After nearly a two month break, the China GT Championship returns to the track with the third round's two races around around the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend.

BSEM Asia Sonic Racing will be back again with their mix of old and new iteration Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's after something of a frustrating audition for the brand new #618 car in the Asian arena after a pit stop infringement and then puncture thwarted early promise aboard the new race car for drivers David Pun and Yves Volte in the previous two races.


For the teams second pairing of Zhang Fangxuan and Wu Pei, they had something of a nightmare last time out with the older, normally aspirated version of the Vantage GT4 cutting out during the races forcing recovery from the circuit.

All will be hoping for some reward for their efforts this weekend.

After over a year now of searching and negotiation, it now appears that Aston Martin Racing have finally found their desired strategic partner in North America who will be able to take the factory's new range of Vantage race cars forward into top flight racing in the continental USA.

Not since the heady days of Kevin Bucklers TRG-AMR team have we seen any significant assaults on any on the mainstream American race series from the AMR factory or customer teams except for a few periodic appearances of the factory at headline events like the Daytona 24 with long established racing customers.


This latest announcement confirms that San Antonio, Texas based CSJ Motorsport will be the sole officially licensed distributor and support provider to prospective customers wanting to race in any of the new 2019 Vantage range of GT4, GT3 and GTE race cars in any of the (but not limited to) the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, Michelin Pilot Challenge Series and the SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America and Pirelli GT4 America paddocks.

That involved has already started with etc team supporting the only runner of the new Vantage GT4 in the USA so far with Florida based Automatic Racing.


"We’re honored and looking forward to working closely with Aston Martin Racing to build the Vantage GT3 and GT4 programs in the United States,” Susan Jary (co Team Principle) said. “We’ve been in business as long as we have because we put our clients and customers first and pride ourselves on customer relations. We’ll continue that by doing what’s best for the teams running the Aston Martin Vantage.”

“We both started as motorsports fans and have been looking for the right opportunity to get more involved,” Cy Jary said. “Working with Aston Martin Racing, we’ve made the investments needed to run a first-class, competitive operation. Our season has gotten off to a great start with a Vantage GT4 campaigned by Automatic Racing, and we’re looking forward to increasing the number of competitive Aston Martin Vantage machines racing across the country.”

Soon after the joys from Germany earlier this afternoon with Aston Martin Racing claiming a commanding class win in the ADAC Total 24H event with their new turbo charged Vantage GT4, came the first overall race win for the (also new for 2019) Vantage GT3 fromTF Sport in the latest round of the British GT Championship from Donington Park today.

Having had to involuntarily 'delay' this event by two weeks by virtue of unwanted contact with a back marker crashing the same car out of the race the final lap out in the Championship at Silverstone, the #47 crew of Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam finally did what was needed to claim their first race win and that of the car in the British national series at the end of this afternoons two hour race.


With weather again not being a problem, Am driver Davidson was a man on a mission right from the start of the race allowing those behind to squabble between them enabling him to pull out what became an unthreatened lead by the time he passed the car over to Adam.

Two cars making hay at the start were the #99 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard who managed to leapfrog himself up to P4 in the first two corners alone, closely followed by the #96 Optimum Vantage GT3 of Ollie Wilkinson. Fortunately for Davidson, all the accident and incident was at least behind him as team mate Mark Farmer would endure another difficult race in his #2 TF Sport car that he shares with Nicki Thiim as two early spins would see his position plummet to mid pack amongst the slower GT4's. Asking Thiim what he thought of the situation on track, the Dane did suggest that it was "already time to get a beer!"


Kelvin Fletcher was again flying in his #11 Beechdean GT4 as he headed the GT4 Pro-Am class just behind the overall GT4 leaders. Clearly something had again happened with the performances of many chassis in GT4 as the Ford Mustang was again untouchable whereas the Vantage GT4's as a whole were obviously slower than at Silverstone.

Unfortunately, early and unrelated contacts for the #95 TF Sport GT4 of Josh Price and the #35 Optimum GT4 of Jack Butel would see both sidelined on track for a short while before managing to make it back to pit lane for repairs. Losing several laps each, both cars would return to the track but not for to long for the #35 car which would soon pit again and retire from the race. Their respective sister cars in GT4 Silver Cup were also taking their time to come up to speed with the #97 down in P8 in class with the #75 Optimum car a further place back contrary to suggestive speeds displayed earlier in the events proceedings.


Coming up towards the midway point and the compulsory pit stop, both Davidson and Wilkinson were 'enjoying' themselves in P1 and P3 respectively although the Silver Cup #96 car had dropped back from the leading pair. Shaun Balfe was also on a charge in his 720s McLaren and a series of personal best times began to dwindle the Scotsman's earlier lead to just under a second by the time they all pitted.

Disaster was not far away however for the #96 Optimum GT3, as on leaving their pit bay the grey liveried car spluttered and coughed before erupting into a plume of dense smoke as the engine compartment broke out in fire. Exiting the vehicle, Bradley Ellis would make it no further than the end of the pit lane but swift action of the Balfe crew and pit lane marshals at least saved the car from serious damage.


With all the Pro drivers now aboard, Rob Bell had now positioned his red Balfe McLaren GT3 to within 0.5 seconds of the rear of the #47 Vantage and for lap after lap Adam had to lead a defensive line. The fastest man on track however was Nicki Thiim who, having been further delayed at the pit stop because of their podium at Silverstone, soon caught and passed Bell to then place himself (strategically) in between the top two cars despite being a lap down.

Billy Johnson's Ford Mustang was also on a mission chasing down the #11 GT4 of Martin Plowman as the former Le Mans racer defended his Pro-Am lead but a slight error from the Englishman speeded up the path of inevitability and allowed the American past into the final corner of the lap.


Back in GT3, things were really heating up as an uncharacteristic error from Adam forced Thiim to pass him by at the chicane and allowed Bell to regroup back onto his tail. With a GT4 being the villain last time out at Silverstone - its would an incident involving a GT4 that would end up helping the #47 crew as the race entered its final minutes as the yellow flags for an incident forced the McLaren to stay behind some slower GT4's giving Adam the space that he needed to intimately take the chequered flag.

In terms of other successes at the race, the #11 Beechdean car did hold on to claim another Pro-Am podium with another P2 finish for Fletcher and Plowman. The #97 TF Sport of Tom Canning and Ash Hand did claw themselves up from P9 on the grid to claim a P4 finish.


Having now had two events in as many weeks, the Championship runners now get a month to regroup/repair and refocus before the fifth round of the season from Spa Francorchamps in Belgium before the final run in to the end of the season from brands Hatch and Donington Park again.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Steve Jackman

The new Aston Martin Vantage GT4 made a victorious debut in the 2019 ADAC TOTAL 24 Hours (N24), dominating the SP8T class for close-to-production vehicles in the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife-based endurance race. Meanwhile back in the UK, partner team TF Sport delivered the most significant win yet for the Vantage GT3, in the British GT Championship.

Aston Martin’s Nürburgring success was particularly emphatic with one of the two works-entered cars leading their class for more than 20 hours of the race. It marked a triumphant first outing in the event for former European Le Mans Series champion and current LMP2 driver Alex Brundle (GB) and was the second 24-hour race victory in an Aston Martin for W-Series championship points leader Jamie Chadwick (GB). It was also the second class win for their co-driver in the #37 works entry, Aston Martin regular and Nordschleife veteran Peter Cate (GB).

Donington Park is teeing itself up for another highly exciting round of the British GT Championship tomorrow as TF Sport's GT3 drivers Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson pick up from (nearly) where they left off last time out at Silverstone to claim another front row start.

With several drivers from the AMR camp running straight off the back of last weekends Le Mans 24 Hour event, it was no surprise really that Nicki Thiim was immediately the fastest runner out of the bag during FP1 in his #2 TF Sport car that he shares with Mark Farmer to then just luck out a little to the same accolade in FP2.


In GT4, the seven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage runners from TF Sport, Optimum and Academy started showing that the performance of Silverstone was not luck - especially for the #35 and #75 Optimum cars as they completed the top five GT4's along with etc #11 Beechdean GT4 of Pro-Am leaders Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher during FP1. That transposed into FP2 for those cars except for the #97 TF Sport car of Ash Hand and Tom Canning stealing their march to claim top AMR slot in P4 as the teams then prepared for Qualifying.

Being a single race tomorrow both drivers were again required to submit their own time from which the aggregated times would be used to determine their starting position.


With the GT3 Am drivers out first, Graham Davidson again proved that his is a gentleman driver of worth by posting a lap time that even his AMR factory co-driver Jonny Adam could only go onto beat by little over one second to end up claiming overall pole position, putting the demons of the last lap at Silverstone firmly behind them.

Making his return to the national GT championship, AMR reserve factory driver Ross Gunn also put in his best laps to be the fastest Pro driver in their respective Qualifying session that would help elevate the #99 car he shares with Andrew Howard to a P6 start. Whilst the #96 Silver Cup entry from Optimum for Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis remained a constant force in their class to qualify P7 overall and first in class,  slower times from Farmer dropped his #2 car down to P8 (the lowest AMR in the GT3 field) despite the best attempts of Thiim.


Back into GT4 again and again consistency was again the name of the game with the #11 Beechdean car being steady through both Am (P5) and Pro (P7) sessions to an overall P6 in GT4 (P2 in class). Some fantastically fast laps from Micah Stanley in his #61 Academy car posted him initially to P8 in his class although co driver Ben Hurst was unable to reciprocate that in the Pro session for them to end up P19 overall.


Despite early promises at the Silverstone 500 two weeks ago, both TF Sport GT4's have been uncharacteristically up and down over the course of events so far at Donington with the #97 car P9 and the #95 in P13. Both Optimum GT4's of Patrik Matthiesen/Mike Robinson and Jack Butel/Connor O'Brien split the 'yellow perils' with P11 and P12 starting positions respectively.


The weather forecast for tomorrow sees similar temperatures of today but maybe without as much visibility of the blue skies of today. With the usual ten minute warm up for the BGT cars tomorrow morning, Sundays two hour race will start at 13:10hrs.

With the circuit at Donington being more recently used to determine a winner or two at the end of the season with its #doningtondecider label, we can be assured that whatever the weather there will be some epic battles in both classes around the 2.5 mile track.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey 

With the multitude of GT racing racing events that are taking place this month, this weekend also sees a swift return to the British GT Championship from Donington Park for their fourth round of their 2019 season.

Having competed at their blue ribband Silverstone 500 event just two weeks ago, forty one cars across the GT3 and GT4 classes are entered into this weekends first of the Championships usual two hour races having so had two rounds of four one hour sprint races and the three hour enduro at Silverstone.


We have obviously had the 24 hours of Le Mans take place between these two events and as a result of a terrifying high speed accident for Marco Sorensen aboard his #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE during the night last Saturday, he has been medically advised to sit this race out at Donington as a precautionary measure. His place in the #99 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 will be taken by AMR factory reserve driver Ross Gunn.


At least Gunn and team boss/co driver Andrew Howard will be well versed with each other and the car as their both competed in the Michelin Road to Le Mans races from the Circuit de La Sarthe last weekend where they secured a P2 finish in race two on Sunday morning.

Other than that, there are no visible changes to the #TeamAMR line up with many of the drivers having just returned from France having raced or invited to attend the spectacular that is the LM24 as guests of Aston Martin Racing


Silverstone last time out was something of a bitter/sweet experience, especially for the TF Sport team with two class podiums turning into something of a nightmare for both of these GT3/GT4 crews with Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson's GT3 getting taken out off the lead of the race by a dilly-dallying Ford GT4 on the last lap of the race whilst the GT4 pole setting #95 car of Patrick Kibble and Josh Price ended up with a multitude of drive through penalties for self inflicted errors during the compulsory pit stop schedule. Hopefully lessons have been learned there?!?!

Whereas the #47 and #95 TF Sport cars lost out - sister #2 car of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim rekindled their love driving alliance together by securing their first podium of the season with a P2 finish whilst the #97 GT4 of Tom Canning and Ash Hand secured a P2 Silver Cup placing for their troubles.


Optimum Motorsport will arrive looking for some more of the same having had a good run out at Silverstone with two of their three cars where the #96 GT3 car of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis extended their lead in the GT3 Silver Cup class with another class win whilst the #75 GT4 of Patrik Matthiesen and Mike Robinson had their best race so far this season with a P3 finish in GT4 after their underlying technical issues earlier this season.

The remaining car of Jack Butel and Connor O'Brien had something of a bruising affair last time out as did both of the Academy Motorsport cars where the #61 car of Ben Hurst was unceremoniously dumped into the gravel trap at Luffield with damage that would ultimately see their retirement from the race with few laps completed. Alex Both-Jones and Will Moore would again have their own issues with contact incurring additional stops to repair the damage that would ultimately cost them any chance of some points this year.


That leaves the #11 car of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher who are both having an incredible season so far in their new AMR Vantage GT4 that they only saw for the first time at BGT Media Day at Donington Park in late March. Since then they have had Pro-Am podiums at Oulton Park, Snetterton and most recently at Silverstone to lead their championship at this half way stage of the season.


Qualifying for Sundays race again takes place over Saturday afternoon with times from both drivers being used to determine their aggregate time for the grid. Race starts Sunday at 13:10 and will be streamed live via the BGT social media channels.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Steve Jackman

All four new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4's entered by both the AMR Performance Centre and PROsport Performance customer team made significant improvements over the course of yesterdays weather interrupted track sessions, all ahead of this weekends ADAC Total 24 H race from the infamous Nordschelife circuit in southern Germany.

Having 'baptised' their new GT4 racing chariot at the most perhaps the most difficult racing circuit in the world last month in the events preceding Qualification Race, available track time yesterday afternoon was somewhat limited due to torrential rain around parts of the 26km during the earlier Free Practice session that resulted in it being red flagged and not resumed due to the number of cars having incidents around the circuit.


During Free Practice, representative lap times were at least being entered by three of the five Aston Martins competing at the event (the fifth being the AMR performance Centre entered Vantage GT8 customer car) and they were headed by the #36 Darren Turner / Chris Goodwin / Christian Gebhardt SP8T car which was ahead of the #68 PROsport Performance car of Jorg Viebahn / Joonas Lappalainen / Nicolaj Moller-Madson car by just 1/10th of a second.

With the circuit eventually drying out enough for the first of the Qualifying session yesterday evening, these times became history as again the #36 car wiped nearly twenty seconds off its best lap time to end the session the fastest AMR car in overall P40 with a lap time of 9:03:493. This time all five cars were able to enter the required number of laps per driver to 'Qualify' for the race with further qualifying sessions to be used to determine their precise starting position and were spread between P40 and P77 of the 155 car grid that completed Q1.


Early issues with the GT8 and #37 Vantage GT4 were quickly overcome to allow each crew to get their schedule back on track despite the earlier loss of track time with the GT8 ending its first day 4th fastest in its SP8 class.

As the crews now look forward to todays further two Qualifying sessions, all are presently placed as follows in the proceedings:-

So after Q1, positions are: SP8T 

P1 #36 Darren Turner / Chris Goodwin / Christian Gebhardt
P4 #37 Jamie Chadwick / Alex Brundle / Peter Cate

SP10

P2 #68 Jorg Viebahn / Joonas Lappalainen / Nicolaj Moller-Madson
P5 #76 Christoph Breuer / Alex Mies / Kay van Berlo / Mike David Ortmann

SP8

P4 #35 Marco Muller / Tony Richard / Heinz Jurgen Kroner / David Thilenius


The start of the ADAC Total 24 H race itself starts at 15:30hrs so there is still a long way to go!

Photo credits - AMR / Frozenspeed

Aston Martin takes on its second 24-hour race in as many weekends when it contests another landmark GT racing event in the 2019 calendar – the ADAC TOTAL 24 Hours (N24) – staged on the world famous Nürburgring Nordschleife (22-23 June), with four Vantage GT4 machines.

Straight off the back of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the Aston Martin Vantage GTE completed its first season in the top-flight FIA World Endurance Championship, the Vantage GT4 will make its international 24-hour race debut in the N24 – perhaps the world’s toughest long distance race.


The works AMR Performance Centre will run a two-car entry in the SP8T class for close-to-production cars, featuring an all-star driver line-up that includes three-time Le Mans class winner Darren Turner (GB), Aston Martin High Performance test driver Chris Goodwin (GB), who join Christian Gebhardt (D) in the #36. Meanwhile AMR Junior driver and W-Series championship leader Jamie Chadwick and former ELMS champion Alex Brundle team-up with N24 veteran Peter Cate in all British line-up in the #37 GT4.

A further two Vantage GT4s will be run by the Nürburgring-based Aston Martin Racing partner team PROsport Performance in the SP10 class. An all-German crew of Christoph Breuer, Kay van Berlo, Alexander Mies and Peter Scharmach will drive the #86. Meanwhile in the #76 will be Jörg Viebahn (D), Nicolaj Moller-Madsen (DEN) and Jonas Lappeleinen (FIN).

BBC Top Gear presenter and Blancpain GT Endurance Series Pro-Am champion Chris Harris was due to participate with the AMR Performance Centre team this weekend but had to withdraw due to filming commitments.


Darren Turner said: “I love racing in the N24. It’s the toughest circuit on the planet and one of the most challenging events of the year, no matter what class you are racing in. Last year we finished fourth in the final race for the V12 Vantage GT3; ‘The Old Lady’, in the top SP9 class. This time around we have the privilege of giving the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 it’s N24 debut. The SP8T class is well balanced, and because of the way the rules work, we have access to more power than would normally be available in a GT4 so it’s really fun to drive it hard. During the recent VLN qualifier, the car performed exceptionally well so I have high hopes of another strong result.”



David King, President, Aston Martin Racing, added: “Two 24-hour races in two weekends featuring significant four-car Aston Martin entries, underlines the strength in depth of our current contingent. With more than 60 Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars now in active service and competition around the world, there is no place on Earth more appropriate than the Nürburgring for the GT4 to make its international 24-hour race debut. The car performed exceptionally well in both its VLN debut and the recent six-hour Qualifier race on the Nordschleife, so our sights are trained firmly on earning a podium finish for both cars in the SP8T class.”



The Aston Martin Performance Centre will also run a prior generation Vantage GT8 in the SP8 class for customer drivers Marco Müller (D), Tony Richards (NZ), David Thilenius (USA) and Heinz Jürgen Kroner (D).


In the build-up to the race which starts at 1530 CET, there will also be an Aston Martin Festival parade lap, featuring a cavalcade of road going examples from the British luxury sportscar maker on Saturday 22 June.


Source material - Aston Martin Racing
Photo credits - Aston Martin Racing / Frozenspeed

Latest Aston Martin Racing recruits, the Virage Group had their two brand new AMR Vantage GT4's out racing for the first time last weekend at the second round of the SRO GT4 Southern Series from the Jarama Circuit to the north of Madrid.

Only having received their two cars from the Prodrive factory just a couple of weeks ago, it appears that after juts two shakedown tests both at Donington and Valencia the team felt ready to make that step in and join the GT4 Southern Series at their first available opportunity.

Meanwhile, the German touring car series DMV GTC were at the Nurburgring for their fourth round of the season so far with its normal three race format over the weekend with a mix of two sprints and an hour long endurance race for their older iteration GT3 runners.



Again running in the series as a solo driver aboard his Schaler Motorsport prepared #12 Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 was Timo Scheibner.

Qualifying P8 overall and P2 in Class, the German went on to claim a P5 overall finish and yet another class win in the first of the two GTC races before starting the second race from P7 overall and first in class. That race he went on to finish P6 overall and another class win.


In the longer Dunlop 60 race, Scheibner again Qualified P9 overall / P1 in class to finish just one place higher to expand his trophy cabinet still further with another class win.

The series returns to Hockenheim for the fifth round in early August.

Photo credits - DMV GTC

After the disappointment in the first of two races over last weekend's Road to Le Mans double header for Beechdean AMR, Saturday morning proved itself to be a fruitful one with the crew of the #99 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 with a podium position rewarding their hard work.

Having literally been taken out of the race on the last lap on Thursday evening, Friday proved to be a very busy day for the Beechdean AMR team repairing some sizeable damage to the rear of Andrew Howards car to be ready in time for the start of race two, early Sunday morning.

This time qualifying in P4 for race 2, it would the turn of Howard to take the start of the 55 minute race before he would again hand over the reigns to his co-driver, AMR factory reserve driver Ross Gunn - a young man who had already displayed his racing credentials with great results in front of the Le Mans crowd in an AMR Vantage GT3 and would again do this same in race 2.