Photo: Road to Le Mans / Jakob Ebrey Photography
Redhill-based TF Sport has announced that, in addition to its entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it will also contest the ‘Road to Le Mans’ races which form part of build-up to the French classic.
The foundation of the Road to Le Mans is the Michelin Le Mans Cup, a series which competes alongside the European Le Mans Cup and is for GT3 and LMP3 machinery. Full-season entries into the 2019 Michelin Le Mans Cup series will be joined by additional GT3 and LMP3 entries at the La Sarthe circuit. Road to Le Mans allows drivers, and teams, who aspire to enter the main race the opportunity to experience competing on the full Circuit de La Sarthe in its 24 Heures du Mans configuration.
TF Sport’s #97 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will be driven at Le Mans by Flick Haigh and Tom Gamble.
Flick Haigh won the 2018 British GT Championship at the wheel of the #75 Optimum Motorsport Aston Martin she shared with Jonny Adam. Haigh has previous experience in the Michelin Le Mans Cup when she raced in the 2017 championship, driving the Optimum Motorsport Audi R8 LMs.
Tom Gamble is a rising young star of GT racing, having started his car racing career in 2016 in the Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Winter Series. The 17-year old won the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2017 with JHR Developments and, in 2019, has competed in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe, driving the #17 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS to sixth place with teammate Shae Davies in Race One at Brands Hatch. Gamble replaced an injured Adrian Willmott in the #9 Century Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 at Round Two of the 2019 British GT Championship. Alongside teammate Jack Mitchell, the duo scored a top-ten finish in Race Two of the weekend’s double-header.
TF Sport Director Tom Ferrier is looking forward to returning to the Road to Le Mans grid, having previously competed in 2017 with driver line-up of Ahmad Al Harthy and Tom Jackson.
“We competed in this race two years ago with success so we’re looking forward for more of the same this year,” said Tom Ferrier. “I’ve been working with Flick and Tom on this for some time so we’re delighted that the plan came together for us to do Road To Le Mans again.”
Flick Haigh is also excited about racing at the Circuit de La Sarthe.
“I’m really looking forward to being back in the race car again and to do that at Le Mans is very special,” said Flick Haigh. “It’s a really good opportunity to compete there with Tom and he has already impressed me by being right on the pace when we had a day of running at Anglesey. I need to head into an event knowing that, as a package, we should be competing at the front, so fingers crossed for a great event.”
Likewise, Tom Gamble is confident that the package will be competitive on one of the toughest GT circuits in the world.
“We drove the car for the first time at Anglesey and we have additional test days ahead of the race weekend at Le mans,” said Tom Gamble. “The test went well and we spent some getting used to the new car that has a lot more aero compared to the car that Flick gas raced last year. We have a great line-up and TF Sport continue to demonstrate their winning pace so, with the right package around us, we head there with confidence.”
Track action for the Road to Le Mans grid opens with FP1 on Wednesday June 12 at 20:30 local time with the lights going out for Race One at 17:30 local time on Thursday June 13.
