MASERATI GRANTURISMO SET FOR BRITISH GT DEBUT

GT Cup squad Ebor GT will field a new Maserati Granturismo MC GT4 in British championship for Abbie Eaton and Marcus Hoggarth.

The York team has ordered one of the Italian firm’s new GT4 machines and expects to take delivery later this month. Ebor specialises in historic race and rally preparation for Italian cars, and last season also ran Hoggarth to second in the GT Cup’s GTC division points alongside BTCC driver Tom Ingram.

Eaton steps up to GT4 having won the Mazda MX-5 Supercup in 2014 and raced a BMW M3 in the GT Cup last year.

Ebor GT head Adrian Snook said: “We’ve always worked with Italian cars and the Granturismo MC GT4 is a beautiful machine so we saw it as the next step. GT4 racing is good value compared to GT3 and British GT is the best place to do it by the looks of it as the grid is larger than ever. We chose the Maserati as it’s been racing for a while now as a single-make Trophy car so it’s a proven product with plenty of miles of development on it.”

Eaton said: “I’ve been working to get into British GT for a few years so I’m delighted this has come together. The years in the Mazda and the BMW have helped me get used to racing with rearwheel drive and the power the BMW had means the GT4 shouldn’t be too alien.

“I’m looking forward to racing with Marcus. He’s a very switched-on driver and he’s very quick and reliable. I’m feeling very positive about this year.”