Collard Completes R-Motorsport Gulf 12H Lineup

Ricky Collard will drive an R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in this weekend’s Gulf 12 Hours.

The 22-year-old Englishman will join the previously-announced Jake Dennis and Marvin Kirchhoefer in the Pro-class entry, on the new-generation Vantage’s customer racing debut.

Collard drove a BMW M6 GT3 for ROWE Racing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup this year and also featured in BMW’s British Touring Car Championship squad as a stand-in for his father Rob.

The Gulf 12 Hours will mark Collard’s first time driving a non-BMW GT car since 2012, when he competed in Ginetta Juniors. 

Sportscar365 understands that his BMW junior driver status will come to a close at the end of this year.

“Ricky is a talented young GT driver,” said R-Motorsport team principal Dr Florian Kamelger.

“He has already shown in a number of endurance races that he is fast, can go the distance and be relied on to bring a car home up front.

“He is certainly an asset to our team and we’re looking forward to working with him in Abu Dhabi.”

R-Motorsport is one of three teams running the Vantage GT3 for the first time this weekend, with Oman Racing by TF Sport and Beechdean AMR also getting to race the car ahead of its global release next year.

A record 31 cars will take part in the event’s eighth edition, which takes place in two parts on Saturday, Dec. 15.