Mirage Racing assume the Pro-Am class lead going into final round of the GT4 European Series
A double Pro-Am class win at the Nurburgring this weekend was enough for the #7 Mirage Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 pairing of Stanislav Safronov and Alexandre Vaintrub to leapfrog into the lead of the class as the GT4 European Series heads to Barcelona for the conclusion of their season next month.
A wet introduction into the race weekend was thankfully replaced with a clear and dry (albeit delayed for earlier kerb damage around the circuit) hour long race into Saturday evening after the #7 car had claimed its first overall pole position of the year.
Alongside them in the thirty-eight strong entry was the #39 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR of Clement Seyler who also secured pole in the silver class sentry that he shares with Baudouin Detout whist each sister car was further back in P9 for the #5 Mirage Racing car of Roberto Faria and Ruben Del Sarte and P23 for the #74 RSLM entry of David Kullmann and Will Orton.
For the latter crew, however, their race weekend abruptly ended between turns 1 and 2 as Kullmann was an apparent victim of secondary contact (maybe from the Ford Mustang that also stopped at the same position on track) to end their day early with front quarter damage whilst Orton’s best qualifying performance for race 2 in P4 never materialised thanks to a late electrical problem before the cars even assembled on the grid.
The #5 Mirage AMR of Faria would also be in the wars before they had even crossed the control line to start the race as the Brazilian jinxed out of line early to try and pass the overall championship leading Audi, only to make contact with the #3 car – effectively putting them both out of the race.
For the other two cars, by the end of the another highly eventful GT4 European Series the #7 Mirage held onto their Pro-Am class win finishing sixth overall whilst the #39 RSLM crew would have their best finish of the year finishing just off the overall (and class) podium in fourth.
Sunday’s finale was another strange bag of fortunes or misfortunes within the series as (already said) the #74 RSLM AMR failed to make the race again whilst the other three crews had to start from the midst of the pack with the #5 Mirage car being the best of the three starting from P10.
Not without its own incidents and accidents again, the start to the race was at least a much cleaner affair with the remaining participants allowed to settle down into their own rhythm. However, it was again only the #7 car that pushed through for any class recognition by the end as they left it late to make the final pass on track to take their second class win of the day down in P11 overall whilst the remaining silver class crews finished P12 for the #39 car and P14 in silver for the #5 crew.
Safronov and Vaintrub now take a slender 8 points margin into the final races of the season in Barcelona in mid-October.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
Monday, September 01, 2025 |
Read more...
The Verstappen.com AMR nearly clinch the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Gold crown in Germany (UPDATED)
Despite taking the chequered flag in yesterdays race first within their gold class, the #33 Verstappen.com 2 Seas Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Chris Lulham, Thierry Vermuelin and Harry King received a post race ten second time penalty for earlier contact which has dropped them down to third within the race results. That penalty keeps alive the class battle into the final round in Span later next month.
Having been so dominantly consistent with their class over the 2025 season so far, the #33 Red Bull sponsored Aston Martin came from fifth in class at the start to today’s three hour penultimate round to the season in Germany to make use of a Full Course Yellow and Safety Car restart to end the day on the top step of their class podium to win that class outright with one round still remaining.
There were high hopes for the Comtoyou Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Nicki Thiim, Mattia Drudi and Marco Sorensen going into this round after they qualified in fourth after the initial pole setting BMW was penalised for contact with another car during the days earlier qualifying sessions.
Despite the cooler and overcast conditions, the race was run in essentially dry conditions after rain earlier in the race weekend with Thiim initially dropping down the order ion the opening laps after a ‘round the outside’ plan of attack into turn one backfired for the Dane.
Recovering from that early error, however, the #7 car would hold station within the top five throughout most of his stint before pitting earlier than most to hand the car over to Drudi. That difference in strategy allowed the Italian to quickly catch and pass the Rowe Racing BMW for the race lead which the #7 would then hold onto until what appeared to be a routine third stop and full service, allowing Sorensen to take the car to the flag.
The same FCY/Safety Car intervention for a multiple car incident at turn eight which favoured the #33 Verstappen AMR did the complete opposite to the #7 cars programme after they had pitted at full race pace only for their immediate Pro class competitors to be allowed their own final stop at Safety car speed. That time difference alone dropped the #7 car from what was the race lead and down to P8 in class by the time the third pit stop cycle had been completed. The #7 crew would eventually finish sixth.
The Nurburgring was also not the day for the remaining four Aston Martin Racing powered crews after the silver classed #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry of Mateo Villagomez, Romain Leroux and Oliver Soderstrom dropped a lap in the opening minutes after (presumed) contact with others on lap one whilst the similar classed #21 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Kobe Pauwel and Jamie Day dropped from their P3 qualifying position to end the day P7 in class.
The #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry of David Pittard, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves maintained a disappointing weekend at the office for them converting their P12 qualifying position into a P12 finish in class whilst the #270 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed entry of Jessica Hawkins, Antoine Potty and Alexandre Leroy at least saw an improvement by finishing the weekend from their P16 class start into a P13 finish.
With the Gold class already sorted, the final round of the season from Barcelona in mid-October will become something of a non-event as no other AMR powered crew can win anything more than the race or their class by the end of that final three hours of racing.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Sunday, August 31, 2025 |
Read more...
Four Vantage GT4s go again in GT4 European from the Nurburgring this weekend
Like the GTWCE series before it, successes over the four rounds so far from Paul Ricard, Zandvoort, Spa Francorchamps and most recently Misano has been dependent upon which of the two classed these four AMR’s have been competing in.
The three silver classed entries of the #5 Mirage Racing AMR of Ruben Del Sarte and Roberto Faria and the two Racing Spirit of Leman entries of Baudouin Detout and Clement Seyler with Will Orton and David Kullmann aboard the #39 and #74 cars respective – 2025 has been something of a tough season so far as both the #39 and #5 crews sit equal on points in twelfth whilst the #74 crew sit way down in P20 after just three points finishes so far.
The #7 Mirage Racing Pro-Am pairing of Stanislav Safronov and Alexandre Vaintrub, however, sit second within their drivers table, albeit it twenty-seven points behind the leading Porsche crew but with four races still at their disposal.
The GT4 European grid also hits the Nurburgring track for the first time in four years on Thursdays private testing before more formal track sessions on Friday before Qualifying and race one on Saturday before race two on Sunday.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 |
Read more...
Six Aston Martin Vantage GT3s go again in GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cups visit to the Nurburgring
Rounds so far from Paul Ricard, Monza and Spa Francorchamps leaves just this round from Germany and its more traditional end of season event from the Circuit De Catalunya near Barcelona left for their sixty plus strong entry to conclude their respective Pro, Gold, Silver and Bronze class championship battles.
Within the top-flight Pro class there will again be the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing entry of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Matia Drudi as well as the #34 Walkenhorst AMR Vantage GT3 of Christian Krognes, David Pittard and Henrique Chaves.
Results so far this season place the #7 crew in P6, twenty-three points behind the present class leaders whilst the #34 crew are unfortunately way down the order in P20 with just four championship points to their name.
There is again another car and crew from each team competing within the silver class where the situation within class is a near reflection of that within Pro as the #35 Walkenhorst crew of Matteo Villagomez, Oliver Soderstrom and Romain Leroux stand P9 in class – thirty five points behind the present class leaders whilst the #21 Comtoyou Racing entry of Jamie Day, Nicolas Baert and Kobe Pauwels sit P26 with just two points to their name. Whilst the #21 has been great up to and including Qualifying, incidents and accidents have prevented anything more than a single point apiece from Paul Ricard and Monza.
The Bronze class has been even crueller to the #270 Comtoyou Racing crew of Jessica Hawkins, Antoine Potty and Alexandre Leroy as whilst they finished P11 in class at the season opener, they failed to even make the start to the race at Monza thanks to an accident in an earlier test session before again failing to finish at the Spa 24.
There is happier new however within the Gold class as the #33 Verstappen.com (2 Seas Motorsport) prepared Vantage GT3 of Thierry Vermuelin, Harry King and Chris Lulham presently lead that class by a margin of twenty-five points from the chasing pack.
It’s now been over two months since the last round of the season from Spa Francorchamps as the series gets back underway on Thursday with private testing ahead of more formally timed sessions starting on Friday before Qualifying on Saturday and the wave off to this three-hour race on Sunday starting at 15:00hrs local.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 |
Read more...
More AMR powered success after IMSAs visit to VIR at the weekend
The two AMR Vantage GT4’s from both the Rebel Rock Racing and 89X Motorsport teams were perhaps the busiest of all as certainly Frank DePew had three races in that series to compete in with a weather-related cancellation from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last time out coming back into the weekend’s race programme for him.
Whilst Mike Fitzpatrick and his 89X team probably had a race weekend to forget with early race DNF’s in both forty minute races otherwise spoiling his previous experiences in mainstream GT4 racing of late, DePew would see his yearly tally of podium finishes more than double at the weekend as he secured two P3 podium Bronze Cup finishes in each of race 2 and the CTMSP added race 3 to go with his earlier P4 finish at the start of the weekend.
After that, we had the four regular Michelin Pilot Challenge Series full season entries from the Rebel Rock, Team TGM and Van der Stuer teams amongst the forty strong GS (GT4) and TCR based entry.
A regular two hour race this time around saw the #46 Team TGM car of Paul Holton and Matt Plumb again starting from within the top five with the other three Astons to the rear of the GS pack. This time around, the #46 crew were able to keep their car pointing in the right direction as occasional carnage lead others to do differently to bring their car home in P6 whilst the #71 Rebel Rock entry of DePew and Robin Liddell improved upon their starting position of P16 to end the day P9 – ending a dreadful and unfortunate run of damage induced DNF’s from the last two rounds.
The triumph in class again came from the two Bronze Cup entries of Christine and Ben Sloss in the #15 Van Der Steur entry alongside the #64 Team TGM car of Ted Giovanis and Hugh Plumb who secured another win in class to add to their championship leading tally with the husband and wife duo left to make do with a P3 finish to fall further behind the #46 car with just two races of the season remaining.
The headline event was of course reserved for the GTD only entry of the Weathertech Sportscar Championship meaning that only those within both the GTD Pro and GTD classes were able to run this weekend – mainly because of the design of compactness of the VIR circuit.
That meant both Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson were back within the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GT3 Evo again after their bruising experience last time out at Road America a couple of weeks ago.
With the #27 car again fully restored to its racing beauty, saw Stevenson qualify the car P4 in the GTD class ahead of yesterday’s two hours and forty-minute race. This time determined not to get caught up in other people’s incidents and accidents, the #27 pairing drove a solid race to answer their own disappointment of late with a P3 podium finish at the end despite still being bumped down to P11 on the opening lap after heavy contact from behind. That result helped keep alive Stevenson’s GTD drivers championship aspirations with just two races of the season left to go.
Next time out for both the Weathertech Sportscar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge AMR runners will be from Indianapolis in a month’s time before concluding the season for all series from Petit Le Mans in mid-October.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Monday, August 25, 2025 |
Read more...
Another #doningtondecider in store after another barnstorming race from Brands Hatch in British GT
Having qualified their #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 onto the front row of the grid behind just one of their 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes AMG advisories, the Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam car didn’t get off to the best of starts as despite taking the race lead out of Paddock Hill Bend for the first time, the car was served with an unwanted drive through penalty for using external devices upon the car during the formation grid.
That transgression by the team dropped their car into the midst of the GT4 field on only about the third full racing lap having been behind the Safety Car from the second lap due to an off for a GT4 car at Druids on the opening lap.
Slightly further back meanwhile, the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood had also gotten off to a great start from their aggregated P7 position that Wood had earned the crew on Saturday by topping the Pro drivers qualifying session. After the earlier Safety Car restart, Howard had progressed up to P6 and distanced their class rivalling #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda who were then down in nineth.
Thwarting the Blackthorn’s progression through the lower order of the GT3 class was an on-track fire for one of the Ginetta GT4’s but fortunately for them, the driver was able to vacate the vehicle quickly for the trackside staff to bring things to a swift and safe conclusion although that did lose nearly eighteen minutes on the race clock.
Later after that restart, Petrobelli found himself being baulked by the #86 Honda which, whilst it was bad for them, that delay only helped their Beechdean AMR counterparts further ahead in the pack. Only just before the opening of the GT3 pit stop window did the #7 Aston pass the Honda before all bar the race leading Mercedes pitted for service at the first availability.
Pit stops done and Adam had come out in fourth thanks to the success time penalties affecting three cars out front in class whilst Wood was now P6 overall, still with a healthy lead of his own from the Honda in the silver-am class as Adam even got a warning for track limits such was his degree of determination for a decent finish this time around.
Further track drama was soon to follow as contact between a McLaren and a Porsche GT3 cars saw debris left upon track and one of those cars stranded in a gravel track – all of which necessitated a further Full Course Yellow and later Safety Car restart to sort out the mess.
With ten minutes to go, Wood put a lap onto the Honda so all he had to do was to finish to secure another class win but Adam had more problems upon his hands as he soon had other, faster cars upon him looking for track position as he became the head of a five car train with Wood immediately behind the Scot doing what he could to defend the #7 cars position.
Eventually the chequered flag came with the #7 Blackthorn car taking P4 with the #97 Beechdean car just one place behind in P5 – also taking the class win. With 37.5 points on offer at the final round from Donington Park in early October, both crews still need to perform if they want to have a chance at the class titles. The #7 car is now 28.5 points behind the championship leading #42 Mercedes whilst the #97 crew are still just 14 points ahead of the Honda powered crew.
Still all to race for at Donington then!!
Monday, August 25, 2025 |
Read more...
Racing Spirit of Leman AMR team triumph in Spa ELMS
Having to qualify the car in the persistent rain of Saturday, bronze rated Mateu was still able to give him and his team the best chance possible ahead of today midday start to this four-hour race with a P3 starting position within LMGT3 which was then further enhanced to a front row start after the application of a five place drop for the #63 Iron Lynx car following an incident last time out at Imola.
The forty-four mixed class grid of LMP2, LMP3 and thirteen LMGT3 class cars eventually got underway with thankfully a dry track and warming late summer sunshine for this fourth round to the season.
From that point Mateu wasted no time at all as he grabbed the class lead as early as the exist of La Source on the first time around to quickly establish a lead over the chasing pack over those opening laps as the race went into a Virtual Safety Car condition with a car off in the gravel after just forty minutes.
Although grouped back together again, the chasing Iron Dames Porsche soon had the attention of others behind them as the racing finally got back to green at the end of the first hour but (like many times before) that was very short lived as an LMP2 car went off heavily into the tyre wall just a few corners on although stops had now placed the #59 car down to second in class by the end of the second hour.
Unlike the Code Racing Development Aston Martin in the Le Mans Cup Series race yesterday, the in-car discipline of Mateu onto silver graded Bastard and then onto factory driver Hasse-Clot was totally on-point with the #59 crew becoming one of the few LMGT3 based crews not to come to attention of race control over the final two hours.
With Bastard again next in line within the car after Mateu’s opening double, that young Frenchman quickly regained control of the class but with still the Iron Dames Porsche leading the chasing pack behind him as he eventually handed over to the factory driver Hasse-Clot.
A brief Full Course Yellow then delayed the resumption of the LMGT3 battle between the #59 and #85 Porsche but losing out to the Iron Lynx Mercedes who had assumed the class lead. Another FCY with just nineteen minutes remaining made for a nail-biting end to the Spa four-hour race but Hasse-Clot was eventually able to pass the #63 car to take their first class win of the season by less than a second.
With the series now heading to Silverstone next month, this result lifts the #59 crew up to first in the LMGT3 Drivers Championship, one point in front of the Iron Dames crew with just two races remaining.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Sunday, August 24, 2025 |
Read more...
Another mixed bag for the three Aston Martin runners in ADAC GT4 Germany
Fortunately missing much of the rain that blighted the headlining DTM Series on Saturday, it was the #4 Eastside Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 Evo of Jan Philipp Springob who took pole position for race one whilst the two Prosport Racing AMR entries of Roman Fellner-Feldegg was P7 in his #19 car whilst the #17 car of last time out pole setter Marek Bockmann was P10.
Springob held and maintained the lead through the opening laps and immediate Safety Car period to be able to hand the car over to co-driver Storm Gjerdrum with a to second lead. Initially extending that race lead to nearly six seconds, the young Norwegian was eventually caught and passed with just minutes to go to eventually finish third on track.
A post-race penalty for the #4 car for repeated contact with another on the final lap saw the #4 eventually be placed in fifth with the #17 car of Hugo Sasse in P10 and Anton Abee P18 in the #19 car.
Race two on Sunday went much the same was but this time had the #19 upon pole position and the #4 car a little further back in fourth and the #17 car in twelfth.
With Sasse holding the lead and Gjerdrum having to run very wide at times to maintain position, the #17 car of Abee was getting a lot of unwanted attention from other cars within the midst of the pack which saw cars make contact with the green Aston Martin.
Sasse soon lost the race lead and was down to fourth just ahead of the pit stop window as the #4 and #17 cars pitted early but the ESM’s day would again end early (like at the Nurburgring last time out) as technical issues brought their car to a standstill.
For the Prosport Racing contingent, race two also unfortunately fizzled out into another disappointing finish with the #19 eventually finishing P12 and the sister car P15.
Next stop will be the Red Bull Ring in mid-September.
Photo credits – ADAC
Photo credits – ADAC
Sunday, August 24, 2025 |
Read more...
A late puncture blots the D'Station Racings recent run of fine form in Super GT
Having taken a GT300 class win apiece after the two individual races ran last time out at Fuji Speedway, the Japanese squad were hopeful of continuing that pace this weekend as the headline domestic series visited Suzuka for round five of the season.
Qualifying the car in fifth for today’s 300km race, it was this time Fagg who started the race for the team with all running according to plan over the initial laps as all the GT300 and GT500 acclimatised themselves to the literal heat of race pace.
Through an early Safety Car period for an incident involving a GT500 car, Fagg quietly held station in fifth as the race approached their pit stop window just ahead of halfway in race distance, eventually handing over to Fujii after a slightly elongated success penalty related fuel stop.
Re-emerging in seventh, the Japanese driver had everything to race for but a rear puncture nine laps from the end saw them drop places and eventually laps to finish P24 at the end.
The series now moves onto Sugo for another 300km race in a month’s time.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Sunday, August 24, 2025 |
Read more...
Misery in Spa for the Code Racing Development Aston Martin in Le Mans Cup
Having qualified fourth in class in some very wet conditions earlier in the day the #11 car of Philipp Sager and Rory Van der Steur eventually got underway within the two-hour race under much drier circuit conditions although bizarre scenes within the GT3 class lead to the opening laps taking place from behind the Safety Car.
Losing nearly fifteen minutes to that clean up, Sager had already increased his track position to second in class behind the already distant Iron Dames Porsche as the race again went behind the Safety Car after the dramatic expiry of an LMP3 engine up ahead.
That was a lengthier clean-up operation with the grid finally being released with 45 minutes of the race clock having already elapsed. Sager had meanwhile already pitted for the changeover to Van Der Steur as #33 Ferrari pass the American for position along the Kemmell Straight at the hour mark.
What happened later to the crew defined their Spa racing experience from what was a potential podium winning position on track at the time as the #11 car would get pinged for multiple track limit abuses on more than one occasion, too short a mandatory pit stop time requirement and other breaches of other pit stop regulatory requirements which all resulted in a drive through and/or other time penalties for their efforts.
At the end of the second miserable hour of Le Mans Cup racing at Spa, the #11 Code Racing Development crew would eventually finish last in class and one lap off the lead GT3 pace as the series now heads to Silverstone in September.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Sunday, August 24, 2025 |
Read more...
Tomorrows penultimate British GT race of the season all teed up to be another thriller
Despite just twenty cars taking to the track for today’s Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying sessions, like any discernible British GT Championship of the past, there are still several teams across both the GT3 and GT4 classes that could either win this weekend or take to another #DoningtonDecider those overall championship aspirations.
For the #7 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam car – they need a better performance this weekend that the two 2 Seas Motorsport Merecedes AMG GT3 crews that they are presently chasing within their Pro-Am class and whilst they were faster than both in this morning’s Free Practice, it was not the same in Pre-Qualifying.
Then within the two-horse silver-Am class that the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 car of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood fight themselves battling against the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX team this year, they were faster than the #86 in both preliminary sessions – despite having to endure a rough ride through the gravel in both sessions.
After lunch, it was time for Qualifying with each driver again taking their turn for an aggregated started position for tomorrows race. With the Am’s aboard first with Petrobelli not being able to beat both 2 Seas Mercedes crews this time around for a P4 finish whilst Howard was still faster than the #86 car as they had a lap deleted for track limits for a P9 finishing position.
Then came the Pro’s – and it wasn’t long before the #97 car of Wood had overtaken the #7 car of Adam at the top of the timing screen despite the Scot taking new tyres towards the end of the session for a final dash to the flag.
Finishing top, Wood would haul their overall starting position up to seventh – five cars ahead of their class rivals whilst the #7 car would claim a front row start in second with them and three other cars splitting the championship leading 2 Seas crews.
But like any series, Free Practice and Qualifying is one thing – the race is something completely different. That all starts at 13:00hrs local tomorrow.
It should be interesting based upon just how hard all the crews were pushing today!
Saturday, August 23, 2025 |
Read more...
