United Bosses Brown, Dean to Share McLaren GT4 at Zandvoort

United Autosports co-owners Zak Brown and Richard Dean will share one of their team’s McLaren 570S GT4s in the next GT4 European Series round at Zandvoort this month.

The heads of the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series LMP2 title-winning squad will run in an additional third entry for United, which returned to GT racing with McLaren at the start of this year.

McLaren CEO Brown is set for his first race appearance in one of the company’s GT cars since his campaign with Alvaro Parente in the 2013 British GT Championship.

Both he and Dean have entered numerous historic races in recent years, but this is set to mark their first time sharing a current-generation GT machine in a decade.

In 2011 they teamed up with Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson to pilot a United Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 in the 24 Hours of Spa. The quartet finished 13th overall.

United’s full-season GT4 Europe pairings of Bailey Voisin/Charlie Fagg and Gus Bowers/Dean MacDonald will also be racing at Zandvoort on the June 19-20 weekend.

“I’m so excited to be getting back behind the wheel of a race car at Zandvoort,” said Brown.

“I have tested with the team in our McLaren a couple of times now and I’m so ready to head to Zandvoort to see what we can do. It will be nice to return to modern-day racing, having focused on my historic racing for the last few years.

“Of course, Charlie, Bailey, Gus and Dean are doing a fantastic job for us as our regular drivers, but Richard and I can’t wait to get back on track together.”

United Autosports’ GT4 program was announced last year, while Brown has previously expressed a desire to use the project as a springboard for a potential GT3 return.

The team acquired British outfit HHC Motorsport to operate its GT4 venture, which exists alongside extensive LMP2 and LMP3 programs as well as a historic racing business.

“It’s been a long time since I last raced a current United Autosports car so I’m really looking forward to racing the McLaren GT4,” said Dean, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class in 2006 driving a Team LNT Panoz.

“Zak and I have only really competed in historic events over the last few years, but we have been pretty successful, managing quite a few podiums together over the last few years.

“I’m excited to be taking part in the GT4 event in Zandvoort, it’s one of Europe’s great venues.

“The GT4 European Series is also incredibly successful and they are attracting huge grids, so well done to everyone at SRO.”