Garage 59 Confirms Aston Switch, Endurance Program

Photo: Nick Dungan/Aston Martin

Garage 59 has confirmed it will run Aston Martins this year, competing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and selected Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli rounds.

The British team, which has been long associated with McLaren in European GT racing, has been linked to a program with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for some time.

Former team manager Tim Mullen, who has since moved to FF Corse, told Sportscar365 in November that the team was looking at a Blancpain GT and IGTC program with a different British manufacturer.

It will run a pair of new Aston Martins in the five Blancpain GT Endurance rounds, with one in the Pro class and another in the Am class.

The East Midlands-based team will also enter a single car for the final three IGTC rounds, at Spa, Suzuka and Kyalami.

“The Vantage GT3 looks great. It’s a very high-end GT car based on a strong foundation car so we have high hopes for the season ahead,” said team principal Andrew Kirkaldy.

“We’re looking forward to working with Aston Martin Racing, along with new sponsors who will be revealed in the future.

“It has been an interesting and enjoyable process to re-brand the team. All you can see at the moment is the new logo but we’ll soon be ready to show you our new racing livery, which we are working on now.”

The team is currently testing at Circuit Paul Ricard with Andrew Watson, Chris Goodwin and Aston Martin factory driver Jonny Adam sharing driving duties.

While the team hasn’t revealed its driver lineups yet, all three are expected to get race seats along with other drivers with previous experience in Garage 59’s McLaren 650S GT3s last season.

Aston Martin has confirmed that Chris Goodwin, its expert high performance test driver, will be part of the team’s lineup, most likely in its Am car owing to his Bronze rating.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.