Vanthoor will contest the three-hour race as a one-off for Century Motorsport aboard its BMW M4 GT3 on the 26-28 April, amid WEC duties for the German producer within the hypercar class.
The drive was initially for Dan Harper, however in March Leung’s former co-driver secured a last-minute call-up for the British GT season in certainly one of Century’s different BMWs – so, Vanthoor was ultimately chosen for Silverstone.
“It is going to be particular,” stated Vanthoor of his forthcoming debut, which can be reside and free on Motorsport.tv. “Taking a look at final 12 months’s efficiency from Darren and Dan, there’s not a lot we are able to do to do higher than that, so for positive we’ll try to do the identical.”
Silverstone can be Leung’s first British GT race since clinching the championship within the 2023 season finale having skipped this 12 months’s opening weekend at Oulton Park.
It got here after he and Harper initially determined to not defend their crown, however a one-off spherical at Silverstone was all the time the plan till the 23-year-old secured a seat for the season.
“I’d like to have achieved the Silverstone 500 with Dan,” stated Leung, who gained the race with Harper in 2023.
“Circumstances modified and we needed to assess different choices. Happily, BMW has a really deep pool of manufacturing unit drivers and Dries was obtainable for Silverstone.”
Vanthoor ought to nonetheless deliver plenty of qualities although because the 25-year-old is a three-time GT World Problem Europe Dash Cup champion and 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours winner within the LMGTE-Am class.
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“Velocity-wise, he’s prime tier,” added Leung. “However I’ve all the time admired his strategy. I do know he can be flat out at each alternative and that’s one thing I actually recognize.
“We’re not racing for factors, a end result or perhaps a podium, I need to defend that win and that’s the mentality we’ll have.”
It has been an in any other case sluggish begin to Century’s British GT marketing campaign as its finest end result at Oulton Park was ninth within the first of two one-hour races that weekend.
Elsewhere, Optimum Motorsport is operating a second McLaren 720S GT3 for Silverstone with Le Mans Cup duo Fran Rueda and Andrew Gilbert as its Silver-Am crew.
It’s a part of a 44-car grid for British GT’s second race meet of the season, which additionally options the collection return of 2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough who’s sharing certainly one of Crew RJN’s McLaren 720S GT3s with Chris Buncombe.