The Apex Motorsport Jaguar XKR GT3 will make its race debut this weekend on home soil as the 2007
FIA GT3 European Championship kicks off at
Silverstone.
With the team receiving special dispensation not to run three cars for the season opener, as required by GT3 rules, two XKRs will line up on the grid, with the owner of the first new car Stuart Scott being joined by Chris Ryan in the #47 XKR.
The sister car, the #46, will be driven by Formula Renault graduate James Littlejohn, who will be partnered in the car by 2004 Mazda MX5 champion Christian Dick, who will be making the step up to international competition for the first time.
The debut race will mark the end of a fraught run up to the new season, with the team having built the XKR into a race car in a matter of months, with team principal Richard Lloyd admitting that it had been far from easy.
"To say that the last few months have been fraught is probably something of an understatement,” he said. “We didn't get the first complete road car from Jaguar until the end of September and we've been up against it as far as testing and preparation is concerned ever since. The major problem has been that we underestimated the complexities of going racing with a supercharged engine and that has seriously restricted the amount of track time we've been able to achieve.
"At very late notice we turned to AER [Advanced Engine Research] to help us sort out the management of the supercharger temperatures and I'm convinced that together we will conquer these issues, but perhaps not in time for this weekend. The team, led by team manager, Dave Ward, has worked an incredible number of hours over the last few weeks to get us to where we are today, and I'm sure they would all agree with me that a June start to the season would have been preferable to a May one!
