Bentley Open to U.S. Customer Programs

Photo: John Dagys

With a solid foundation laid by the works-supported Dyson Racing effort, Bentley is aiming to have a customer team presence in Pirelli World Challenge, and beginning in 2016, the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Bentley Motorsport director Brian Gush revealed the British manufacturer has now established a customer support program following a successful debut season for the Continental GT3, which claimed victories in both Europe, North America and Asia last year.

“We’re set up now to sell customer cars,” Gush told Sportscar365. “We feel that we’ve shown the potential of the car and we’re hoping we can get some customers coming along.”

Dyson Racing Team Bentley, which made a mid-season debut in PWC last year, would be the point of contact for U.S.-based customer teams, although Gush admitted they will remain selective in the number of cars sold, opting for quality over quantity.

He said 30 cars would be a “perfect number” of Continental GT3s competing worldwide.

Bentley is already well represented around the globe, with the factory M-Sport effort in the Blancpain Endurance Series, HTP Team Bentley taking on the Blancpain Sprint and Endurance Series as well as ADAC GT Masters, Absolute Racing in GT Asia, plus the two-car Dyson program in PWC.

A number of customer efforts have also been established, including Lechner Racing in the Middle East and Flying B Motorsport, which competed in last weekend’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour. There’s also interest from teams in Super GT.

While the Continental GT3 won’t be seen in the TUDOR Championship this year, Gush is hopeful of seeing customers campaign the V8-powered beast in 2016, once the GT Daytona class is opened up to full FIA GT3 regulations.

“I had a meeting with them two weeks ago at Daytona and they have assured us that GT3 will be eligible as homologated,” he said. “So if any customers wanted to enter TUDOR under those circumstances, then yeah, great.

“What we don’t want to do is go through the development process to enter the car [with modifications]. We’d welcome customers getting involved in it.”

Despite the works team taking part in key endurance races such as the Nürburgring 24 and Bathurst 12 Hour, Gush has ruled out seeing a M-Sport-run factory effort for the Rolex 24 at Daytona or Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2016.

John Dagys

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