British run Team Modena announce entry.

A new British squad will be cutting their teeth in the Le Mans Endurance Series this season after the newly-formed Team Modena announced that they will run an Aston Martin DBR9 in the GT1 class when the championship gets underway at Istanbul in April.

Previously run by Cirtek Motorsport in the FIA GT Championship, taking two pole positions and a race win in the process, Team Modena is being headed by long-term sports racing enthusiast and Buckinghamshire-based businessman Graham Schultz and owner of the DBR9/101 Rik Bryan.

Although no drivers have been formally announced, Spanish World Touring Car refugee Antonio Garcia and British GT Champion Nathan Kinch are expected to take to the wheel for the five-round championship.

As well as reputed drivers, the team have even managed to lure esteemed designer Sergio Rinland, who has experience in Formula One with Sauber, while respected GT runners Cirtek have also offered to provide support for the fledgling outfit.

"We have created Team Modena with the intention of running a pair of highly-competitive customer chassis in the GT1 class to begin with and have high ambitions for the future," Schultz said.

"We have assembled an extremely talented management team and have great hopes for next month's LMES opener in Istanbul following the speed shown by our car in testing at Paul Ricard. I am pleased that Cirtek will continue to operate this car under the umbrella of Team Modena - its race-winning pedigree is well established."

Bryan meanwhile is convinced that the cars will be just as successful under the Team Modena banner as they were as Cirtek vehicles.

"Cirtek Motorsport has helped to bring us great success since last summer and that relationship will continue under the Team Modena banner. The advantage of this new structure is that we will be bringing key commercial and engineering management into the project, enabling us to develop our future plans in GT1 and other classes."