Chris van der Drift will make his Blancpain Endurance Series debut with Boutsen Ginion Racing at the Paul Ricard circuit later this month.
The 28-year-old driver, who holds a dual nationality (New Zealand/Dutch), has been confirmed by the Belgian squad to join Shahan Sarkissian and Alex Demirdjian in the No. 16 McLaren MP4-12C GT3 for the French round of the series, as well as the remainder of the season – including the Total 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Van der Drift replaces Phil Quaife, who contested in the first two rounds of the 2014 season. He competed in single seaters before making the switch to GT cars and was involved in a massive crash at the Superleague Formula round at Brands Hatch in August, 2010.
He suffered a broken ankle, two broken ribs, a cracked shoulder blade, a dislocated shoulder and two broken fingers in the accident, but was back in a race car before the end of the season.
In September 2012 the Kiwi driver made his GT racing debut behind the wheel of a Bhai Tech Racing McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the Italian GT round at Imola, before committing to a full season of International GT Open in 2013.
“It’s great that I’ll be back behind the wheel in the coming weeks, to partner up Boutsen Ginion and the McLaren will be a nice challenge and together with my experience of the car,” said Van der Drift.
“I know that we can make some steps forward with bringing the car to the front of the field. It’s a great opportunity to show people again that I am a well-established driver, I would like to thank Alex and Shahan that have made this happen.”
Boutsen Ginion Racing will announce the names of the additional drivers for the 24 Hours of Spa at a later date.
