Following a break of nine years, Charles Bateman will make his return to motorsport with Team Parker Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
Bateman last raced with the team thirteen years ago, and before then enjoyed a relationship with Team Parker Racing since 2005 when he raced Caterhams for two years. He moved up to Porsche Carrera Cup GB, spending three more years with the team in the championship.
In 2010 he switched to Motorbase Performance for another season in Carrera Cup GB before spending two years in British GT, taking third place in the championship in 2012. His last full season would be in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup before taking some time away from motorsport.
Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Bateman will join Will Aspin and reigning champion Ryan Ratcliffe in the Pro-Am class and is looking forward to getting back in to the highly competitive one-make series.
“I’ve been out of racing for far too long. I’d been thinking about what championship to do and, considering I wanted to get back into the Carrera Cup, I would only race with Stuart and Team Parker Racing,” said Bateman.
“For me, the main thing is that I’ve not raced a car since 2013 so I will be competing with myself for the first half of the season. Hopefully, we’ll have a good year and show we can still be competitive.
“The last Porsche Cup car I raced was the 997, with a proper sequential gearbox, so it was quite a bit more manual than the new one! The 992 still feels still very much like a Porsche, just a massive step on in terms of being a proper race car.
“I’d also like to say a big thank you to Pilgrim Foodservice and C.J. Butchers for their support in getting me back on track to do what I love.”
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