“Achieving this status with a manufacturer like McLaren is extremely prestigious when you know what the manufacturer has contributed to motorsport.”

Estre joins Rob Bell, Adam Carroll, Alexander Sims and Alvaro Parente as McLaren GT factory drivers, who have typically been assigned to support McLaren MP4-12C customer teams in the Blancpain GT Series.

‘We have been watching Kevin closely for a while, and he has shown himself to be very quick behind the wheel, but also a very mature racer,” said McLaren GT Managing Director Andrew Kirkaldy.

“His ability to extract raw speed from the car is clear, and he has a very good understanding of what it takes to set up a car and find that extra tenth – crucial in the increasingly competitive world of GT racing.”

Despite his new commitments with McLaren, Estre will still drive for Park Place Motorsports in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. He was confirmed last month to join Patrick Lindsey in the team’s No. 73 Porsche 911 GT America entry for the entire season.

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John

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