Last Thursday, at the press conference organized by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Darren Turner was confirmed as an official driver at the wheel of the #97 Aston Martin Vantage in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 17th and 18th). The two-time Le Mans winner in the former LM GT1 class in 2007 and 2008 in an Aston Martin DBR9 will add a 15th participation to his stats.

Darren Turner has also won in the European Le Mans Series in the #99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage with the Beechdean Aston Martin Racing team in the LM GTE class. The official Aston Martin driver will join Andrew Howard, driver and team owner as well as CEO of Beechdean ice creams. The two men won the ELMS title together in the LM GTE class last year along with Alex MacDowall (two victories).

The third man will be Ross Gunn (20 years old), also an official Aston Martin driver. So the team is doing all it can to hold onto its European crown. Beechdean Aston Martin Racing will once again compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June after a first participation in 2016 that resulted in a seventh place finish in the LM GTE Am class.

Darren Turner: “It’s very exciting to go back and race in the ELMS with Beechdean again this year. It’s always good to race with Andrew (Howard, Ed.) and I’m looking forward to racing with Ross (Gunn, Ed.) for the first time. We had some good races last year and we were lucky at the last round to snatch the championship. I think this year will be equally difficult with even more competition but hopefully we will be in a position to fight for the championship when we get to the last round." 

Quotation from official team website.