Garage 59’s 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup campaign draws to a close at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France this weekend. With the Pro-Am and Silver titles still up for grabs the team will be in attack mode to win the 1,000km race and take the maximum points haul and hopefully the championship titles.
In the Pro-Am category, Garage 59 is currently in second place in the teams’ championship but drawn on points with the leaders. 59 points to be exact. The same is true in the drivers’ standings, where West and Goodwin are ready to pounce. This weekend their regular team mate, Aston Martin factory driver, Jonny Adam, is racing in the World Endurance Championship so the team has drafted in the rapid Marvin Kirchhöfer to make sure the championship campaign stays on track.
Reflecting on what has been a racing season with a difference for everyone, Chris Goodwin said: “Heading to Paul Ricard it feels like a lot has happened since the team’s first race of the season at Bathurst. We are neck and neck for a championship win and have every reason to be confident but as each race this season has shown us, anything can happen regardless of your pace and strategy. Our good fortune has tended to only extend to one car at a time but hopefully this weekend will be a strong one for both the Pro-Am and Silver cars. The Garage 59 Aston Martin has been strong at this circuit and the drivers are ready. We are missing one however as Jonny Adam is in Bahrain trying to win a WEC title. We welcome Marvin Kirchhöfer to the Pro-Am car in his place and Alex and I are looking forward to working with another very quick, young Aston Martin specialist Pro.”
The team’s #159 Silver-class Vantage sits in second place in the teams’ standings and third in the drivers’ championship. They have a bigger margin of points to make up but a win earns plenty of points in this race so they have everything to play for.
Even though he can’t win the drivers’ title, as he joined the team after the first race, James Pull is ready to give it everything he has got: “I think we deserve a good result after Spa and I’m looking forward to getting out there and ending the season on a high. Spa was a blow as we had great pace and everything felt good within the team so I was disappointed not to get a result there. We still have that strong pace, we have the right car and we have the right team. Paul Ricard is probably the best track for us so I’m looking forward to capitalising on that and going for a top result. I can’t win the championship personally but I really want to help the other guys win it.”
The track action gets underway at Paul Ricard on Friday with a one-hour test for the Bronze-rated drivers. Qualifying is on Saturday at 17:20 CET / 16:20 GMT and the race will begin on Sunday at 11:45 CET / 10:45 GMT. It will run for 1,000kms or a maximum of six hours.
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