Baguette Rejoins Honda Lineup for Kyalami 9H

Bertrand Baguette has rejoined Honda Racing’s Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli driver lineup for the Kyalami 9 Hour season finale next weekend.

Baguette, who finished third in this year’s Super GT standings, replaces Dane Cameron in the factory Honda NSX GT3 Evo alongside Renger van der Zande and Mario Farnbacher.

It will mark the Belgian’s first IGTC appearance since the Kyalami round last year.

Cameron is unable to make the trip to South Africa because of conflicting Acura DPi testing commitments with Meyer Shank Racing at Daytona next week.

Van der Zande, Farnbacher and Cameron contested the first three rounds of the four-event IGTC season together at Bathurst, Indianapolis and Spa-Francorchamps.

The trio scored a third-place finish in the inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hour before reaching the top ten at the Total 24 of Hours of Spa.

At the start of the season, Honda announced Baguette as part of a four-man IGTC crew that would be adjusted depending on drivers’ availabilities throughout the year.

Baguette’s role in Super GT, which he contested with Koudai Tsukakoshi in a Keihin Real Racing Honda NSX-GT GT500, took precedence for much of 2020 and required the Belgian to stay in Japan to avoid being caught out by the country’s ban on arrivals from Europe that was put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the conclusion of the Super GT campaign last weekend, Baguette is now available to make his first IGTC outing in just over a year.

Van der Zande and Farnbacher are seventh in the IGTC drivers’ championship heading into the season finale and are in mathematical contention for the title with 12 points separating them from the top of the table and 25 points at play.