Tilley to Make GT3 Debut With Lionspeed

Kyle Tilley will make his racing debut in contemporary GT3 machinery when he joins Lionspeed GP for next week’s Gulf 12 Hours.

The Indiana-based Brit, best known for his work with Era Motorsport, will pilot the No. 99 Porsche 911 GT3 R alongside Patrick Kolb, Bashar Mardini and Gabriel Rindone.

Tilley, who founded Era in 2018, has largely been absent from modern sports car racing since he stepped away from his team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 effort in 2022.

Prior to that, he notably secured a class victory in the 2021 Rolex 24 at Daytona and captured the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2-Am title the same year.

Tilley’s appearance with Lionspeed is set to act as a prelude to a planned full-season Michelin 24H Series program with an Era-entered Ferrari 296 GT3 next year.

Although well-versed in historic racing, The 36-year-old has limited experience of modern GT machinery.

Tilley raced a Marcos Mantis during the 2011 BritCar Championship that was listed as a GT3, but was never officially homologated as such. Additionally, he drove an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in what was then Pirelli World Challenge.

Mardini and Rindone, meanwhile, will both be making their debuts with the German squad as the two Bronze-rated drivers in the lineup.

The former previous competed in International GT Open, while Rindone has experience with Lamborghini in Asian LMS, Intercontinental GT Challenge and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS.

The lineup is completed by team principal Kolb, who was part of the squad that captured the SP9 Pro-Am class victory in this year’s Nürburgring 24.

Kolb drove the Porsche as recently as last week’s 6 Hours of Jeddah, where handling issues curtailed a run from the team that had seen it post the fastest lap in Bronze Cup.