North-East Sport

Hughes secures drive in GT1 world Championship

By Matt Westcott

7:35pm Sunday 21st March 2010

SUNDERLAND racing driver Warren Hughes has secured his second drive for the season with a seat at the Sumo Power GT team racing in the newly formed FIA GT1 World Championship.

Hughes will share his Nissan GT-R with the experienced GT and Le Mans driver, Jamie Campbell-Walter. The pair will join Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck, who were confirmed in February.

"This opportunity came out of the blue" said Hughes. "I got a call from the team a couple of weeks ago asking if I would like to test the car at Paul Ricard circuit in France. The test went very well and a week later they offered me the drive".

The newly formed FIA GT1 World Championship will be contested over ten events in ten countries across four continents, starting at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi on the April 17 and finishing at St Luis in Argentina on December 4.

"When I first heard about this championship I knew that it was a championship I would love be racing in, so when this opportunity arose with the Sumo Power GT team I was delighted and to then secure the drive was a dream for me," said Hughes.

Both Hughes and Campbell-Walter got there first real taste of the car at a test day earlier last week at Snettereton where both drivers said they were impressed with the car's power and potential to be a contender in the championship.

Team Manager Allen Orchard said: "We’ve been making such progress with the performance of the cars we felt we needed and strong pairing of drivers in our second GT-R. We therefore opted for Warren and Jamie, instead of two drivers who are there because of the budget that they bring to the team. I’m delighted that we now have one of the best driver line ups in the championship".

The team is scheduled to test its pair of Nissan GT-R’s this week at Silverstone and then make the final preparations for the car's departure to Abu Dhabi for the first of the championship races.

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