ALMS: Second Ford GT for Robertson Racing at Petit

Robertson Racing will build a second Ford GT for this season’s Petit Le Mans.

The Atlanta-based outfit has run one of its self-designed GT2-spec machines in the American Le Mans Series for the past two seasons and will add a second car at the ten hour enduro this October.

Double LMS champion Rob Bell will share the driving duties with Robertson Racing regular David Murry and former NASCAR racer Anthony Lazzaro, while the existing #40 entry sees David and Andrea Robertson joined by Craig Stanton.

The new machine, currently under construction at the team’s Braselton headquarters, should be completed by early September with testing planned before the race at Road Atlanta.
Team manager Andrew Smith confirmed that adding a second car to the team’s line-up had been in the pipeline for a while.

“We have been working hard for some time now to turn this into a reality so it’s fantastic to finally announce our expansion into a two-car squad,” he said. “The Series’ GT class is probably the most competitive in world motorsport which makes running an independent team without works-backing very challenging.

“But adding a second car, especially in the hands of such a talented trio that mixes speed with experience, marks a significant step forward in Robertson Racing’s short history. Rob has been very successful in Europe while both David and Anthony are a pair of well established, fast Americans. In fact, David put the car on pole at Petit last season so we’re certainly hopeful of a similar performance.”

For all of his experience, it will be Bell’s first experience driving GT machinery at Petit Le Mans.

“The Ford’s going to be different to the other GT cars I’ve driven recently but as a professional racing driver you should be able to jump in any car and get to grips with it after a couple of laps,” said the Englishman. “In another sense it’s also a good challenge to get in a different car and experience something new as it keeps you motivated. It’s a one off at the moment but the way I always look at it is if you do a good job you never know what might happen in the future.

“I’ll help the team as much as I can because they’re still developing the car, but we are going there to get the best result possible. I’ve not driven round Road Atlanta in a GT car before but have experience from racing the P1 Lola there last season. Obviously the two will be very different so I’ll try and learn as much as I can from David Murry.”

Catch Petit Le Mans live on Motors TV on October 2.

Tom Hornsby