Chris Harris has a landed a new deal with Team Parker Racing that will see him race a Bentley Continental GT3 at the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in 2016. The renowned British journalist and Top Gear presenter will mark his race debut at the forthcoming season opener at Monza.
Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup is part of the Blancpain GT Series that also includes a Sprint Series making it one of the largest GT racing series in the world. Harris will drive car #30 in the AM class sharing it with Chris O’Connor (GB) and Derek Pierce (GB) at the 3 Hours of Monza on April 24.
Team Parker Racing will have an additional car in the Pro-Am class driven by Tom Onslow-Cole (GB), Callum Macleod (GB) and Ian Loggie (GB). In the PRO class, Bentley’s work team M-Sport will field a pair of cars driven by regulars Steven Kane (GB), Guy Smith (GB) and Vince Abril (MO) in car #7 and Andy Soucek (ES), Maxime Soulet (BE) and Wolfgang Reip (BE) in car #8.
Commenting about his new opportunity, Harris said: “This is a bit of a pinch yourself moment,” he commented. “If, last year, you’d asked me what my dream 2016 race season would be it would have involved a Bentley Continental GT3, Stuart Parker and my good friend and long-time teammate Chris Cooper. And now it’s happened!
“I saw an early car being built two years ago and ever since then I’ve wanted to drive one. That I get to do it with Team Parker, a team I’ve had many successes with in the past, is fantastic news. The GT3 category is the most interesting, varied form of circuit racing out there and I think that with Chris [Cooper] and Derek Pierce we have a very good team to attack the Am championship. I just need to remember that the big oversteer is for the Top Gear cameras, not the race track.”
