Pro-Sport locks in first B12hr drivers

GERMAN Porsche team PROsport Performance has locked in the first members of the driving squad to pilot their pair of Porsche Cayman GT4s in the 2017 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

The team, based in Wiesemscheid near the Nürburgring, will field two cars this year in an expansion from their single-car entry in this year's race and has sourced a vastly experienced driving squad in the process.

Experienced Sportscar quartet Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster and Andy Pilgrim will steer one car, while current European GT4 champion Jörg Viehbahn is the first confirmed driver for the second entry.

“After our debut in 2016 with the GT4 Porsche, we will enter with our successful GT4 cars," PROSport's Chris Esser said.

"The GT4- division is booming - Eight cars will compete this time. I hope we will see the checkered flag at the finish line.”

Putman has extensive experience in the IMSA Sports Car series, including racing and sponsoring Fall-Line Motorsports. He is, however, perhaps best known most recently for remarkably surviving for 20 hours in the Wyoming wilderness after he crashed his ATV on his private ranch in late 2014.

Putman's long-time teammate Espenlaub is similarly experienced in the US-Sportscar scene and is a former champion in the IMSA-run Continental Tire series.

Atlanta-based Joe Foster has had a more than 25 year professional career at the pointy-end of US Sports Car racing, including racing for the factory Aston Martin team and alongside Patrick Dempsey in a Porsche 911 at the LeMans 24 hour.

British born but now a US resident, Andy Pilgrim has been a works driver for General Motors - joining the iconic Corvette Racing team in 1999 to tackle the LeMans 24 hour and American LeMans Series. More recently he has been a mainstay at the front of the Pirelli World Challenge series, where he has tasted success in for Cadillac GT3, before switching to a Porsche for the North American Endurance Championship this year.

The team will announce their remaining drivers soon.