Craft-Bamboo Racing will be one of the teams that will have direct support from Mercedes-AMG in the 8 Hours of Indianapolis, second scoring event of the Intercontinental GT Challenge 2021. The Asian team and the German firm have reached an agreement for the team to compete in the American event with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with a line-up made up of three factory drivers. In this aspect, The Mercedes # 99 of the Hong Kong team will be under the command of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Jules Gounon. The team’s presence in Indianapolis is Craft-Bamboo’s first international race since the Bathurst 12 Hours in February 2020.
Maro Engel and Luca Stolz have just been proclaimed runners-up in the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup and they are one of the pairs with the best synchrony within the list of official Mercedes-AMG drivers. For its part, Jules Gounon will join both after being rival of the German duo in the European SRO competition while driving for AKKA ASP. For the occasion, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Engel, Stolz and Gounon will sport a special livery with yellow and black tones designed in collaboration with Tarmac Works. The company is famous for its scale models, especially in the United States.
In relation to this project, Maro Engel He said: “I really want to compete with Craft-Bamboo again. It has been a really difficult period for racing in Asia, so I know that Darryl O’Young and the whole team have worked very hard. It’s great to get back on track with them for the Indianapolis 8 Hours. We have a great driver line-up with the presence of Luca Stolz and Jules Gounon. I am looking forward to working with them. The truth is that we have all the ingredients to do it well. Luca and I don’t know the track, but we understand each other very well. Jules does, so it will be great to learn from him.