United Autosports Purchases Strakka Racing Assets

United Autosports has announced its purchase of the assets and equipment of Strakka Racing including the former sports car team’s Silverstone premises.

The ownership deal includes all of Strakka’s race team equipment, race cars and trucks, and is set to enable United to embark on a return to GT racing in the near future.

United, which currently runs an extensive prototype racing program and historic car business, has long been known to have ambitions of re-entering GT3 competition.

Experienced Le Mans competitor Strakka Racing joined the GT grid in 2017 with an extensive McLaren 650S GT3 entry in the Blancpain GT Series, before switching to Mercedes-AMG machinery for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

“Zak and I have been looking to return to GT racing for a little while now and this acquisition is a step towards that,” said United Autosports co-owner Richard Dean.

“Strakka have been a very successful team with first-class equipment so this move made perfect sense.

“GT racing is still as popular as ever and the grids in the UK, Europe and internationally have managed to come through this tough period we are currently going through.

“I’m looking forward to this next new chapter in United Autosports history.”

Strakka Racing was founded by Nick Leventis in 2007 and quickly became an established competitor in the Le Mans Series and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning its class in the latter in 2010.

The team joined the WEC from its inception in 2012 and contested the first two seasons with HPD cars in the LMP1 privateer ranks before embarking on the development of its own prototype car in collaboration with Japanese company Dome.

Strakka contested the first three races of 2015 with the new S103 before switching to a Gibson 015S Nissan for the rest of the campaign and into the following year.

The team then transitioned from prototypes to GT racing in 2017 but after three seasons was not in a position to field cars in the 2020 campaign.

Following the purchase of Strakka Racing’s assets, United is set to announce plans for its GT racing involvement at the end of this month.

United was previously a regular on the British GT Championship grid with Audi and McLaren machinery but the team decided to concentrate fully on prototypes from 2016.

“We have made no secret of the fact that we would like to get back into GT racing with United Autosports,” said company co-owner Zak Brown.

“It’s where the team first started racing so it’s something that is close to our hearts. We are still working on finalizing some details but we will share more information on our plans in the coming weeks.”