GT: Yacaman enjoying new sportscar challenge

Gustavo Yacaman's switch from the FIA World Endurance Championship to the GT Open series has provided the young Colombian with a new challenge.

At 25, Yacaman has spent his teens and adult life racing throughout the world, making stops in Spain for Formula 3, in America for Indy Lights and IMSA, and most recently, in the WEC with the G-Drive LMP2 program. For 2016, he's added another series to the list after joining Teo Martin Motorsport in the International GT Open championship.

Similar to (but lesser known than) the Blancpain GT Series, Yacaman hopes his move from a prototype to a BMW M6 GT3 with the defending series champions will provide what he was unable to find in the WEC.

"During January I received a call from my former F3 owner, Emilio de Villota, who now is the manager at Teo Martin Motorsport, and he offered me a drive with them for this year," Yacaman (right) told RACER. "I was reluctant at first. I wasn't ready to leave LMP2, but after watching how all the ex-GP2 kids moved in with huge budgets, it left me with no competitive rides. So I took Emilio's offer with a winning team in a championship that's growing exponentially and we have ties to the BMW factory."

Yacaman and co-driver Fernando Monje earned finishes of second and sixth during the first GT Open event in Estoril, and have Spa on the horizon later this month.

"We had some problems during pre-season testing, so I went into the first race with little to no GT3 experience, but lucky enough, we have had a lot of support from the BMW factory," Yacaman added. "We were able to score a podium in our first race. My teammate started third, got sent to fourth and then when I got in I was able to bring the car back to a second place. There was lot of pressure from Kevin Estre, as I was struggling a lot with traction at the end of the race, but I was able to keep him behind."

A return to race in America ranks among Yacaman's future interest, and until that happens, he says he'll enjoy the rising competition in GT Open.

"McLaren has an official team there, AF Corse is there, Aston Martin is there; you've got it all," he continued. "For sure the field is not as deep as the Blancpain series, but for Spa we expect 25-plus cars, and it will be there in very little time."