Howard, who won the 2013 and 2015 titles with his own Prodrive-operated Beechdean AMR Aston Martin team, has switched to the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this year and taken a planned one-year British GT sabbatical.
However Howard will step back into the series in the unfamiliar surroundings of the McLaren 720S GT3 - having exclusively raced Aston Martins since 2008 - with Fletcher unavailable due to the imminent arrival of twins.
