Five Aston Martin Vantage GT4s for WRL finale at CoTA
Again, it’s not always the case that those listed arrive or even drive what they say, but the entry list does list another two entries from the 89X Motorsport team with their #89 and #289 Vantage GT4’s whist the TLM Racing outfit list just one with their #172 clientele.
Then there is the #314 AMR Vantage GT4 entry from the Skip Barber School – a car more known for its part time participation within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series as well as the SRO GT4 America Series.
Like always, we are not aware of the identities of any of the crews at the moment, but we might pick that up along the way as the eight five strong multi-classed entry prepares for Qualifying and an eight-hour race on Saturday followed by a seven hour season finale on Sunday.
Then in 2025, maybe something new and shiny might come along!!
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
D'Station Racing see out their return to the Super GT Series with the delayed Suzuka finale this weekend
Originally due to run in-between the Fuji round in early August and the Sugo round in late September, the fifth round of the Japanese series soon saw itself abandoned even before the cars and crews had made it to the circuit as a forecasted typhoon and its associated high wind speed and heavy rainfall put paid to that idea on the grounds of safety.
Eventually slotted into the calendar at the end of the regular season, there are still both classes to be settled but a disappointing outing last time out at Motegi saw the #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg drop down to fourth within their GT300 class having held at top two or three position for much of the time after the Englishman took over the car reins from Marco Sorensen who started the season with the team.
Since then, the Japanese/English driver combination claimed their first class win of the season so far when the series last visited the Suzuka circuit back in June but a more consistent season from the class leading #65 McLaren and the #88 Lamborghini has seen the margins grow from the single digits of mid-season through to where they are today.
With no championship pressures to bear upon their shoulders and a race winning familiarity about the circuit already, it would be nice if the Fuji Speedway based team could end their return season to the Super Gt Series with another podium finish – and preferably another win to claim the double for their efforts.
Free Practice and Qualifying will be run over Saturday before the season 300km finale on Sunday.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Racing Spirit of Leman confirm their second entry within ACO rules racing in 2025
Already confirmed within next season’s FIA World Endurance Championship with two of this season’s ELMS effort in both Derek DeBoer and Valentin Hasse-Clot, today’s news sees the young French Aston Martin Racing factory driver also confirmed alongside two fellow countrymen in another exciting new racing possibility as the solo AMR powered entry this time around.
Very familiar names and faces of course from their FIA WEC efforts this season within the #777 D’Station Racing AMR effort, sees both Erwan Bastard and Clement Mateu all join forces within the team’s second season in the European series and their #59 entry.
DeBoer, Hasse-Clot and third driver Casper Stevenson ran within the team’s new 2024 AMR Vantage LMGT3 for the first and lead the LMGT3 class for much of the season before finally losing out at the final round in Portugal to eventually finish third within the eleven strong class after six round season, so a benchmark has already been established.
For 2025, the series confirmed a similar six round season but with a slight change in venues with Silverstone getting itself back onto the roster after several years out in the ACO rules doldrums.
Grid wise, the LMGT3 grid will increase to thirteen cars alongside ten LMP3 and twenty-one LMP2 entries spread across the two sub-classes available within that.
With one full competitive season within the FIA WEC now under the belts for both Bastard and Mateu within the new Vantage, expectation will again be high as the series competes at Barcelona in early April through Le Castellet, Imola, Spa Francorchamps and Silverstone before ending in Portimao in mid-October.
Good news indeed and hopefully we will see much more of the above!
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
It just wasn't to be in Jeddah at finale of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
Whilst there was one final podium finishing position to round the 2024 season off for one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crew, it wasn’t to be the then championship leading #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Marco Sorensen, Matteo Drudi and Nicki Thiim despite their best of efforts against the charging #51 AF Corse Ferrari crew who eventually picked up the overall crown by the end of the race.
Going into this final race of the season around the very long but very narrow circuit had already seen one Vantage GT3 eliminated from the proceedings from each of the Comtoyou racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams with another Walkenhorst entry only rescued from the ashes of a pit lane fire and an overnight rebuild by the team for that car to even make the grid.
The biggest talking point as far the Aston Martins were concerned was sadly again around the platforms balance of performance parameters with none of the cars even close at threatening those championship challenges in front of them. In hindsight, even a mid-event change in BoP (as in weight reduction and an increase in boost) wasn’t enough to give either Pro entry the ‘ponies’ that they needed to put up anything like a representative fight.
The one race success was from the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont who grabbed P3 within the silver class.
Having lead the overall championship position since that overall win at the Spa 24, the #007 crew would eventually finish the year down in fourth with their sister #12 car the next best AMR finisher in class, P8 in silver.
What comes next for both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Comtoyou Racing teams is yet to be seen but with the 2025 Prologue test already set for early March, that won’t be a too longer wait before the first signs of pre-season testing gets underway.
The new 2024 Vantage GT3 car did well within its opening year of racing service again and with the ongoing developmental work that AMR are already undertaking, 2025 looks more than positive.
Well done to all involved this season and here’s looking forward to next.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Not the best of starts for either AMR powered team at the start of the Jeddah GT World Challenge Europe finale
Before anyone else worries too much, none of the incidents involved have involved the championship contending #007 Comtoyou Racing car of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mateo Drudi but both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams have already a car between them due to accident damage and a further car being sidelined due to a fire.
The #36 Walkenhorst bronze entry of Ben Green, Mex Jensen and David Pun was the first eliminated after the Chinese gentleman driver went off during the bronze driver test and that was already after the #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze entry of James Jakes, Nield Koolen and John De Wilde had been withdrawn without a wheel even being turned.
That lead to both Jakes and Koolen moving across to the sister #21 car at the expense of both regular drivers Charles Clarke and Matisse Lismont but even that arrangement was short-lived as that car crashed out but was fortunately repairable during testing
If that could not have gone any worse for the Aston Martin Racing collective, then the silver #35 Walkenhorst car was to suffer a fuel fire aboard the car – although quickly extinguished, the subsequent damage and cleaning up meant that the Romain Le Roux, Maxime Robin and Lorcan Hanafin entry would have little track time through Thursday and Friday with Q1-Q2-Q3 sessions their first real possibilities.
Assuming that all goes well overnight with the repairs of that car, that has left the original driver line ups of some cars being rehashed again as the sessions went through Free Practice and into the last session of today in Pre-Qualifying.
Both the #007 and #34 Pro entries remain the same with the Comtoyou Racing entries of the #21 car now being that of Koolen, Jakes and Job Van Uitert and the #12 being Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont alongside a hopefully repairable #35 Walkenhorst.
And that doesn’t even include anything about track performances today from any of the AMR powered cars that are left!!
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Both AMR Vantage liveries revealed today ahead of next weekends Asian Le Mans Series opener
Starting at the Sepang International Circuit with a double header of four-hour races across the 7th and 8thDecember, both the Blackthorn AMR and Earl Bamber Motorsport entries (alongside the collective forty-two LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 classes of course) will then move onto the Dubai Autodrome for another double header there in early February before culminating with another season finale double at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
The #19 Blackthorn AMR entry of team owner Claude Bovet, Team Manager David McDonald together with guesting driver Jason Ambrose will all feature within one of the teams new 2024 Evo variants of the Vantage GT3 with a livery design that has evolved from that used by the team within both the British GT Championship and Michelin Le Mans Cups Series of this season.
In an interview published upon the AsLMS website, the team continued to say how this series was the next stepping stone along their ACO inspired pathway of taking both themselves and their clients to hopefully culminate at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the not-so-distant future.
We have also seen today the revised livery of the #89 EBM Motorsport entry for this six-race series that the likes of Marco Sorensen, Anderson Tanoto and Brendon Leitch will be driving this time next week.
With the teams car having previously been utilised this season within varying events in the Asian theatre, this is definitely the strongest driver line up (excluding Earl Bamber himself in one such Thailand Super Series round) within an Aston Martin Racing car serviced by his accomplished team.
This will be another exciting season to watch over the New Year break for many.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Six Aston Martin Vantage GT4s for the Estoril Endurance Festival this weekend
Within their published entry list today lists most of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 teams and crew that competed within the five round Iberian Super Cars Series with the sole exception of the Mirage Racing entry simply because they are also busy with this weekend with a two-car entry at the final round of the GT4 European Series from Jeddah.
This weekend will again feature two forty-five-minute races over Sunday after private testing on Friday and further Free Practice and Qualifying on Saturday.
The Racar Motorsport entries will consist of #2 Pro entry of Manuel Giao/Mathieu Martins; the #3 Pro entry of Francisco Cruz/Roberto Faria (who skips the GT4 European Series finale in favour of this more local event); #6 Bronze entry of solo racer Jose Carlos Pires and the #777 Am entry for Rubens Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende.
Complementing them will be the two Araujo Competicao Pro class entries of both Bruno Pereira/ Goncalo Araujo aboard the #007 and Vasco Oliveira and Duarte Pinto Coelho aboard the #28 car.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
#007 aiming to be on top of the world at the end of this weekend Jeddah six hours in GT World Challenge Europe finale
Belgian based Comtoyou Racing sit on the cusp of something else very big this week as their #007 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Pro class entry lies at the head of the overall championship battle as the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup battles it out for the final time on Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to the herculean efforts of the team and drivers Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Matteo Drudi at the Spa 24 earlier in the year (plus a little bit of luck), their overall win in Belgium propelled the #007 entry into the championship lead – a lead that they retain by the slenderest of margins going into this final six-hour round of the Endurance Cup Series at the unfamiliar Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Despite AMR powered entries across the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Pro classes, it is unfortunately only the #007 car that retains any championship potential this weekend in a near literal winner takes all situation.
The #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry of Ross Gunn, David Pittard and Henrique Chaves sit way down in P17 and like the remainder of the collective field, will be desperate to round off what has been a disappointing season for them within the new Vantage GT3 Evo on something of a high.
Within the silver class there is also the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Kobe Pauwels, Nicolas Baert and Sebastian Ogaard and the #35 Walkenhorst effort of Romain Leroux, Maxime Robin and Lorcan Hanafin.
Within Gold, the is the solo AMR effort of the #21 Comtoyou Racing crew of Matisse Lismont, Job Van Uitert and Charles Clark whilst the bronze class features both the #11 Comtoyou Racing effort of James Jakes, John De Wilde and Niels Koolen (a change to their usual line up) and the #36 Walkenhorst entry of Ben Green, Me Jensen and another driver change in David Pun.
Track action for these teams starts on Thursday with two official test sessions before the customary bronze driver test before moving into Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying on Friday. Individual qualifying sessions take place on Saturday morning but only four and a quarter hours before the six-hour race is waved off at 17:00hrs local.
Best of fortunes to the #007.
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Seven Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for the GT4 European Series finale in Jeddah next weekend
Two months has now passed since the last round of a six round 2024 season, but two class championships remain on offer although (unfortunately) none of the full season Aston Martin Racing powered teams are in contention.
Within next weekend’s final round, another grid of thirty-five cars is expected although many are guest entries for this fly away round with one such Aston Martin Racing team fielding a clutch of new Vantage GT4’s for the first time.
From a full season entry perspective, the French based Mirage Racing are back with their two-car entry of Ruben Del Sarte and Josh Miller aboard their #5 silver class entry, and they are again joined by the #7 Pro-Am entry of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub.
They will be joined by another two-silver classed AMR Vantage GT4 Evo’s from the Swiss based Racing Spirit of Leman team as Roberto Faria and Baudouin Detout again pair up within the #39 car whilst Jamie Day pairs with the 2024 FFSA GT4 Champion Matteo Villagomez within their #82 car.
Rounding off the five full season entries is the #72 GPA Racing crew of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud within the Am class within their older 17A specification car.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
AMR powered commitments continue to fill the headlines this week
Whilst confirming what we had already been made aware of only yesterday with the inclusion of two Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars from the Heart of Racing team, today’s news also sealed what had largely been suspected and intimated about within the motorsport mainstream media since before the final round of last season in Bahrain last month.
That news was in the form of formal confirmation that the Swiss based Racing Spirit of Leman AMR team would be stepping up from their European Le Mans Series endeavours of last season and onto the world stage of the WEC with American Derek DeBoer again headlining the #10 entry alongside that of AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot. Their third driver will be confirmed in due course as this team take the place of the departing D'Station Racing AMR team.
Within that class set of eighteen entries was the continuation of the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage LMGT3 with Team Manager Ian James again fronting that entry.
With the Heart of Racing’s earlier announcement of both Harry Tincknell and Alex Riberas fronting their #007 and #009 Hypercar entries (respectively), that obviously means changes within the #27 car after James was joined by both Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli for their one and a bit WEC seasons that the team has entered so far with four empty places yet to be filled within the two Hypercar entries as well!
Season 13 will be another eight round season with visits to Qatar, Imola and Spa before the 24 Hours of Le Mans before progressing onto Sao Paulo, CoTA, Fuji and Bahrain to round off the year afterwards.
There was, however, partial bad news posted earlier this week by the Heart of Racing team as they confirmed that their IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship Valkyrie GTP (Hypercar) entry will now NOT be present at their season opener at the Rolex 24 early next year as they will use the time between now and the opening round of the FOA WEC in Qatar to develop and finally homologate that new platform.
The official Prologue Test of the WEC will be run again at Qatar over the 21st-22nd February before the opening round of the season there the following weekend.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media / IMSA
Mücke Motorsport signs up for a GT4 Winter Series return with a customer Aston Martin
This season coming diversification in classes by the GT4 Winter Series has attracted an early Aston Martin Racing powered entry from the Mucke Motorsport team.
Fielding one of their out of homologation AMR Vantage GT4’s, the German based team will be returning to the Iberian based series with their driver Thilo Goos within the new Club class as the Gedlich ran series pairs up with the Ultimate Cup Series in 2025.
With its cost effectiveness now having been demonstrated by Forsetti ahead of any mainstream European based season that will not start until after the conclusion of the GT4 Winter Series, we expect this year’s entry to produce some familiar names beyond that of Mucke Motorsport.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
Two AMR Vantage GT3 crews confirmed ahead of next month Asian Le Mans Series opener
Confirming a healthy and buoyant forty-two, multi-classed entry for this latest season of the Asian based ACO rules series that kicks off in Sepang (Malaysia) in just over two week’s time, there was also news as to the identity within the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s as previously listed this time around as full season entries.
Within the #19 Blackthorn Motorsport AMR entry we will be seeing team regulars in team owner Claude Bovet and Team Manager David McDonald again pair up again like they did for most of this season’s Michelin Le Mans Cup Series but this time with bronze rated and former Ferrari Challenge Champion, Jason Ambrose alongside.
They will be joined within the twenty-five strong GT class by the #89 Earl Bamber Motorsport AMR Vantage GT3 which has had drivers Anderson Tanoto (Indonesia), Brendon Leitch (NZ)and AMR factory driver Marco Sorenson listed.
Whilst Sorensen needs no introduction and Tanoto has featured within many an AMR entry within the Asian theatre of racing like within the likes of the Thailand Super Series, Great Bay Area GT3 support race at Macau, Leitch also comes with a massive extent of prior GT3 knowledge and experience although (we believe) this will be his first time within an Aston Martin.
Photo credits – Teams / LMC / social media
Heart of Racing confirm they first names behind their 2025 FIA WEC Hypercar programme
The Aston Martin THOR Team that will take the British ultra-luxury performance brand back into the fight to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright for the first time since 1959, has named the first two drivers in its line-up for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC]; Alex Riberas (ESP) and Harry Tincknell (GBR).
Both drivers have extensive experience of racing Aston Martins during their glittering careers and have played key roles in the development and preparation of the stunning new Valkyrie hypercar challenger through this summer’s testing programme.
The breathtaking Aston Martin Valkyrie, set to make its world championship debut in the Qatar 1812km on 28 February 2025, will be the only race car built to the FIA’s Hypercar regulations to simultaneously contest both the WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship [IMSA] in 2025.
Reviving the famous #007 and #009 Aston Martin race numbers for 2025, two of these 6.5-litre, naturally aspirated V12 powered Valkyries, featuring race-optimised carbon fibre chassis, will be entered in WEC’s top Hypercar class. Valkyrie will make its IMSA debut in the GTP category at the world famous 12 Hours of Sebring (12-14 March).
Tincknell returns to the Aston Martin fold after four years. Indeed, the last time the Englishman raced for the brand was when he won the LMGTE Pro class of the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, alongside Alex Lynn (GBR) and Maxime Martin (BEL), in an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE. The 2016 European Le Mans Series champion and 2020 12 Hours of Sebring overall winner will carry the honour of driving the #007 Valkyrie.
“It’s an absolute honour to return to Aston Martin for the Valkyrie programme,” said Tincknell. “I believe the car will be a firm fan favourite with its amazing looks and the incredible sound of the V12 engine. It’s been exciting to be a part of the initial development testing, and the DNA of the car feels strong. I’m very proud of the hard work everyone has put in so far as we build towards the first race. Everyone at Aston Martin THOR Team has made me feel very welcome and I know I’m joining a professional outfit.”
Tincknell added: “Aston Martin has an incredible history in sportscar racing and this is really a ‘pinch myself moment’. Of course, I have great memories of Le Mans in 2020, and the aim is to repeat that feat with Valkyrie. It’s a dream come true.”
Riberas, an established pillar of The Heart of Racing team, steps up from the GT category to form part of the line-up in the #009 Valkyrie. The Spaniard has earned his place in the top class after a stellar season in The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage, where he recorded victories in both WEC in LMGT3 and IMSA’s GTD Pro category.
“It is a great honour to be chosen as a driver for such an exciting project,” said Riberas. “I have been a part of The Heart of Racing for the past 10 years and to be able to continue my journey with them, now at the pinnacle of endurance racing, is simply a dream come true. On top of this, to be given the opportunity to represent such an iconic brand as Aston Martin, which has such a remarkable history both in sportscar racing and at Le Mans is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. The Aston Martin Valkyrie is the most spectacular car I have ever driven, and it sounds amazing, so to be able to share it with the fans of motorsport all over the world is something I am very much looking forward to. ”
Aston Martin THOR Team principal Ian James, said: “Both drivers have shown the relevant blend of patience, speed and dedication to the team through the testing phase of the Aston Martin Valkyrie programme and have earned the right to the race seat in 2025. We’re all very excited heading into next season, particularly given all the hard work that has gone into it so far. There is still a long road ahead, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we can’t wait to go racing with this incredible car. It’s a special honour to run a team with this iconic brand and to be able to take the Aston Martin wings back to where they belong, at the very pinnacle of endurance racing.”
The Aston Martin Valkyrie is nearing the end of its test and development programme and has covered more than 12,500km’s to date, including the recent Michelin test after the WEC Bahrain finale at the beginning of November, and last weekend’s IMSA Sanction test at Daytona. The focus for the Aston Martin THOR Team is now very much on honing the Valkyrie’s performance window ahead of homologation for the 2025 season.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport said: “We are reaching a critical juncture in the development of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, and to this point the car has passed all of the objectives and benchmarks we have set for it. Testing is one thing however, going racing quite another and we do not underestimate the formidable line-up of world class competition in the WEC Hypercar class and in IMSA’s GTP category. Harry and Alex both fully deserve their place in the 2025 line-up and we’re excited to see how they progress next season. It’s also great to see the return of the famous #007 and #009 race numbers , which have been so synonymous with previous success at Le Mans for the brand.”
The #009 was the race number emblazoned on the Aston Martin DBR9 that scored back-to-back GT1 class victories for the brand in the 2007 and 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The full driver line-up for Aston Martin THOR Team’s 2025 WEC and IMSA campaigns will be revealed in due course.
Source material - AMR
Photo Credits - IMSA / Team
