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GT Cup organisers investigate prototype series

29th January 2016

Bute Motorsport, organisers of the successful GT Cup championship, are actively working on a prototype championship that could pilot later this year ahead of a full rollout in 2017.

The series would be open to LMP3 cars from the likes of Ligier, who have already produced nearly thirty chassis, as well as CN cars and the recently launched Ginetta G57. The LMP3 type race car was launched in 2014 as a low cost formula for endurance racing. Production is limited to five manufacturers running spec Nissan 5-litre V8s producing 420bhp.

A three group structure is proposed for the hour-long races with LMP3 cars running in the P1 group, FIA CN (Supersport) cars running in P2 and P3 consisting of cars manufactured by the likes of Radical, Saker, Aquila, Riley and others.

Pirelli have already pledged their support to the idea and Bute Motorsport are in discussions with MSVR on dates with the series likely to join the GT Cup on the Grand Prix circuits later in the year.

“This is an idea I’ve been working on for a while now,” said Bute Motorsport technical co-ordinator Phil Boland. “The new GT3 specification cars are costing half a million Euros so we see this as an opportunity because there are plenty of people out there in the market for a serious racing car who don’t want to be spending that kind of money. The LMP3 fits the bill perfectly and they are great looking cars so why not have them racing in a UK championship.“

“The GT Cup has been very well supported with healthy grids over the past three years,” added Bute Motorsport founder Marc Haynes. ”The prospect of running a prototype series is very exciting and I feel we have the team to deliver a quality product to our customers.”

”We love the concept of a National prototype series and have been in discussions with Phil Boland at GT Cup since the start of 2015 on this subject.” Said United Autsports team boss Richard Dean. “Now we have taken delivery of our first Ligier LMP3 car, I am even more convinced this is a category that will grow and grow. The LMP3 prototype cars are probably the best value for money racing car out there at the moment and it is a natural progression for GT drivers to want to progress. It makes perfect sense for the GT Cup organisers to look at accommodating this growing class in their British series race weekends, we would certainly look at running cars and supporting it”

Those interested in entering should contact the organising team at Bute Motorsport.

Track Days / Test Days / MotorsportDays.com