Aston Martin Racing will return to the Nordschleife next weekend (17-20 May) when it races its stunning Bilstein-liveried V12 Vantage GT3 in one of the most challenging and demanding endurance races in the world, the ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours (N24).

Aston Martin’s relationship with the Nordschleife is deep-rooted; it won the Nürburgring 1,000 km race in 1957, ’58 and ’59 and, as well as entering the 24-hour endurance race since 2006, the manufacturer has regularly taken part in the circuit’s own series, VLN. Further, many of its current sports cars have been developed and signed off on the legendary track.

This year, Aston Martin’s centenary, marks the brand’s most ambitious assault on the 25.9 km circuit to date. Aston Martin Racing is entering a V12 Vantage GT3 as it embarks on its most dedicated attempt yet to challenge for an N24 win.

Earlier this year, Aston Martin announced a racing partnership with leading damping and suspension specialist Bilstein, appointing it as primary technical partner for N24. The new agreement builds on the existing long-term relationship between the two companies – Bilstein dampers are fitted as standard to all Aston Martin road cars – and sees the companies working as a team on the N24 race programme and the iconic Bilstein branding applied to the V12 Vantage GT3.

Taking time out from the FIA World Endurance Championship – which the team is currently leading in both the GTE Pro and GTE am classes – Aston Martin Racing’s works drivers Darren Turner (GB), Stefan Mücke (D), Allan Simonsen (DN) and Pedro Lamy (PT) will drive the Bilstein-sponsored car in the race that starts on Sunday 19 May.

David King, Director of Special Projects and Motorsport at Aston Martin, said: “This remarkable race, with more than 200 starters, has grown enormously in status since we first entered a nearly standard V8 Vantage back in 2006. It is fitting that our most ambitious and competitive entry yet coincides with our centenary year, but we face a tough challenge from more than 30 world-class GT3 entries, with the German sports car manufacturers in particular represented in force.

“Bilstein is a key long term partner of Aston Martin, and has contributed greatly to the success of our road cars, so to take this relationship onto the track as well is really special. I’m sure the stunning yellow and blue car will be a real favourite with the fans.”

The V12 Vantage GT3 was launched at the end of 2011 following an extensive design and development programme. Its success was proven when the car scored its first race win within weeks of the 2012 season starting. It has since gone on to win numerous races around the world.

The Vantage GT3 has a modified version of Aston Martin’s production 6.0-litre V12 engine. The dry-sumped engine is capable of producing in excess of 600 bhp with 700 Nm of torque, but is restricted by race regulations to approximately 550 bhp.

The car will share a garage with two further official Aston Martin entries; the world-leading Hybrid Hydrogen Rapide S - the first hydrogen powered car to compete in a FIA-sanctioned race - and a V12 Vantage in close-to-production specification. The appearance of this almost standard car alongside its GT3 sibling in a major international endurance race, truly underlines the racing pedigree of the company’s most sporting road car.

Watch on onboard as Abra takes the Barwell V12 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 round one of the fastest tracks in Europe during the second round the of British GT Championship.

Beechdean AMR’s professional driver, Jonny Adam (GB), has signed for the Aston Martin Racing works team, in a deal that will first see him on track in the Vantage GTE at the official Le Mans test session on 9 June.

Adam, 28, was announced as the reserve driver for the Banbury-based team earlier this year, and team bosses have since been impressed by his solid performances in the Blancpain Endurance Series and the British GT Championship, which he competes in alongside team-mate and team-owner Andrew Howard (GB).

“I am thrilled that Jonny has been given a full factory drive with Aston Martin Racing”, said Howard when he heard the news. “This is my third season working with Jonny and it has been great to watch him move up the GT rankings so quickly. He is fast, reliable and a great coach, a real asset to Aston Martin Racing.”

Beechdean AMR is one of only ten Aston Martin Racing partner teams in the world. As such, Adam has had a close relationship with the team, including team principal, John Gaw, who invited him to a works team GTE test session at Snetterton on Thursday (9 May).

“Jonny has impressed over the past few years of racing with Beechdean AMR and as a result recently tested with the factory team in the GTE car,” commented Gaw. “His approach, attitude and consistency is as we expect from a factory driver and this latest agreement further cements the relationship between Aston Martin Racing, Jonny and Beechdean. We look forward to seeing him debut in the works Vantage GTE at the Le Mans test day in June.”

Adam adds: “I’m delighted with this opportunity to join Aston Martin Racing as a works driver. A dream really has come true for me. To be involved with a team in the chase for an FIA world championship is something very special - even more so that it is in Aston Martin’s centenary year.

“I look forward to continuing my racing programmes in both British GT and Blancpain Endurance Series with Andrew Howard and Beechdean AMR and hope that 2013 is a successful year for Aston Martin.”

Adam will race with Beechdean alongside any Aston Martin Racing commitments. His next race outing will be alongside Howard in the Beechdean-sponsored V12 Vantage GT3 at the third round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone on 25th May.

Aston Martin Racing were out in force at Snetterton on Thursday with no fewer than four Vantage GTE’s taking part in a test session after another podium outing at Spa in the WEC.

The test was also an opportunity for drivers and customer teams to test alongside the works team. British GT regulars, Beechdean AMR were joined by Strata 21 with some new faces taking the chance to test Aston Martin’s range of GT cars.

Touring car star, Tom Onslow-Cole was invited to the test by AMR after meeting with the team earlier in the year. Tom expressed an interest in breaking into endurance racing, but needs to gain experience in GT cars. Also at the test was Dan Brown, the Ferrari driver making the most of the chance to test the V12 Vantage GT3.

Fresh from his double British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) podium at Thruxton last weekend, Tom Onslow-Cole (GB) joined Aston Martin Racing at its test session at Snetterton yesterday (9 May) where he drove the V12 Vantage GT3 for the first time.

The Aston Martin Racing works team was at Norfolk circuit preparing its five Vantage GTEs for the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Alongside them, customer teams such as Beechdean AMR were there taking advantage of the full factory support and works drivers including British GT ace, Darren Turner (GB).

Tom was invited to the test session by Aston Martin Racing team principal John Gaw following a meeting earlier this year and the 25-year old didn’t fail to meet the team’s high expectations, despite it being his first outing in a GT car.

John Gaw comments: “I was impressed when I first met Tom with his attitude and approach and his clear understanding of how the commercial side of motorsport works. He has also impressed recently on the track and did so again at the test yesterday. We look forward to seeing him in a GT car soon.”

Tom adds:  “Considering I only did a handful of laps, the Vantage GT3 was incredibly easy to drive. There is so much grip and you get plenty of information back as a driver – it’s incredibly satisfying. Thanks to Aston Martin Racing for the fantastic opportunity.”

The V12 Vantage GT3 was launched at the end of 2011 following an extensive design and development programme. The success of this was proven when the car scored its first race win within weeks of the 2012 season starting. It has since gone on to win numerous international championships and races around the world.

The Vantage GT3 has a modified version of Aston Martin’s production 6.0-litre V12 engine. The dry-sumped engine is capable of producing in excess of 600 bhp with 700 Nm of torque, but is restricted by race regulations to approximately 550 bhp.

Whether Tom will drive for Aston Martin Racing or one of its customer teams in the future is yet to be determined.

Aston Martin Racing customer team Complete Racing won the British GT Championship GT4 class at Rockingham yesterday (6 May) despite some challenges and tough competition from its rivals.

The team arrived at Rockingham with hopes pinned on a successful weekend following a disappointing first round at Oulton Park. Despite putting its Vantage GT4 on pole, the weekend ended with a DNF in both races because of a collision in race one.

With the car rebuilt but not tested, drivers Steve Chaplain and Tom Wilson and their team headed to Rockingham and used the two warm up sessions to get the car set up for the race. Tom completed qualifying and started the car from fifth on the grid.

“We knew we had it all to do in the race,” comments Steve Chaplain. “But the Aston Martin GT4 is such a great car that we were confident we could achieve a good finish.

“Tom started very well and did well to avoid all of the incidents out on track. After an hour, he handed the car over to me in second place. He’d been closing the gap on the leader at more than a second a lap so I had to just continue in the same way. When the leader pitted he came out behind us and we took the win.”

Complete Racing bought the car in 2012 and completed two rounds of the championship at Silverstone
and Snetterton. This year they are making a full-scale attack on winning the championship and Steve is confident they have the car to do it with.

“The Vantage GT4 is the car I always wanted to race,” he continues. “For me, it’s a proper GT car, the only GT car to have for an endurance race in the market place today. It sets the benchmark for where GT4 cars should be.”

The British GT Championship continues at Silverstone on 25 May. Follow Complete Racing’s progress on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/completeracing or at www.completeracing.co.uk.
Aston Martin Racing
Image Richard Leach

Sunday 14th April saw an unusual starting venue for the first round of the 2013 World Endurance Championship. Friday practice and Saturday qualifying had been a mixed bag in terms of weather leaving few (if any) teams with solid data for dry running with their new ’13 spec cars.

Fortunately Sunday appeared as though the weather would be more favourable with high breaking cloud, that strange yellow thing in the sky trying to poke its head out and a very blustery wind.

As with most teams race preparation activities within the Aston Martin Racing garage started for the large squad well before the time the public started arriving at The Wing. Without the customary half hour morning warm up this year there was little more that could be done other than the also customary PR business with the visiting team dignitaries and other VIP guests, and playing surrogate host to a FIA Euro F3 team tending to their own in their final race of the weekend.

Come 10am the fans were let loose into the pit lane for the autograph session in front of the garages.  Even with big corporate names like Audi and Toyota it was obvious that the Aston Martin garage was the most popular with its four-car line up – being almost 20 deep at times. Was it the lure of this iconic brand or just the Senna effect?

Public duties over the two Pro and two AM cars were trolleyed out of their respective garage bays – brand new Michelin slicks bolted on at the apron before the starting drivers made their way around to the formation grid. Being Aston Martin’s Centenary year it was a very fitting touch that high above the grid a small plane quietly drew alongside the track pulling a banner reading “Aston Martin 100th Congratulations” bringing a rapturous round of applause from the patriotic crowd in the opposite grandstands.

On the strike of 12noon the whole grid move off for the warm up lap with the #97 Pro car of Mucke leading away the GTE field with the other #99 Pro car of Lamy next from Row 9, then the #96 AM car of Campbell-Walter from Row 10 and finally for AMR the #95 AM car of Simonsen from Row 12.

After the first half dozen laps AMR were enjoying a 1-2 in both classes and by the time the first round of pit stops came around the new ’13 spec car had showed good pace and endurance compared to its competitors.

Just before the half way mark a brief but very sharp shower started to cause havoc with the cars on track with the #96 car with Goethe spinning off on cold tyres on his outlap. That would be just the pre cursor for a few more errors from the AM driver that would ultimately cost the car a podium position with a further spin and 30sec stop & go penalty for pit lane speeding.
With the other cars due in during this rain shower the selection of the correct tyre was proving critical – “clear a whole” through the garage came the call a number of times as the suited and booted AMR crew rushed new wets through the bays from the rear.

The #97 car was now suffering from its first gremlin of the day – the loss of traction control but now with Senna at the wheel on a drying track this wouldn’t prove to be a hindrance to the car’s performance. Nothing could be done about it anyway.

Come the chequered flag at the end of the 6hours of Silverstone the #97 Turner/Mucke/Senna car secured a dominant lights to flag victory in GTE Pro with the sister #99 car of Dalla-Lana/Makowiecki/Lamy coming in a fine third.

Back in GTE AM the #95 Danish crewed car of Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen secured a fine podium in that category with the #96 car of
Goethe/Hall/Campbell-Walter only missing out on a podium by 25 seconds.

What this exactly meant to the drivers and crew from Aston Martin Racing was evident with the celebrations at the podium – a real team effort.

All in all this was a pretty impressive performance by the ’13 spec Pro cars considering the teething problems they had whilst debuting the car at Sebring earlier in the year. The ’12 spec AM class cars also continue to show a very healthy dominance over their competitors that had been developed by the end of the 2012 season.

Next up is the 6hrs at Spa-Francorchamps in just a couple of weeks with a rumoured 5th GTE car from AMR. Based upon the performance of cars and driver line-ups at Silverstone - 2013 could quite easily become a very happy year for Aston Martin.

Happy birthday.

Richard Leach

A perfect strategy, three strong drivers and a fast and reliable racecar: Young Driver AMR had all the ingredients for a perfect start into the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship turned this into a debut victory at the first round of the season at Silverstone. Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen took a dominant class-victory in their Aston Martin Racing/Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage GTE in the highly competitive GTE-Am-class. After six hours of racing, the all-Danish driver line-up took the class victory by a solid margin of three laps.

Allan Simonsen started the race from second position in class and was running second behind a sister Aston Martin during the first hour. After the first round of pit stops, the Dane went into the lead and the Young Driver AMR drivers never looked back from that moment on. A perfect tire management was the key to the win. Aston Martin Racing/Young Driver AMR decided to double stint the tires, which gave Nygaard/Poulsen/Nygaard an advantage over the competitors, who changed tires at every single stop. Nygaard then took over the Aston Martin Vantage from Simonsen and drove a strong double stint before Kristian Poulsen brought the Vantage to the finish line in first position.

"The win in our very first race in this championship without any single problem and with this margin is just a dream“, Young Driver AMR´s Jan Struve said after the race. „Our mechanics, engineers and drivers did a zero-error-job and we really had a great first race. It’s a perfect way to start into the season. After our pre-season testing, we knew we would have a very strong package, but I would never have expected to take such a great victory here at the home track of Aston Martin. That makes this victory a really special one for us.“

Allan Simonsen: "We decided to double stint our tires and straight away after we did that, we had a gap and we tried to manage it. That worked really well for us today, as pace wise we were particular much faster then our competitors. We really had no problems, our driver combination worked out well and the car ran perfect. . When you have a day like this and nothing happens, plus you also have quick pit stops, you end up with a great result.“

Kristian Poulsen: "I was the last one to get in the car today and we had a good gap, so my job was to bring the car home.“

Christoffer Nygaard: „Even if we had a solid lead when I went into the car, I was pushing like hell, as this is an very important race for us and Aston Martin Racing. This is the home turf of Aston Martin Racing and we wanted to win this. From the outside it may have looked easy, but for sure it wasn’t. Now we have 25 points on our score which looks really good, but we will keep on pushing.“

The next round of the World Endurance Championship will take place at Spa-Francorchamps on May 4th.

Aston Martin Racing team Beechdean Motorsport started its 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series (BES) campaign in spectacular style at the weekend (13/14 April), finishing 11th overall and fourth in class in its championship debut.

The #99 Vantage GT3, driven by Jonny Adam (GB), Daniel McKenzie (GB) and team-owner Andrew Howard (GB), raced in the Pro-Am class in the highly competitive grid of 60 cars. Each setting solid qualifying times, it was Adam’s time of 1:48.770 that started the trio from third in class on the grid and seventh overall.

Beating off stiff competition from many of the Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche, BMW and Audi Pro cars, the all-British team performed consistently throughout the three-hour race, just narrowly missing out on a podium position.

Andrew Howard comments: “To drive in the hardest GT3 championship in Europe was an amazing experience. The team, drivers and car really stepped up and delivered a great result. This was our hardest round of the championship, next stop Silverstone.”

Commenting on the success of Beechdean AMR, Aston Martin Racing’s team principal John Gaw adds: “Beechdean AMR has gone from strength-to-strength in the past year and is positioning itself as one of the most competitive teams in Europe. It was one of our first GT3 customers at the end of 2011 and entered the history books by scoring our first win for the Vantage GT3 at the Nurburgring round of the British GT Championship last year. This is lining up to be another successful

year for the team and Aston Martin Racing will give it its full support to challenge for wins across the year.”

The Blancpain Endurance Series continues with Aston Martin Racing and Beechdean Motorsport’s home race at Silverstone on 1/2 June. Beechdean Motorsport’s next event is the second round of the British GT Championship at Rockingham on 5 May. Follow the team’s progress at www.beechdeanmotorsport.co.uk.

Blancpain Endurance Series calendar:
1/2 June - Silverstone
29/30 June – Paul Ricard
24/28 July – 24 Hours of Spa
21/22 September – 1000km