Jenson Button will make a surprise appearance in the British GT Championship finale with his own Jenson Team Rocket RJN squad.
The team is adding a second McLaren 720S GT3 car to its entry for the Silverstone 500 on November 7-8, meaning World’s Fastest Gamer James Baldwin and Michael O’Brien get 2009 Formula 1 world champion Button as a team-mate for the British GT title decider.
The entire 2020 British GT Championship is being shown live on The Race’s YouTube channel.
Button will share the car with friend and team co-owner Chris Buncombe.
“This will be my first taste of a GT3 car but I’m really looking forward it. It will be lovely to join our team and lining-up in the McLaren 720S with my best buddy Chris Buncombe,” said Button.
“It’s great to come back and race on UK soil again and a big thank you to our partners that have made this possible.
“It’s a shame that this final round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship will be without the fans but I hope they will tune in to follow our progress!”
Sportscar racing has been Button’s main competitive focus since retiring from F1 at the end of the 2016 season.
Two full campaigns in Super GT in Japan – another series that can be watched live on The Race’s YouTube channel – included a title at the first attempt in 2018, and he also raced SMP’s LMP1 car in World Endurance Championship rounds including the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Silverstone British GT event will be his first real-world race of 2020.
Baldwin has starred in British GT this season since earning the Jensen Team Rocket RJN seat as part of his World’s Fastest Gamer prize.
He won his debut in the season-opener at Oulton Park and has taken three poles from the eight races in a year where no other crew has been on pole more than once.
Baldwin and O’Brien go into the Silverstone 500 with an outside title chance as they sit 34 points behind RAM Racing Mercedes duo Sam de Haan and Patrick Kujala with 37.5 points available in the finale.
The contest to follow Baldwin and predecessor Rudy van Buren to become the third World’s Fastest Gamer winner is already underway, find out more about the process here.
