Garage 59 Feared Hiring Faro, Barcelona Double Duty Jet Alone

Garage 59 boss Andrew Kirkaldy feared that his squad would have to hire a jet on its own to take its drivers between Barcelona and Portimao for the FIA World Endurance Championship and GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS clash as the number of racers doing both continually reduced.

Despite 18 GTWC Europe regulars also competing in the WEC, only four have ended up tackling both championships this weekend and two of those are Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo racers Tom Fleming and Benji Goethe.

Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 EVO driver Darren Leung and Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo pilot Mattia Drudi are the other two, with everyone making the trip backwards and forwards between the venues hiring a jet together to reduce costs.

“It is helpful,” Kirkaldy told Sportscar365 of those affected combining forces. “It’s interesting because it started off there’s 18 drivers, now it’s 15, now it’s ten, now it’s six — and it was like, wait a minute, we’re going to be renting a jet on our own here!”

Kirkaldy said the amended WEC timetable means contesting both events should be “doable, but only just,” adding: “We will have to wait and see if it does all align.”

Two of Garage 59’s other WEC drivers have also raced in GTWC Europe together, but Antares Au elected not to race his usual Rutronik Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo and the team decided Marvin Kirchhoefer would just concentrate on Barcelona WEC as well.

“The original plan was to have Marvin, Tom and Benji all do both but that didn’t really work because then Antares would’ve been left on his own in the car here all day,” explained Kirkaldy. “So we replaced Marvin with Jack Hawksworth in GT World Challenge.

“Benji and Tom can win the championship in Gold in GT World Challenge and it’s important to stay in the WEC car for Alex (West) so it’s important to try and do both.

“It’s hard to bring someone in that maybe doesn’t know the car and, because there’s so many drivers that are being replaced, there’s not that many people around. It’s good we’ve managed to find a solution.”

Au said he had initially been keen to tackle both events but ultimately decided to concentrate solely on the WEC after a frustrating season in the Rutronik Porsche had failed to yield strong results.

“To me, if we were not in the championship hunt and we were simply showing up to Portimao to try to win the race, I need to make a sensible choice,” said Au.

“I know full well the chance of being on the podium (in WEC) is a precious thing but, if you’re going to do something, you do it properly.”

Leung: “Biggest Risk” is Barcelona to Faro Delays

Darren Leung said the “biggest risk” in terms of the logistical challenge of competing in both events comes when leaving Barcelona after WEC LMGT3 qualifying and travelling to Portimao ahead of the GTWC Europe race on Saturday.

Having spent all of Friday at Portimao to complete GTWC Europe practice and qualifying, Leung is due to fly to Barcelona at 10 p.m. CEST.

He will then tackle LMGT3 FP3 and qualifying before the jet is due to depart Barcelona at 1:30 p.m. CEST to arrive in Faro ahead of the 6 p.m. CEST Portimao race start.

Then Leung is due to depart Faro at midnight to be back in Barcelona ready for Sunday’s WEC contest.

“It’s going to be very tight with the airports between Barcelona and Faro (on Saturday),” said Leung.

“If something goes wrong at one of those two airports, then we’re going to have to make a compromise for the race here (in Portimao) — maybe I don’t go in for the first stint. We’ll have to cross fingers and hope everything is fine.”

Leung did contemplate just concentrating on one event, but was determined to fight for the Bronze title of GTWC Europe’s Endurance Cup.

“It’s the reason why, when I did the 24H Dubai, I pushed myself to drive ten, 11, 12 hours, just so I know I can do what I have to do,” he added.

“It’ll be a very interesting one. Completely different tires, different setup philosophy.

“The priority is definitely in Portimao this weekend, because there’s only five points in it for the drivers’ championship in GT World Challenge.

“It’s my team, it’s my boys. We’ve come here to win it.”