Tagliani joins Zakspeed for Blancpain

IndyCar veteran Alex Tagliani will contest his first season of racing in Europe in this year's Blancpain GT Series. The 2011 Indianapolis 500 pole winner will race a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the German Zakspeed team in the Endurance Cup element of the BGTS.

Tagliani will share the car with ex-Aston Martin Racing driver Darryl O'Young and Jean-Frederick Laberge, the 2012 Canadian Porsche Cup champion, in an all-Canadian line-up.

"I'm really looking forward to racing in Europe on some great tracks and I am also very excited about driving the car," said Tagliani. "These cars have a lot of technology and quite a lot of downforce, which means that an open-wheeler guy like me won't be totally out to lunch when he gets in."

Tagliani, who is expecting to dovetail the BGTS campaign with a return to the Indy 500 and a NASCAR program, also revealed his aspirations to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

"Every racing driver wants to do Le Mans, but when you are not a recognised sportscar driver, it is difficult to get in," he explained.

Tagliani's previous GT experience is limited to a handful of starts in a Ford Mustang and one in a Ferrari, while he has also competed in a Daytona Prototype and a Prototype Challenge one-make racer in North America.

The deal put together by Laberge marks a full-scale return to international sportscars for Zakspeed after an absence dating back to a campaign in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship with a Dodge Viper Competition Coupe.

Zakspeed, whose near-50 year history includes a stint in Formula 1 in 1985-89, was re-inaugurated for a 2014 ADAC GT Masters campaign and then won last year's title with Luca Ludwig and Sebastien Asch.

Originally on Autosport.com