Jenson Team Rocket RJN has revealed two of the three drivers that will pilot its McLaren 720S in this season's Endurance Cup.
The British team – a collaboration between Jenson Button and accomplished GT squad RJN – recently revealed that it will switch to the British marque's GT3 machine this term, running in GT World Challenge Europe's five-round long-distance championship.
It has now named Chris Buncombe, who works alongside Button on the RJN partnership, and young gamer-to-racer James Baldwin as its two bronze-graded drivers for 2020, with a third professional driver to be named at a later date.
Bunconbe is among the most experienced and successful bronze-graded competitors in the series. He last raced for Bob Neville’s Team RJN squad in 2013 and has more recently competed for the Strakka and Tempesta outfits, taking a Pro-Am title with the former in 2018.
Rising star Baldwin won the 2019 edition of World's Fastest Gamer, an esports competition aimed at uncovering real-life racing talent. He will contest his first year in professional-level GT racing with one of the most famous names in the sport.
This will be familiar work for the RJN side of the squad, which ran a wealth of gamer-to-racer talent during the GT Academy project. The likes of Jann Mardenborough, Lucas Ordonez and Wolfgang Reip all represented RJN in the Endurance Cup, the latter being crowned overall drivers' champion in 2015.
“I think we have a great balance so far in our driver line-up in our #22 Pro-Am McLaren," commented Button. "We all know that the GT World Challenge is super competitive throughout the field and that includes the Pro-Am category but I hope the combination of youth and experience will help us fight for the championship.
"The team has done a fantastic job in the past bringing on young racers from the virtual world, so I’m looking forward to seeing James Baldwin racing with us this season as the next generation of gamer to racer.”
Both drivers will sample the 720S during the GT World Challenge Europe official test days at Circuit Paul Ricard next week (12/13 March). The season-opening Endurance Cup event takes place at Monza (17-19 April).