Justin Keen is looking to whip up a Storm in Europe's premier sports car series.

The 28-year-old racing driver from East Boldre in the New Forest has signed up to do a second season for the factory Lister team in the FIA GT Championship.

Keen will drive the Lister Storm in all 11 races in the FIA Series and will be partnered by one of the few lady drivers in the championship - Farnborough-based American Liz Halliday.

The New Forest ace will also take the wheel of the LM900 for the Le Mans 24-hour race on June 18 and 19.

It's been a tough, painstaking road to the top for Keen who began in Formula Ford and Formula Palmer Audi before graduating to Formula Renault. He really underlined his potential with top ten drives in the European Formula 3000 Championship, which is only one rung on the ladder below Formula One.

But it's in sports car racing where he promises to make his biggest impression.

After a brief, frustrating flirtation with an uncompetitive Edenbridge BMW in the Green Flag British Touring Car Championship, he switched to Lister sports cars in 2004 and quickly made a mark.

Keen rapidly established a good working relationship with team leader Lawrence Pierce in the Lister team and certainly got the best of the Lister Storm car when he raced it at Nurbring, Silverstone and Spa.

Although he and his co-drivers never got to the finishing line, Keen raced the car up into the top six before mechanical gremlins set in.

Radiator problems beset the car after Keen had moved up to sixth at Spa and before that a damaged suspension unit put paid to the Lister's chances at Silverstone.

Contact with other cars had triggered off the problems both times and Keen is hoping their luck will change in 2005.

"We showed last year we can race with the fastest cars," said Keen. "We were learning about the car all the time and I'm really looking forward to working with Lawrence (Pierce) again and continuing on from last year."

There are new venues in the FIA GT series, which includes two and three-hour races.

From early spring the drivers will visit France, the UK, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany and Turkey before branching further afield to China, the UAE and Bahrain.

Keen's says: "Liz has a bit of catching up to do so we are going to be up against it a bit, but my aim is to make an impression in the championship and, although I don't think podiums are possible, top six finishes are.

Race dates: April 10: Monza, May 1: Magny Cours, May 15: Silverstone, May 29: Imola, June 26: Brno, July 31: Spa-Francorchamps, August 28: Oschersleben, September 18: Istanbul, August 23: Zhuhai, November 18: Dubai, November 25: Bahrain.