Écurie Écosse, Blackthorn and the Road Back to Le Mans
A historic Scottish name, a modern Aston Martin programme, and a story worth following
All Images © Blackthorn Racing. Used for editorial purposes.
There are some names in motorsport that carry more weight than their current results alone. Écurie Écosse is one of them.
For many, the name immediately brings to mind Scottish blue racing cars, Jaguar D-Types and Le Mans in the 1950s. It belongs to a period when privateer teams could still take on the great factories, cross Europe with ambition, and occasionally write themselves into the history of the sport.
But the story of Écurie Écosse is not just a sepia-toned memory. In 2026, through its partnership with Blackthorn Racing, the name is back in modern international GT racing and it’s doing so with Aston Martin machinery. That makes this more than a heritage footnote. For Fuel the Passion, it sits right at the meeting point of everything we enjoy following: Aston Martin, endurance racing, British motorsport, history, ambition, and the people working to turn old names into current stories again.
Why Écurie Écosse still matters
Écurie Écosse was one of the great privateer names of post-war sportscar racing. Its defining achievement came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the Scottish team won in 1956 with a Jaguar D-Type driven by Ron Flockhart and Ninian Sanderson. The official Le Mans history notes that the Écurie Écosse D-Type beat strong factory-supported opposition, including Aston Martin DB3S entries, to take that 1956 victory.
The following year, Écurie Écosse won again at Le Mans, completing a remarkable back-to-back achievement and cementing the team’s place in endurance racing history. DailySportscar’s account of the modern Blackthorn partnership describes the team’s 1956 and 1957 Le Mans victories as the foundation of its global reputation, and also notes the later revival under Hugh McCaig, including the C2 World Championship success in 1986.
That’s why the name matters. It’s not famous simply because it existed a long time ago, it’s famous because it won, because it beat major opposition, and because it did so with a distinct identity. Scottish, independent, ambitious and beautifully recognisable.
From heritage to a modern racing platform
The danger with historic racing names is that they can become little more than branding. A badge on a car, a nostalgic colour scheme, a nod to the past. The Écurie Écosse Blackthorn story is so much more substantial than that.
Blackthorn Racing is an Aston Martin AMR Partner Team competing across international GT3 racing, with programmes including GT World Challenge Europe, Asian Le Mans Series, Le Mans Cup, International GT Open and British GT. The team is operating in close partnership with Écurie Écosse for the 2026 and 2027 race seasons.
That matters because it gives the revival a real racing structure. This is not simply a historic name being brought out for a single anniversary appearance. It’s attached to a wide, active Aston Martin GT3 programme across several major championships.
In other words, the heritage has a current purpose.
The Blackthorn connection
The partnership with Blackthorn Racing is the modern engine of this story. Blackthorn brings the current racing platform, the Aston Martin relationship, and the multi-series GT3 programme. Écurie Écosse brings the history, identity and long-term ambition. Together, they create something that feels both respectful of the past and relevant to the present.
Alasdair McCaig has described the Blackthorn partnership as central to the revival, with the ambition to get the team back to Le Mans. This is not just about appearing in GT3 paddocks, but about rebuilding a pathway towards the place where Écurie Écosse made its name.
Blackthorn’s own website echoes that ambition, noting that the team was accepted on the 2026 reserve list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Dario Franchitti named in the line-up. It also quotes Blackthorn founder Claude Bovet describing the aim of returning the Scottish name to Circuit de la Sarthe.
That’s the important point. The Le Mans ambition is not being treated as a vague romantic dream. It’s being approached through competition, entries, partnerships and results.
Aston Martin at the centre of the story
For Fuel the Passion, the Aston Martin element gives this story its strongest modern relevance.
The current Écurie Écosse Blackthorn programme is built around Aston Martin Vantage GT3 machinery. In GT World Challenge Europe, the official series page lists Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn with the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO, with drivers including Jonny Adam, Lorcan Hanafin and Giacomo Petrobelli.
That gives Aston Martin a role in a story that reaches back to one of British motorsport’s great privateer traditions. There’s something especially neat about that. In 1956, Écurie Écosse beat Aston Martin’s DB3S challenge at Le Mans. Seventy years later, the revived programme is using Aston Martin GT3 machinery as part of its route back towards the great race.
It’s not the same era, not the same type of racing, and certainly not the same Le Mans landscape. But the connection is still compelling.
From promise to proof
The partnership has already produced results. In September 2025, Écurie Écosse and Blackthorn would join forces for the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series, running a full-season Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entry under the Écurie Écosse Blackthorn banner. That programme was part of the wider ambition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Écurie Écosse’s first Le Mans victory with an attempt to qualify again for the great race.
The Asian Le Mans campaign then gave the team a proper competitive marker. Blackthorn’s own feature records that Écurie Écosse Blackthorn opened the campaign with a podium at Sepang and then took a GT class victory in the Abu Dhabi finale, finishing sixth in the GT Teams’ Championship.
That’s important because it turns the story from nostalgia into evidence. The team is not only talking about history, it’s already producing modern Aston Martin results.
The European programme has added further depth. At Paul Ricard, the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin showed early pace in GT World Challenge Europe, with Giacomo Petrobelli topping the Bronze Test. The main race result was more modest, but it still marked the beginning of the team’s GTWC Europe Endurance Cup campaign.
Then came Monza.
In a chaotic GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup race, the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO of Giacomo Petrobelli, Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam finished inside the top ten overall and 2nd in Bronze Cup. The official GTWC Europe result places the car 9th overall, behind the Bronze Cup-winning Kessel Racing Ferrari and ahead of a huge field of GT3 machinery.
That Monza result feels like a significant moment for the current programme. It was not just a class podium, it was a top-ten overall result in one of the deepest GT3 championships in the world, achieved on a day when the race was shaped by incidents, interruptions and survival. For Écurie Écosse Blackthorn, it was the kind of result that makes people pay attention.
The Le Mans question
The long-term question is obvious: can Écurie Écosse get back to Le Mans?
That question needs careful handling. A Le Mans entry is never something to assume, and the route into the 24 Hours is fiercely competitive, but the ambition is clearly there.
The provisional 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans entry list placed Blackthorn third on the reserve list with an Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3, with Giacomo Petrobelli and Dario Franchitti named.
That detail alone gives the story real weight. Dario Franchitti’s name adds Scottish resonance, while the Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 provides the modern competitive thread. But until an entry is confirmed, the right way to describe it is as a serious ambition and a reserve-list opportunity, not a guaranteed return.
Why this story belongs on Fuel the Passion
This is exactly the kind of motorsport story that deserves space on the FTP Motorsport Hub.
It’s not just a race result, it’s a story about heritage being made active again. It connects Aston Martin GT3 racing with one of the great Scottish names in endurance racing. It includes modern customer-team competition, Le Mans history, and a credible pathway towards something bigger.
It also gives the Blackthorn Racing Featured Team page more depth. Blackthorn’s 2026 programme is already busy across GT World Challenge Europe, International GT Open, Michelin Le Mans Cup and other GT3 platforms. Following the results is important, but understanding the Écurie Écosse connection explains why this particular programme feels different.
The blue name carries history. The Aston Martin carries the present. The ambition points towards Le Mans.
That is why this story is worth following.
FTP Summary
Écurie Écosse Blackthorn is not simply a historic name returning for nostalgia. It’s a modern Aston Martin GT3 programme with heritage, ambition and results already behind it. The road back to Le Mans is not guaranteed, but with Blackthorn, Aston Martin machinery and a growing list of credible performances, the story has become one of the most interesting British endurance-racing threads of 2026.
All images © Blackthorn Racing. Used for editorial purposes.