TEAM PARKER SIGNS UP SEPTUAGENARIAN FOR ONE-OFF RACE
VETERAN 24 Hours of Le Mans record-breaker Dominique Bastien has joined Desford-based team Parker Racing’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB line-up at Knockhill, in Scotland, this weekend.
Born in Dunkerque, in far Northern France, Bastien moved to the United States as a teenager, building, running, and expanding a successful businesses, Specialty Brands of America.
His interest in motorsport came when son Marc spent time at the Skip Barber Racing School at Riverside in California, getting the bug himself.
Starting in single seaters in his early 60s, he turned his attentions to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, travelling back and forth from the
States on Wednesday evenings and flying back from Germany on Sunday mornings, slowly building his knowledge of the fearsome circuit.
He competed at the circuit’s 24-hour race in 2013 and 2014, before turning to endurance events in Dubai, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and the UK, falling in love with Porsche machinery in the process.
In 2020 he began preparations for his next challenge, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, not classified as a finisher in that first season but at 75 years of age, became the oldest driver to finish the race a year later in a Dempsey/Proton Porsche 911 RSR.
Proving age is no barrier to competition, Bastien is making a one-off appearance, at the undulating Knockhill circuit this weekend.
He will have to quickly get up to speed with both the circuit and the car, turning his first laps in the 992-style Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Bastien will be replacing Seb Morris, who has withdrawn from the championship, aiming to return to endurance racing, with the team exploring options to fill the seat for the remainder of the season.
Bastien was joining his Team Parker Racing colleagues at the circuit for an official Porsche test day today, ahead of the weekend action, with two 32-lap races scheduled for Sunday, the second of which is being shown live on ITV4 at 3.05pm. ■■Team Parker Racing enjoyed a podium finish in the British GT Championship as the series made its annual visit to the famous Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium last weekend.
With bad luck hampering their efforts so far this season, there was joy for Jamie Orton and Seb Hopkins in the #65 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport RS as their persistence paid off with a secondplace finish in GT4.
On the other side of the garage, Nick Jones and Scott Malvern battled performance balancing difficulties in the #66 SD Sealants Porsche 911 GT3 R, securing a top-10 result, though a second-hour puncture likely cost the pair a number of positions.