Its back to the historic racing venue of the Vila Real Circuito Internacional for the mainly GT4 powered crews competing within the third round of the Iberian Supercars Series with another large dose of seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s amongst them.

Having opened their 2025 campaign at Portimao back in early April and then again at Jarama at the beginning of June, the SRO governed series has seen fluctuating entry numbers so far with nine Aston Martins at the opening round to just four examples next time around.

Aston Martin recorded two class victories in the 77th running of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa on Sunday, in front of 128,000 spectators, as Vantage achieved an unprecedented level of success in the famous Belgian endurance classic. The British ultra-luxury high performance brand, which won the race outright in 2024 with its Vantage GT3, added to its legacy of glory at the venue with victories in the Gold and Silver Cup classes and runner-up in the Pro-Am division; the best collective result for the Wings in the GT3-era of the event.

Partner team Verstappen Racing, and its drivers Thierry Vermeulen, Harry King and Chris Lulham delivered a brilliant debut 24-hour race performance with their Aston Martin Vantage GT3 finishing ninth overall, ahead of several Pro Class contenders, and overcoming a fierce challenge from a rival McLaren in the second half of the race to win the Gold Cup Class.

The red D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 should be back on track at the weekend as the second tier Japanese GT series gets back underway at Sugo after their last twenty-four round from Fuji Speedway.

At the twenty-four hour, it was decided to amalgamate their respective driving forces within their #47 ST-1 Porsche 992 entry for which that earned the team an overall P4 finish – first in class for their efforts.

If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try, try again will certainly be the moto this weekend for the Spanish based E2P Racing team as they prepare to embark upon the fourth round of the 24H Series European Endurance from Paul Ricard in southern France.

Having started this season with their new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo in lieu of their trusted Porsche, things haven’t been easy for the Pablo Burguera ran team as technical issues forced them to stop prematurely within the opening two rounds of the season before an errant Porsche inadvertently took the #90 car out of the race at a fast-sweeping section of the track last time out in Misano.

Going into this fourth round of the season amongst thirty-two other multi-classed rivals, the Burguera, Antonio Sainero and Oliver Campos driven car would presumably just like to finish a race within their Aston Martin before dreaming of something more achieving.

Private testing begins in France on Thursday before more officially timed sessions beginning on Friday with both Free Practice and Qualifying before a 10:00hrs start local for this twelve-hour race.

Photo credit – Team / Series

 

For the first time since the 24 hours of Le Mans back in early June, ACO rules racing gets back down to normal business this weekend as the European Le Mans Series travels to Imola for its third round of the season.

With many teams and drivers having figured within the Le Mans racing programme, we get to see the return of the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 of Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard and Valentin Hasse-Clot for the first time together since the previous ELMS round togther at Le Castellet (France) at the beginning of May where their first pole position within class sadly dropped to a P6 finish in class by the end of that four hour race.

This weekend saw just the second round of the new for 2025 SRO GT Cup Series run around the improvised street circuit layout of Pingtan Ruyi Lake International City Circuit along the Chinese coastal mainland.

Featuring amongst this twenty-one GT4 car entry list was a rebranded and revamped driver entry (supported again by the Level Motorsport team) to that that took part at the season opener way back in mid-March at the Shanghai F1 Grand Prix event with a more widely known Aston Martin Racing driver behind the wheel of the #87 car.

 

It was a hard graft long distance round to the Super GT Series this weekend as the usually Japanese based series returned to Malaysia for the first time in twelve years for their third round to the season.

That of course included the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg as a full season entrant but also with another ad-hoc entry from the Earl Bamber Motorsport team for their GT World Challenge Asia customer driver Kerong Li alongside local favourite Jazeman Jafaar.

Aston Martin targets another slice of glorious motor racing history this weekend when it returns to the world’s biggest GT3-only race, the Crowdstrike 24 hours of Spa, seeking to become the first British manufacturer to record back-to-back wins in the prestigious Belgian race.

The current Vantage GT3 model achieved its maiden twice round-the-clock victory on the challenging 4.4-mile Spa-Francorchamps circuit last year and caused a sensation as Comtoyou Racing scored an overall victory; the second for Aston Martin and the first since 1948. It also marked Aston Martin’s first overall triumph in the GT3 era of the event.

For this weekend’s 78th-running of the Spa 24 Hours, a record eight examples of the Vantage GT3, which shares its mechanical architecture with the ultra-luxury performance brand’s most focused sportscar, and is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, will hunt for the manufacturer’s third outright victory as well as a plethora of class wins.

The Spa event is the third round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup. It is the third major international sportscar race to feature Aston Martin in June; the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) 24 Hours of Le Mans and the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nürburgring having taken place across the past two successive weekends, creating an ultra-intensive schedule for competitors.

With 99,500 spectators attending last year’s 100th anniversary running and even more anticipated this weekend for a race that features 77 entries, the Spa 24 hours is one of the key events on the global endurance racing calendar. The event begins with a traditional parade along public roads from the Ardennes Forest circuit to the nearby town of Spa. Then builds through two days of practice on the daunting track that features some of the most challenging corners on planet earth, such as Eau Rouge/Raidillon, Blanchimont and Pouhon. The race, which takes place through Saturday and Sunday, is also renowned for frequently being affected by the circuit’s unique microclimate.

Aston Martin’s relationship with the Spa 24 hours is a long and successful one; beginning in 1936 with a one-two finish in the upto 1.5-litre class for a pair of Aston Martin Ulsters and building to an outright victory in 1948 for St John Horsfall and Leslie Johnson aboard a DB1.

Following many decades as a race for touring cars, Spa re-adopted GT racing regulations in 2001; paving the way for the Aston Martin name to return to the event in 2005. Vantage claimed a maiden win in the GT4 class in 2010 and its GT3 version added two further GT3 Pro-Am category successes in 2017 and ’19 before the latest iteration scored that memorable victory 12 months ago.

Comtoyou Racing, which recorded the magnificent win in 2024 returns with the same works driver line-up of former FIA WEC GT champions Marco Sørensen, Nicki Thiim and 2023 GT World Challenge Sprint Cup title-winner Mattia Drudi. The trio, and their #007 Vantage GT3, return with their sights set on becoming the first driver line-up to win the race in successive years since 1980. For Drudi, the event marks the third 24-race in as many weekends, having taken the GT pole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with The Heart of Racing before taking on the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring with Walkenhorst Motorsport last weekend.

Racing the sister #11 Comtoyou Racing Vantage in the Pro-Am class is a multi-national roster including Frederic Jousset - GT3 winner at last year’s Road to Le Mans round of the Le Mans Cup, Portuguese rally star Bernardo Sousa – already an FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 podium finisher in his first year of circuit racing – last year’s European Le Mans Series (ELMS) overall runner-up Sebastian Alvarez (MEX) and current ELMS LMP2 Pro-Am points leader Sergio Sette Camara (BRA).

Comtoyou’s Silver class Vantage features 2025 AMR Academy winner Jamie Day alongside regular co-driver Kobe Pauwels – a class winner at last year’s Zolder 24 Hours – Nicolas Baert, the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Gold Cup champion and Xavier Maassen, a race winner in the FIA GT1 World Championship and Le Mans class podium-finisher.

The team’s bronze-class entry will have a pair of Belgian drivers, Antoine Potty - a multiple race winner in the GT4 European Series - and Alexandre Leroy, who took a double-podium in the GT2 European Series support event last year, plus Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team Driver Ambassador Jessica Hawkins at the wheel. All three will be making their Spa 24 hours debuts.

Walkenhorst Motorsport is another Aston Martin partner team racing this weekend to have won the Spa 24 hours overall. The #34 Pro-class car will have a trio of Aston Martin works drivers behind the wheel. Christian Krognes, who was part of the German team’s 2018 race-winning-line-up, is joined by David Pittard for the second time in a week after the pair shared a Walkenhorst Vantage at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Henrique Chaves, the 2021 GT World Challenge Europe Pro-Am champion, completes the line-up.

The #35 Silver Cup car will be driven by a trio of event debutants. Reigning GT4 France Silver champion Mateo Villagomez and former AMR Academy winner Romain Leroux – who won the same title in 2021 – will share with impressive GT3 newcomer Oliver Söderström.

New-for-2025 AMR partner team Verstappen.com Racing have made a superb start to the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance season and head the Gold Cup class thanks to a category win at Paul Ricard and second place at Monza. Team regulars Harry King, Chris Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen will be joined in the Vantage, which is prepared by UK-based 2Seas Motorsport.

Beechdean Motorsport, the 2013 Spa polesitter, completes the Vantage line-up as the British outfit returns to the race for the first time since 2022. Two-time British GT champion and current Silver-Am series points leader Andrew Howard shares the #100 entry with a pair of Aston Martin works drivers; former British GT4 champion Ross Gunn and 2023 Le Mans Cup GT3 title-winner Valentin Hasse Clot, plus Anthony McIntosh, fresh from a podium finish in the Michelin Le Mans Cup’s showpiece ‘Road to Le Mans’ event at La Sarthe less than two weeks ago.

Adam Carter, Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “Winning last year’s Crowdstrike 24 hours of Spa at the first attempt with the new Vantage GT3 was an incredible achievement for all involved and further added to Aston Martin’s impressive list of accolades in endurance racing. Returning this week with the possibility to create history and become the first British brand to win it back-to-back is a tantalising prospect. The GT3-only nature of the race and the fact that the 77-car entry list is overflowing with high-quality cars and drivers makes this an incredibly difficult challenge, but last year’s event was a proper endurance race in the truest sense of the idea and Vantage was equal to the test. In Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport we have two partner teams who have won this event before and can use all that experience to help them this weekend. Verstappen.com Racing and Beechdean are already class winners in 2025 with Vantage, so we have all the ingredients in place to challenge for success in multiple classes.”

Source material - AMR

 

The Heart of Racing claimed a dramatic last-gasp victory in the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of the Glen, Round 6 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as Tom Gamble, Zach Robichon and Casper Stevenson recorded their first win of the IMSA GTD class season.

The world famous former grand prix circuit, in New York, has proved a happy hunting ground for the US-based team and the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 over recent years; this was their fourth IMSA GT win since 2022 across the GT Pro and GTD classes.

 

Like the British GT Championship Aston Martin Racing powered runners before it, it was a near mirror image of their earlier results for the two Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4 runners today as the French series saw out its third round of the season from Spa Francorchamps.

Saturday’s hour-long opener has seen the #7 Mirage Racing AMR of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub snatch the overall race win after the #10 car that finished before it had been blacked flagged earlier in the race.

 

The success for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s within the British GT Championship continued today at Spa Francorchamps as both crew took the race to a near lights to flag class win apiece earlier today.

Having both qualified at the top of their respective classes yesterday, the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam laid on what could nearly have been described as demonstration laps as the Italian opened the three-hour proceedings to something of a clear advantage as others were left to squabble in their wake.

 

The Japanese Super GT Series is back in action next weekend but not from one of its more customary venues as the series competes at its sole fly away round this season from the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

 

It was back to winning ways for the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 after the latest round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from Watkins Glen yesterday as this time it was the turn of the Van Der Steur crew to win in Bronze Cup.

Round five of the season and it was back to a two-hour race format this time around as the #46 Team TGM AMR of Paul Holton and Matt Plumb again showed their one lap qualifying pace to secure their umpteenth front row start to yesterday’s race.