Two almost sure podium finishes yesterday for the AGS Events Racing team ripped out of their hands due to technical issues with just minutes to go for both cars yesterday must have been hard for all to deal with but deal with it they did and in the finest way possible earlier this morning.

Having already completed Qualifying for the second race of the weekend for round 2 of the GT4 European Series from Misano yesterday left AMR Academy Driver Valentin Hasse-Clot starting from the front row of Sundays grid in P2 with his Silver Cup class entry with team mate Nicolas Gomar doing likewise in their Am classed #89 entry from P10 overall and P2 in class.


Like his team mate Theo Nouet yesterday, Hasse-Clot was soon able to take to the front at the start of the hour long race before developing an elongating lead as his thirty minute stint ticked by. Gomar meanwhile, enjoyed a brief race within the top ten buts soon got mugged by various Pro-Am and Silver Cup cars just a few laps later to drop their car back down to P10 although still in the lead of his class.

Whilst the gap between P1 and P2 continued to expand, Gomar eventually lost the class lead to the #89 Mercedes before losing the next position in class just before he pitted - ahead of their sister #27 car in this race.


With Hasse-Clot having handed Nouet an eleven second cushion at their stop, even the threat of any possible return to the issues that blighted yesterday's race and thus racing a 'percentage race' today entered into the young Frenchman's mind as he continued to push until the end, eventually taking the chequered flag with commanding seventeen second gap.

A race win was nothing less than the AMR team deserved with their #27 Silver Cup car having been consistently fast since arriving again in Italy. The #89 Am crew also backed up that point with their third podium finish of the season so far with a P2 finish in class (P11 overall) as the Series gets a month off ahead of their next round from the Nurburgring in Germany in four weeks time.


A great result and a great display of character from the team having stepped up from FFSA GT4 this season! There's more to come from these guys this year we are sure.

Photo credits - GT4 European Series

Their mid year announcement that TF Sport would again compete within the International GT Open Series proved itself to be a good decision for the Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 team as drivers Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood collected their second podium of the weekend with a P3 in Sundays shorter race.

Having had Yoluc undertake the Qualifying and race start duties in Saturdays race, Sunday saw Eastwood take the reigns of the #34 car this morning to place the car on the third row of the grid in P5 albeit only a quarter of a second off the pole setting McLaren's pace.


Fortunately for all, the opening lap was less of an issue this time around although race 2 saw two fewer cars make the start this time around after technical issues with one of the Bentleys and significant accident damage to the #5 Mercedes AMG forced then to sit this one out.

Taking a position on the opening corners, Eastwood quickly solidified his place on track as the race developed a rhythm, never quite able to push the two cars immediately ahead but fast enough to gap the car trying to do the same to him from behind. Running P4 overall but P3 in the Pro class, Eastwood would run the #34 car for as long as possible into the available post window before pitting from second on track with about 25 minutes of the one hour race remaining.


With Yoluc now in the car, all he had to do was maintain the gaps to those behind him as the battle for P4/5/6 was vigorous enough to be slowing all of them down and whilst he still had no answer to the race leader in front, time was running out for those behind.

Finally, the #11 Mercedes with a Pro driver inside got past the McLaren that had been serving as the mobile chicane on track and gave them just six minutes to make up the five second gap to Yoluc and then pass the Aston for the next step up the podium.


That occurred half way around the final lap when the #11 car tried to go the long way around Salih and made use of the concrete run off to gain momentum to pass the Aston into the next chicane that he also cut! With no new threat from behind, Yoluc had to let the yellow Mercedes go and settle for a P3 overall finish (P2 in Pro Class).

Later Yoluc would confirm that both cars had been reprimanded for their conduct on track as Race Control felt that Yoluc had pushed the Mercedes off track at the time but no revision of the finishing order has yet been made although results do remain Provisional!


Anyway, any podium finish is a podium finish and todays result places the #34 crew into fifth in the GT Open Championship table as the series moves on to Paul Ricard at the end of the month.

For TF Sport, their next race is of course this weekend coming at the resumption of the World Endurance Championship from Spa Francorchamps!

Photo credits - GT Open / TF Sport

After their spoils of the opening round of the revised 2020 GT4 European Series from Imola a couple of weekends ago, confidence must have been sky high within the French based AGS Events Racing team as their Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy Silver Cup #27 crew and #89 Am Class entry scooped three podium finishes between them at Imola.

That confidence and the marked difference in performance between their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's to the BMW M4 GT4's which were so dominant at Imola, also gave drivers Theo Nouet/Valentine Hasse-Clot and Nicolas Gomer/Giles Vannelet an extra tenth of a second as the #27 car claimed their first overall Pole Position of the season with the #89 car doing likewise in class in P5 on the grid.


As with the most of Europe at the moment, track temperatures in Italy were again very high, as was humidity and all nineteen car crews expected a tough day in the car managing both tyre degradation as well as themselves in that heat.

Starting alongside the Camaro on the front row of the grid, Nouet retained the lead going into the first corner although Vannelet did first appear to get 'mugged' by faster class cars around him although he did end the opening lap holding on to his P5 starting position.


Whilst Nouet quietly made some distance between him and the second placed car, Vannelet was again the one enjoying most of the racing action before two squabbling Am class cars further back ended that fun with a Full Course Yellow to extract one from the gravel. On the restart Nouet again held onto his front end position whilst the #89 drove a warranted P4 overall (P1 in Am Class) position on track.

Time lost in that caution period only gave Nouet another lap or two before he pitted from the lead to hand over to Hasse-Clot whilst the #89 elected to stay out with the 'lesser' driver almost until the end of the ten minute pit window.


After all stops had worked their way through the system, Hasse-Clot maintained their overall race lead and increased it somewhat to over eight seconds whilst their Am class team mates really had lost out on tracks having dropped from effective P4 before the stop to P11 overall but still P2 in class afterwards.

With just over 25% of the hour race to go disaster struck both Aston Martins as first Hasse-Clot suddenly slowed and ultimately stopped on track - got going again after a system reset before stopping again again on the same lap. With all of the pack having past the car that had until that stage dominated the opening forty minutes of the opening race of the weekend, their race was sadly done as they were recovered from the circuit by a track vehicle.


Also, but this time unseen on camera, the sister #89 had also limped its way back to the pit lane where it was also retired from the race with up until then undefined issues.

It was only some time after the chequered flag that the team confirmed that both cars suffered from fuel pick up issues that saw both cars enter their first (and hopefully last) DNF's of the season.


Tomorrows second race of the weekend sees both cars again start form the front - this time P2 in class each four Hasse-Clot P2 overall win the grid tomorrow with Gomar P10 overall/P2 in Am.

It can only get better for them this time around!!

Photo credits - GT4 European Series

Four years since last competing in the International GT Open Series with their then trusty Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3, Sussex based TF Sport took their long term customer racer Salih Yoluc back to the Series this weekend along with one of their new V8 Vantage GT3's for a little additional race seat time to help fill the gaps in their revised race calendars.

Returning with one of his current World Endurance Championship co-drivers in Charlie Eastwood, the opening pre race sessions from a very hot Hungaroring in Hungry saw some nice time advances for the #34 Pro Class crew as each gathered speed throughout the two testing and two Free Practice Sessions and into todays first race of the weekend having Qualified in P10 earlier in the day.


With Yoluc taking the start for this seventy minute race, the young Turk did the sensible thing of keeping himself out of harms way as the seventeen GT3 cars thundered into turn 1. Luckily he did really as at least three cars came together, some spinning off with two of those going into immediate retirement as a result.

Making use of his thirty minute of race time, Yoluc elevated the teams now familiar red liveried AMR Vantage GT3 up to P8 by the time he pitted at the start of the available pit stop window for fuel, tyres and a driver change.


Whilst the running order balanced itself out with some cars running a late pit stop strategy with having their Pro driver starting the race, Eastwood was soon all over the back of former F1 racer Christian Klein as he entered his final laps of the race before pitting - which must have been amusing for him at least!

By the time as the pit window had closed, the #34 AMR had moved top to P6 thanks to a stranded Bentley ahead of them in running order who had spun out aided which then brought out the Safety Car for recovery. Losing eleven minutes to that caution period it looked like Eastwood would have his work cut out as he featured as the tenth car in the Safety Car chain with other runners being found ahead and out of position relative to theirs.


That quickly turned out not to be of any issue as a heavy impact for the #5 Mercedes Benz AMG in the barriers towards the rear of the pack on the green lap immediately brought out the Safety Car again. Fortunately able to remove himself from the car unaided and apparently uninjured Race Control simply saw out the remaining six minutes of the race behind the Safety Car as both recovery and the required level of barrier repair was simply unrealistic in that available time period.

That result left Yoluc and Eastwood classified as finishing P6 overall but P3 in their Pro Class at their first time of asking (having run in Pro-Am last time in the Series) with race 2 still to look forward to tomorrow with Eastwood this time starting the race!

Photo credits - GT Open / TF Sport

Todays opening Private testing sessions ahead of the opening round of the GT Cup Open Series has finally confirmed a two car Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 effort from the Spanish based Team Virage.

Having ventured into the latter rounds of the Series last year, the team had originally announced an early driver pairing for the 2020 season but that driver pairing has now exited stage left to be replaced with a new Pro-Am and Am Class entry for the season ahead.


The #77 car is a Pro-Am effort from single seater and 2020 AMR Driver Academy contender Robert Hefler alongside LMP3 racer Philippe Valenza. They are joined in house in the #88 Am class entry of  drivers Stephane Adler and Michael Blancemain, both of whom have race substantial experience with headline series such as the ELMS, 24H Series and Blancpain GT Series.

Unfortunately, the series seems to have become another victim of the European financial mess in which many of us now find ourselves with just seven cars entered into the opening round from Hungary this weekend.


These guys in the GT4 races are of course joined by the TF Sport crew of Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood who are again contending in the GT Open Series in their AMR Vantage GT3. That should always be enough for you to give these two race packages your support over the coming season.


Over at Sonoma in California, yesterday became a bruising affair for GT4 America racer Matt Dalton after a high speed off in his Rennsport 1 AMR Vantage during private testing. That impact caused substantial front damage to the car which needed some real time team work between his own mechanics as well as with  the support form CSJ Motorsport to deliver back to them a race car that he and co-driver Pat Gallagher can now take into the Sprint and Sprint X races that start on Friday.


Whilst the bonnet and front end may not now be wrapped with the fine red, white and black homage to Van Halen's guitar, there is always something really sexy about any race car in bare carbon!!

Fortunately reported as being uninjured from the impact, Dalton has already been reported as being very keen to get back in the car and get ready for todays Qualifying for Race 1.

Photo credits - Rennsport 1 / Flying Lizards / Virage

The last six weeks or so have seen a gradual increase in the number of race series and championships coming back on-line since the easing of their respective host country's period of lockdown but this weekend coming appears to be the busiest yet for Aston Martin Racing and their Partner teams around the world as up to six top flight regional events are set to start up, some as early as this Thursday.

The SRO's GT4 America Series has moved across almost full width of the USA to the Sonoma Raceway in California for another triple header of Sprint and Sprint X races like they did last time out at VIR where Flying Lizards Am driver Michael Dinan kept up his 100% podium success rate in Sprint, albeit after technical issues with one of his Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's that double stinted that car platform in Sprint X.


Not the only AMR racer to receive some silverware over that race weekend of course with the likes of Paul Terry and Bryan Putt with Kenton Koch also taking the metaphorical podium at some stage in the event.

For Sonoma, we expect four AMR cars to take part in each of the Sprint and Sprint X races with representation from full season entrants Flying Lizards, Rearden Racing, BSport Racing and RS one. What we see different this time around is the inclusion off the #33 RS one AMR of Matt Dalton and Pat Gallagher doubling up for both sets of races for the first time this year.


Test sessions for the GT4 runners start Wednesday with Free Practice Thursday and Qualifying with Race 1 on Friday. Fastest laps then denote starting positions for the subsequent races.


Still in SRO world but this time back into Europe, we see the GT4 European Series start their second event of their revised calendar from Misano in Italy.

This sees the return of the two very successful debutants in the series last time out at Imola two weeks ago in the form of the two AGS Events Racing team AMR's. The teams #89 Am class car of Nicolas Gomer and Giles Vannelet came away tops with a double weekend podium with a P2 and P1 respectively with newly announced AMR Driver Academy racers Valentin Hasse-Clot and Theo Nouet narrowly missing out in doing likewise with a debuting P2 finish in race before losing out in race 2.


Next up in Europe we see the start of the International GT Open Series from the Hungaroring featuring a late Spring entry from TF Sport for their drivers Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood aboard one of TF Sport's other available GT3 Vantage cars.

They step into this series to help add to their seat time due to the delays and revisions in their World Endurance Championship endeavours plus like Yoluc told us, the excitement of a quick race is always a good thing over the long term deliberation of an endurance race!


Then with GT Open comes their new GT Open Cup Series for GT4 cars. We know that we have at least one AMR entry from the Spanish Virage Group team although names within the car have apparently changed since the team released their original line up back in the normal pre season days!

No entry list out yet for either GT3 or GT4 Series so we will have to wait and see there.


Next in Europe is of course the second round of the European Le Mans series from Spa Francorchamps in Belgium and again we will see the #98 AMR Vantage GTE of Paul Dalla Lana get in some more race miles of his own ahead of the resumption of the WEC at Spa over the following weekend.

This time around Ross Gunn steps aside to let new team recruit Augusto Farfus step into the car alongside Mathias Lauda for the first time in a race situation as Farfus replaces Darren Turner moving forward for the remainder of the WEC season. Farfus had his first testing experience of the Vantage GTE at a three day test from Motorland Aragon the week after the opening round of the ELMS at Paul Ricard two weeks ago.


A puncture for Gunn on the penultimate lap thwarted any meaningful result for the team despite some excellent running up until then but a result wasn't the 'prize' being sorted by the team as they looked to use the Series to get up and running ahead of Spa WEC and Le Mans.

That leaves us with the second round of the Japanese Super GT Series with Pacific D'Station Racing with their #9 AMR Vantage GT3 as they revisit Fuji Speedway again as part of their post CV-19 continuation calendar.


Remaining another non race attendee for the umpteenth time sees AMR factory driver Nick Thiim again being unable to  travel to Japan and will again be replaced with 'local' driver Kei Cozzolino alongside team regular Tomonobu Fujii. This pair didn't do so bad at the first round two weeks ago scooping some early points with a P10 finish and earning themselves +3kg in success ballast for this round to boot.

Still in Asia, this week should have been the latest first round of the China GT Championship but we understand that that has again been postponed with little reality of progression without further State approval for the required influx of foreign racers and technicians to run within it!


So a bumper weekend - all series feature a live stream service so pour yourself a suitable beverage, pull up a chair and watch  what you will!!

Photo credits - GT4 America / GT4 European / ELMS / Super GT / TF Sport / Virage

Last weekends effective fourth round of the 2020 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship from Road America should have marked the return to competitive motorsport for the Seattle based Heart of Racing Team and their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTD after their forced and then subsequent elective sabbatical from the Championship due to the COVID-19 situation within the USA.

Having only raced at the opening round of the IMSA Championship at the Rolex 24 at Daytona at the turn of the year, the team elected to remain absent through choice from the Championship as it got back to racing with a further round from Daytona and most recently from Sebring two weeks ago before committing to a return of their own at Road America.


Plans, like all plans sometimes do often change and fairly quickly for the team they did have to change as one half of their driver line up in Alex Riberas was unable to travel back from New Zealand from where he was originally on holiday before business potential soon took over. His place was soon filled by Team Principle Ian James who would race along side another AMR Drivers Academy recruit in Roman de Angelis.

Always being tough getting back into the groove from a long time away from a race track, the #23 made good time improvements in Free Practice ahead of Saturdays Qualifying and Sundays two hours forty minute race.


With James having Qualified the car in P11, the car was then subject to a fuel leak within the cockpit that meant, despite some long overnight working by the crew, that that the fault could not be rectified at the circuit and was therefore withdrawn from Sunday's (in hindsight) chaotic scenes that severely affected proceedings due to driveable track conditions.

Despite this bad news, the team have already committed to be back at the next round of the Championship at Virginia International Raceway in just under three weeks time for an event that may well be from behind closed doors!


That being said, the team have gone on to confirm the reasons of what Riberas was up to in New Zealand with an announcement to say that they will now be taking an AMR Vantage GT3 (GTD) to the country to compete in both the Golden Homes North Island Endurance Series and Carters Tyre Service South Island Endurance Series with former National Drifting Champion Darren Kelly.

We will look forward to finding out more detail on this new adventure for the team in due course.


Photo credits - Heart Of Racing

This weekend saw the welcomed return of the British GT Championship and its opening two races of the season from Oulton Park.

Dramatically down on numbers of course from those first indicted by the Championship at the turn of the year, we have been left with just two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's from the 2019 GT3 and GT4 overall Championship winning stable of TF Sport for us to support throughout the revised nine round 2020 calendar.


More than some, at least the #95 and #97 crews of Patrick Kibble/Connor O'Brien and Jamie Caroline/Dan Vaughan respectively were able to get in some significant testing ahead of this weekends start to official proceedings and that pre season seat time showed as others around them looked more tentative and careful over todays proceedings.

Not that either TF Sport crew showed anything more than confidence, it was that confidence and consistency that took O'Brien to overall Pole position for Sundays earlier one hour race with Vaughan not too far behind in P4.


Considering the complexities of the circuit and it being the first race of the year, all was quiet and careful around the first lap of the race although Vaughan had dropped a place in class during the opening laps. Whilst the young Irishman began to pull out a sizeable lead, the former Porsche Carrera Cup racer Vaughan got himself an early scrap with former Beechdean AMR GT4 racer Jordan Albert in his new Academy Motorsport Ford GT - a scrap that would see cars swap positions on track many times during the course of their opening stint.

Having waited for the GT3's to pit, Vaughan would come in first having just lost out again to Albert whilst O'Brien stayed out to maximise his then nine second lead. At the end of the pit window, Kibble would retain that lead earned by his co-driver whilst Caroline had a gap of about twelve seconds to make up to his team mate as all cars moved up one position after the then P2 placed Toyota was served with a drive through penalty!


With nine minutes left on the clock, the Academy Mustang hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons as it spun off (unaided) onto the grassy infield coming out of Cascades - not be able to restart the car brought out the Safety Car which (despite not actually recovering the car to a place of safety) allowed for two hot laps to the chequered flag.


The unconfirmed result of Race 1 was that the #95 Kibble/O'Brien car finished P1 overall and in Class whilst their team mates of Caroline/Vaughan in the #97 car finished P3 overall/P3 in class!

Great results so far!!


Race 2 later on Sunday would see a shake up of the starting orders of earlier as it was the turn of the Pro drivers to start the race - for TF Sport that meant the #97 car of Caroline heading the two yellow cars from P2 whilst Kibble had to settle for a P4 starting slot after losing two laps for track limits in Qualifying yesterday. Both cars however, would have to serve longer pit stops due to their Race 1 successes meaning for an additional delay of 5 and 10 seconds respectively on top of their additional 15 second Silver Cup time penalty.

Another great start from the front from this time Caroline maintained his class lead whilst Kibble made up an early place to follow in from P3, split only by the Balfe Pro-Am McLaren. This time, the GT4's ran a much tighter race than the first after drivers had found their race legs and pushed for a result - sometimes too hard as the #97 car was quickly  'pinged' very early on for track limits!


Reversing track time from earlier, Kibble was the first of the TF Sport cars to come in as there simply wasn't enough room for both cars to come in together - after that, we're sure things were only a blur for his co-driver O'Brien!!

Having left pit lane and coming round the kink that is Denton's, the #95 car suffered a side to side contact with the Team Parker Racing Bentley GT3 - contact that sent both cars careering over the grass infield. Catching the raised kerbs whilst travelling backwards, significant parts including wheels were ripped off his Aston Martin as the unguided 'missile' narrowly missed collecting the following 2 Seas Motorsport McLaren GT3 before coming to a more controlled stop within the off side track gravel trap.


With the Aston sitting in the gravel and with the Bentley and McLaren also stopped at various places around the circuit Race Control had no option but to deploy the Safety Car with twenty five minutes remaining. Although the #97 had been in for its pit stop there would effectively be no more racing as the caution period would unfortunately remain until the end!

Unconfirmed results from Race 2 show that the #97 Caroline/Vaughan car finished P2 overall behind the Pro-Am Balfe McLaren but P1 in Silver Cup thus earning them their first GT4 win at their first competitive British GT meeting.



Next round of the Championship is from Donington Park where something a little different will be seen with, not only their usual two hour race on Sunday but with another one hour sprint thrown in later in the afternoon to boot. That fun starts on Sunday 16th August.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / TF Sport

A second, second placed finish in any sporting event may appear to be good performances by many but for the #60 Kohr Motorsport Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 crew of Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli it was a case of having to settle for another runners up position in a race that they were almost dominating.

Selection into the AMR Drivers Academy and securing his first Pole Position aboard their AMR Vantage earlier in the day yesterday, things were looking pretty rosy for twenty year old Stacey as he took the green flag at the start of the Road America 120 in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at the head of the pack.


In the ever competitive world of modern GT4 racing, things would never be easy for any of the twenty one runners in the GS class, especially when mixed with another twelve TCR class cars on differing strategies, and with the race last race winning #39 CarBahn Audi right behind the Aston.


Further down the grid, the #99 Automatic Racing AMR of Ramin Abdolvahabi and Rob Ecklin had had a torrid time in Free Practice and Qualifying with technical issues and very quickly for them, their race would take a massive blow - to the right rear quarter to be precise from the 'out of control' sister #93 CarBahn Audi!! Although the #99 car would make it back to pitlane for a new wheel and bodywork repairs, only a handful of laps more would be achieved before the car was finally taken behind the wall and into retirement with terminal exhaust damage.

Whilst all of this was going on, a great start from Stacey and the #3 MIA McLaren behind meant that the lesser experienced Am driver aboard the #3 car was now effectively holding the pack up around the twisty Road America circuit and thus allowing Stacey top build a comfortable gap.


Forty five minutes in and Stacey had already served more than his Am status minimum driver time as he pitted the car from the lead for fuel, tyres and a driver change over to Marcelli. By the time that their first round of stops had all been completed, the #60 car again retained a 'comfortable' lead over the chasing #39 Audi and must have been something of an uneventful race for Marcelli - well up and until their final stop that was.

With the #39 Audi forcing peoples hand by pitting for fuel and tyres again with just forty minutes remaining, others including the Kohr team had to follow suit just in case a Full Course Yellow scuppered their plans. The #60 car pitted on the next lap but the #3 MIA 570S stayed out for another lap and on a clearing track that allowed the #3 car to effectively make up the 5-6 second gap and pass the #60 car by the time the McLaren exited pit lane right infront of the Aston.


Try as he might, Marcelli could not find a way past the McLaren to retake the overall lead and quietly began to fade away by the time the race entered its final laps. The race however, would finish under Caution after a nasty looking accident for the #4 Mercedes AMG left debris all over the race track and half of the nose of the AMG missing by the time the car came to a halt. Fortunately, the driver was seen removing himself from the remnants of his car unaided, appearing relatively unscathed which was good.


That meant that the #60 Kohr AMR finished the race in P2 for the second time since IMSA's return to racing that started at Sebring two weeks ago.

Next race in the Championship will be at VIR towards the end of August.

Photo credits - IMSA / Automatic / Kohr