Team Parker Confirms Bentleys for Endurance Cup, British GT

Team Parker Racing has purchased two new Bentley Continental GT3s for entries in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and British GT Championship.

It will run at least one car in each series, but team principal Stuart Parker has confirmed he is looking to expand to run both cars in both championships.

Parker admitted that a two-car entry in both series “would be the ideal scenario”, and confirmed that the team will take delivery of the cars within the next month.

The confirmed Blancpain GT Endurance Cup entry will run in Pro-Am, while the second car would likely be entered in the Silver Cup.

He’s confident in the potential of the updated Bentley, which was debuted by the factory M-Sport squad last season, having upgraded from running the previous generation car in the last few seasons.

“The Gen 2 car has basically brought it back up to a level playing field with the rest of the GT3 grid and the level of development that goes on between generations,” Parker told Sportscar365.

“Ultimately, it should have won races last year but unfortunately it didn’t. I think it’s going to be another solid race-winning car.

“The Gen 1 car has got very good proven pedigree and I think the Gen 2 car will go onto great things.”

Drivers for both series will be confirmed in due course with the team still talking to potential customers.

Parker also said it’s “very unlikely” that he’ll enter the Sprint races in the renamed Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe, with the focus purely on the Endurance Cup and British GT. 

Team Parker was one of the first customer outfits to show interest in the second gen Bentley, and has been evaluating a program with the new cars for several months.

Bentley confirmed two factory cars last month for the Endurance Cup, with an additional two cars from its Intercontinental GT Challenge program joining the field at the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

Previous Gen Car Could Still Run in Sports Club

One of Team Parker’s previous gen Bentleys could still race this season, with the team exploring a possible entry in the Blancpain GT Sports Club.

Parker said it would be an easy addition to the program as four of the six Sports Club events take place in support of Blancpain GT Endurance Cup rounds. 

“We’d happily look to do that and we do actually have a car that we have available, should anybody want to do that,” he explained.

“Other than that, from our side, we would retire the cars. We wouldn’t look to run them in current GT3 competition.

“We’re more than happy to do [Sports Club] because we’re already there so it’s not much more in a logistical sense to do the old car.”