British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star Finlay Hutchison will make an unexpected return to action in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Zandvoort in The Netherlands this Saturday, 26th September, after receiving an eleventh-hour call-up from Audi squad Attempto Racing.
Dundee racer Hutchison, who competes with Attempto in the sister GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, has been drafted into the line-up for the pair of Zandvoort races to deputise for Frederic Vervisch in the No.66 Audi R8 LMS GT3 alongside Nicolas Scholl.
Audi works driver Vervisch, with whom Hutchison competed as team-mate in 2019 in the then Blancpain Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup, is racing for the German marque in the clashing Nurburgring 24 Hour race.
No stranger to the shorter Sprint Cup format, where races are one-hour in duration, 20-year-old Hutchison is also more than familiar with Zandvoort where he took a resounding victory back in 2017 in the ‘Zandvoort 500’ at the wheel of a Renaultsport R.S.01 sportscar.
That said, the circuit has of course undergone some changes since then in order to accommodate the FIA Formula One World Championship which is scheduled to race there in 2021. Zandvoort does, however, retain all of the character which makes the track such a popular destination.
Hutchison and Austrian driver Scholl know each other well too – in addition to racing together in the Endurance Cup this year, they competed in the Rotax European Karting Championship during their formative days before Hutchison graduated to cars in Formula Renault in 2016.
During the most recent round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, the six-hour race at the Nurburgring in Germany, Hutchison, Scholl and Alex Aka teamed to deliver a top four finish in the Silver Cup for Attempto.
Looking ahead to his last-minute return to Sprint Cup action, Hutchison said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to the Attempto guys for inviting me to stand-in for Fred [Vervisch] alongside Nicolas this weekend at Zandvoort. It’s a great opportunity to be back in the Sprint Cup, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how we get on.
“Nicolas and I have a really good working relationship, he’s a quick driver and we both know the Audi R8 so I’m confident we can have a strong weekend. It’s great to be returning to Zandvoort as well, a track with a lot of good memories for me!”
Backed by Hutchison Technologies, Evoson and In-Home Displays, Scotland’s talented young racer will get his first mileage at the 4.2-kilometre Zandvoort Circuit tomorrow, Friday, 25th September, during free practice ahead of pre-qualifying and final qualifying – the latter starting at 16.50 (UK time).
Both races will be contested on Saturday, 26th September, with the first getting underway at 08.00 (UK time) and the second starting at 12.45 (UK time). Live streaming of final qualifying and the races will be carried online HERE
Source. Marc Orome/Photo. SRO Motorsports Group
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