Le Mans 24 Hours GT winner Darren Turner pens new Aston Martin deal

The Briton, who notched up his Le Mans triumphs in GT1 at the wheel of an Aston Martin DBR9 in 2007 and '08, has signed a new deal with Prodrive-run AMR that will take him up to the end of the 2018 season.

At the same time, Turner has become a development driver and ambassador for Aston Martin Lagonda, for which he demonstrated its new Vulcan track-day car on the morning of the Spa 24 Hours last month.

Turner, who has been with AMR since its inception in 2005, said: "We have an exciting few years ahead of us in GT racing: the discipline is going from strength-to-strength and I'm looking forward to working with the team to develop its new cars.

"Within my time at Aston Martin Racing we have had so many highs and, like with any team, we have had our low points too, but we always come out fighting - right now we are in a very strong place."

AMR team principal John Gaw revealed that he expected Turner, whose main programme with Aston in 2015 is in the GTE class of the World Endurance Championship, to continue with the squad for the "forseeable future".

"We've signed a three-year deal, but we certainly see Darren's future with AMR as ongoing," explained Gaw.

"He has been with us since the company was founded and is therefore not only a very strong and reliable driver, but also has an better understanding of the team and insight into the cars than anyone else."

The extension of Turner's deal comes at a time that Ford is recruiting for its 2016 attack on the WEC and the Tudor United SportsCar Championship with the new GT supercar built to the latest GTE rule book.

The Briton is believed to have been approached by Ford and has close links with programme manager George Howard-Chappell, who was formerly his boss at AMR.

Turner moved across to AMR after driving Prodrive's Ferrari Maranello 550 GT1 contender in 2003-04 and has raced every car it has built across the LMP1, GT1, GT2, GTE, GT3 and GT4 classes.