Ferrier: TF Working on 2027 Deal for “Super Fast” McDonald

TF Sport boss Tom Ferrier says his squad is working on a deal for its European Le Mans Series title contender Blake McDonald to step up to the FIA World Endurance Championship full-time next year.

Current TF Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R WEC driver Ben Keating confirmed to Sportscar365 at the Lone Star Le Mans event at the Circuit of The Americas earlier this month that he would not be contesting a full season in the series or the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2027 and would instead target “fun” one-off outings.

In contrast to the vastly experienced Keating, Californian racer McDonald is only in his first season of international competition, having finished runner-up in the Pro-Am class of the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS last year in a DXDT Racing Corvette.

He made his racing debut in 2023, contesting two campaigns in the North American Porsche and Lamborghini single-make series.

But McDonald stood in for Keating in the opening two WEC rounds of this year while the Texan recovered from an elbow injury sustained when mountain biking.

McDonald finished runner-up in LMGT3 on his Imola debut alongside Nicky Catsburg and Jonny Edgar and has been a frontrunner in ELMS throughout the season, Ferrier therefore believing the 36-year-old is ready for a full WEC campaign.

“It would be nice if we could definitely,” Ferrier told Sportscar365 when asked about the prospect of McDonald replacing Keating.

“We’re talking to a few different people at the moment and the aim is to have the best two cars on the grid that we can have really.”

He said that McDonald’s previous WEC experience is another benefit, adding: “Blake’s super good, super fast, lovely to have around and works really hard at it so for sure he’s a definite favorite of ours.”

Ferrier said that he hopes the 2027 WEC lineup “will all be sorted soon” so the team can undertake the best possible preparations for the new campaign.

McDonald, Charlie Eastwood and Alec Udell currently sit second in the ELMS LMGT3 table ahead of next month’s Portimao finale, just three points behind Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo duo Abdulla Al-Khelaifi and Julian Hanses.

The Corvette trio triumphed in the Imola round and have also taken two other class podiums this season.

“He’s done a really good job and he’s getting better every weekend,” Ferrier added about McDonald, highlighting his Silverstone performance when the crew finished second.

“Qualifying and the way he drove was really strong with the weight we were carrying.”

TF secured the LMGT3 crown in Portugal last year when Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Hiroshi Koizumi overturned a 14-point deficit to take the spoils, with Ferrier now seeking a repeat result.

“Our aim every year is to try and be in the fight at the last race,” he said. “We came from further behind last year at Portimao to win it, so we’ll give it our best shot.

“It’s hard with success ballast and stuff — you can’t win every race, it’s about keeping scoring. I’m just ruing Barcelona where we got wiped out at the first round and that was a big non-score there.

“We will go to Portugal and, if it’s meant to be, it will be — if not, we’ve done our job and been in the fight.”