British sports-car legend Martin Brundle will join forces with former teammate Mark Blundell for his return to international motorsports in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.
The two Britons, who raced together at the Brabham and Ligier Formula One teams in 1991 and 1993, respectively, will team up in a Michael Shank Racing Riley-Ford Grand-Am Daytona Prototype under the banner of Zak Brown's United Autosports team for the Rolex Series opener in Daytona Beach, Fla., Jan. 29-30. The event will be 51-year-old Brundle's first international start since he raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Bentley in 2001.
“Zak asked me if I was interested; it's as simple as that,” said Brundle, who scored a debut win at Daytona with Jaguar in 1988. “I'm interested in doing a bit more racing, so it took me about five minutes to say yes.
“I'm really looking forward to it, because I always enjoyed racing in America. I'm good mates with Mark; we've been teammates but never shared a car. It will be fun driving with him.”
More international racing could be in the cards for Brundle, who has undertaken a handful of races in the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup one-make sedan series and, with son Alex, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo this season.
“Having cleared myself of some of my other responsibilities, I want to go back and race a bit more seriously,” he said. “I'd be surprised if I don't end up doing one or two more sports-car races next year in something.”
Brundle said he would like to return to Le Mans, a race he won with Jaguar in 1990, but pointed out that his F1 commentary commitments with the BBC will make it unlikely this year because the race clashes with the Canadian Grand Prix.
Blundell, who drove one of United Autosports' Audi R8 LMS GT3 cars in this year's Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour enduro in Belgium, will race at Daytona for the first time. He described the event as “one of the most recognized races in the world.”
The two former Grand Prix drivers will share their Riley-Ford with team boss Brown and Daytona Prototype regular Mark Patterson. Blundell, Brown and Patterson all drove the car at last week's official Grand-Am test at Homestead-Miami Speedway, while Brundle will get his first taste of the car at the three-day Daytona test in early January.
United Autosports has joined forces with MSR after failing to get clearance to race one of its R8s in what it believes to be a competitive specification.