This weekend sees the first round of the 2019 Masters Endurance Legends Series since Aston Martin took on the automotive partner status and title sponsorship of the series over the winter.

The first event of a six event season kicks off from the Le Castellet Circuit in southern France on Friday culminating in two forty minute races on Saturday and Sunday.


Looking at the sixteen car entry list for the event, we see four cars from the Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing stable from the late 1980's onwards. The oldest will be an example of a 1989 AMR -1 prototype from the Group C days with Paul Whight and Nicolas Minassian listed behind the wheel.


Belgium racer Christophe D'Ansembourg returns with new new DBR1-2 Gulf liveried prototype from 2009 with the GT fleet being represented by Nikolaus Ditting's DBR9 GT1 and Paul Whight's other entry - a GT2 Vantage.

Title image - c/o Nicholas See

As with any year in motorsport, practice makes perfect and this week will be no exception for many of the Aston Martin Racing customer teams with the opening rounds of their 2019 season fast approaching.

Over in Japan and just twenty four hours after winning the first race with a new generation AMR Vantage GT3 car was D'Station Racing AMR being back at a circuit - this time at Fuji shaking down their freshly received second GT3 chassis that they will race in the Super GT GT300 in just a few weeks time. At today's test was AMR factory driver and one third of the winning trio from yesterdays Pirelli Super Taikyu round at Suzuka, Darren Turner who shared the car with one half of the car's full time driver line up, Tomonobu Fujji who was himself was 'fresh' from his return from the first round of the VLN Series at the Nordschliefe on Saturday.


Fujji will share the #7 car with JP de Oliveira with Turner joining the duo for the endurance round at Fuji later this year.


Back into Europe and German based PROsport Performance finally got the delivery that they had been patiently waiting for last week with a transporter load full with a brace of each of the new AMR Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars that they need for their forth coming seasons in ADAC GT Masters for the GT3's and both ADAC GT4 Germany and GT4 European Series for the two GT4's.


With less than three weeks before the first round of the GT4 European Series at Monza and four weeks to the first ADAC GT Masters race at Oschersleben, these cars will have a lot of driver familiarisation and testing laps to come before the team (who will race under the PROpeak Performance banner hits those circuits for the first time.


++ UPDATE++


Team are presently testing at the Nurburgring with their factory driver Maxime Martin

Joining their smaller 'brother' on track will also be a V8 Vantage GTE Pro car from the World Endurance Championship for a declared two day test at the circuit which will feature as the venue for the next and penultimate round of this transitional WEC season in early May

Still smarting from circumstance and incidents on track that prevented finishing positions higher than what was eventually attained for both Pro cars and despite being at the forefront of the last for long portions of the elongated event last time out at Sebring earlier this month, this test will be used to determine their progression with the car over the course of the WEC season so far and to make necessary changes in time for both Spa and the season finale at Le Mans later in June.


We have also just been told that Spa will also see the attendance of the TF Sport GTE WEC car as well as the now liveried Optimum GT3 car that will now race at the circuit twice this year - once in both the British GT Championship and GT Open for drivers Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis. Both are also expected to be their for the two day test mentioned above.


Back into Europe we had TF Sport testing at Monza for the first time in readiness for their opening rounds at the circuit of their respective Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with just Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc behind the wheel.


Finally and on the domestic front, Academy Motorsport have continued with their pre season testing regime that now goes on with both their GT4 chassis being at the circuits. Multiple days at Snetterton, Silverstone and Oulton Park are hopefully bedding in their three new arrivals to the team in time for the start of the British GT Championship at Oulton Park in less than a months time.


++UPDATE++


The Beechdean AMR GT4 of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher are presently testing at Donington Park



Photo credits - D'Station Racing / PROsport Performance / Street Art Racing

Aston Martin Racing partner team D’station Racing secured the first outright victory for the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at Suzuka Raceway, in the opening round of the Super Taikyu series.

In only its third competitive outing, following races in the Nürburgring Nordschleife-based VLN series and the Abu Dhabi 12 Hours last year, the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 took its debut win in Japan. It was also the first time the car had competed since its final FIA homologation approval.

The #777 D’station Racing Vantage GT3, being driven by works driver and three-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Darren Turner, D’station Racing President Satoshi Hoshino and Japanese driver Tsubasa Kondo finished the five-hour event with a comfortable margin over second place after their key rivals hit trouble mid-race.

Competing in its first race as an freshly homologated race car, the new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 certainly broadcast it’s message of intent for the forthcoming season by winning its inaugural race with a customer team over in Japan overnight.

Racing with one of Aston Martin Racings newest Partner Teams in D'Station Racing AMR, their #777 entry into the opening round of the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series at the Suzuka International Circuit certainly proved fruitful for local drivers Satoshi Hoshini and Tsubasa Kondo as they and a series debutant Darren Turner secured the first race win of the series.


Competing alongside fifty other cars in the multi-class racing format, the honour of taking the chequered flag for what is the Vantage GT3's first official race win was left to AMR factory driver Darren Turner!! Turner will also drive with the team again at the next round of the Series later next month before he drives again with the team in the Fuji Endurance round of the Super GT Series.

What a way to start the racing life of the new generation of AMR race car.


In other news from the weekend, it was another good job done for those aboard the #150 AMR Performance Centre V8 Vantage entry at the first round of the VLN Series from the Nordschleife.

Heavily weather affected due to the lingering morning fog, things were left to a single flying Qualifying lap and a reduced two hours forty five minute race for the driver trio of Alex West, Martin Brundle and Marco Muller.


With the former two drivers needing to qualify for their full GT3 Nordschleife Permit for races later in the year, all succeeded in obtaining a large chunk of their total lap requirement to qualify for the permit with the balance being obtained at (probably) the next round of the series in about four weeks time.

Despite over 170 cars being entered, six in their SP8 class, the trio finished third in class.

Photo credits - AMR / D'Station Racing

A venue discretely nestled within the midst of the West Sussex countryside was our destination earlier this week to talk about all things motor racing with a team that has already seen countless National and European successes since its creation little over five years ago.

If it hadn't have been for the presence of three gleaming white transporter lorries out in the front yard, it would have been very easy for us to simply drive straight past the new light industrial units that now form the new headquarters for Tom Ferrier's TF Sport motor racing empire.


Having acquired these new premises at the end of last year, Ferrier soon added over our coffee that he was still looking forward to getting his entire stock and race cars and equipment into his new home for the first time as two race cars and two sets of equipment were still out and about on their world travels - one (due back imminently) was the AMR Vantage V12 GT3 entered into the Asian Le Mans Series for the first time with the Red River team and of course the other being the V8 Vantage GTE World Endurance Championship entry raced by the team the only five days before at Sebring.


Within the immaculate workshop facility stood both the last and the latest line of racing machinery to come out of the Aston Martin Racing's Prodrive facility with two examples of the brand new 2019 V8 turbo charged Vantage GT3 in varying states of preparedness for the racing season ahead as well as two (both somewhat works in progress) examples of its predecessor - the multiple Championship winning V12 Vantage GT3 with which TF Sport have made their name.

Nearest to the up and over door, and the very latest car to enter the TF family with the first 2019 V8 Vantage GT4 to be shipped out of the Prodrive factory to the team ready for the opening round of the British GT Championship at Oulton Park in about a months time. With two ordered pre-season, Ferrier was hopeful that their second GT4 would arrive within the next two weeks.


Still relatively bleary eyed from their near two week racing adventure in Florida with both the preceding test and then the 1000miles of Sebring race itself a week later, Ferrier first joked about just how high the calorific overload of trackside dining in the States can be before going on talk about how the race actually went for them. Acknowledging a continued lack of pace within their V8 Vantage GTE due to an unaltered BoP (a problem also being shared by the AMR factory supported #98 car) he went on to explain just how well he thought their race strategy was going until Jonny Adam became a magnet for multiple other race cars to make contact with their race car before ultimately their rear defuser broke and effectively ended any chance of a favourable finish as the rains began to fall and the race ended behind the Safety Car.

With the Championship now moving back towards Europe for both Spa and the season finale at Le Mans in June, Ferrier was still 'hopeful' that the performance imbalance between the AMR and certainly the Porsche's would be addressed by the governing bodies in time to make the the GTE Am Championship again a viable possibility for their long term customer Salih Yoluc as the available points still made that a possibility.


Taking the conversation towards next years WEC, he confirmed that nothing had yet been confirmed with any potential customer for the 2019/20 season and with the entry window for next season (that now starts in September) still some months away it would be unlikely for anything to be confirmed for some time to come.

With all the new race cars presently in the workshop all being prepared for the teams final pre British GT season test at Silverstone at the start of April, Ferrier confirmed the degree of expansion of running a double workload than previous years would have with on the team. Operating with less than half a dozen employees over the winter and away from the racetrack, last year saw them run with about 14 mechanic and engineers at the racetrack but for 2019 that number would rise to about 24 personnel to cover their four cars. The additional numbers would be made up from hired, seasonal labour and expertise from AMR and other racing partners.


The decision to acquire a third Vantage GT3 chassis for the Oman Racing by TF Sport's Blancpain GT Series season was a logistical one that would allow the team to drop off and collect the relevant race cars 'on the way through' when the British GT and Blancpain GT Series featured back to back race weekends but also meaning that a car wouldn't have to be serviced/maintained/repaired in a race track garage without proper facilities and time being available.

Other information on the teams Blancpain GT Series plans can be found HERE.

Due to the workload currently being faced at the Prodrive factory in building and turning out large multiples of their new Vantage GT3 and GT4 race cars in time for the 2019 season, the teams pre season testing for British GT has not necessarily been at where Ferrier would have liked but the provision by the factory of their development GT4 car has at least allowed his four new young guns to become acquainted with the car. He still expects all four drivers to be testing at Silverstone from within the single GT4 presently available to him before his second car arrives just in time for the start of the season.

It was certainly interesting to hear of his views about the unrestricted pre and mid season testing within the British GT teams, how much these tests were costing their paying drivers and the relevance of having an effectively unproductive (cost versus time on track) Media Day so early to the start of the season. The reasons for the team missing this years Championship's Media Day was a simple one of testing at the venue of the first race over the venue of a mid season race. He also commented on the sensibility of having the first race of the season on the narrowest circuit of the year with half a grid full of inexperienced GT racers when the weather was in theory at its worst!


Asking about how he would fare with the required level of driver coaching and development within his team for his younger drivers, he did confirm that all had been accepted into the latest AMR Academy process with the factory with experienced driving personnel such as Charlie Eastwood and Andrew Watson also being on hand during the season to help all those within the paddock and registered with that programme. The team will also have the knowledge and experience of both Jonny Adam and Nicki Thiim to tap into as Adam pairs up with Graham Davidson for the first time and the Dane again supports Mark Farmer aboard his own new Vantage GT3.

Not being the first team manager to tell us this before but there is could still be a possibility of the GT4 driver pairings already stated by the team changing again before the start of the season he seeks a balance between the characteristics of the four drivers and their sponsors that would give each an equal opportunity within the Championship as well as aesthetic liveries upon their cars.


In terms of liveries for the British GT, all he would say was that blue would continue to be the base colour of choice for the team as well as the continued placement of hexagonal shapes around the body of the GT3's. The GT4's would run another base colour along with with their drivers own and championship's sponsorship logos.

For the two V12 Vantages also in the workshop, it was still very much a 'work in progress' for both of them as the white and red #17 car of Derek Johnston was still in the progress of being rebuilt for possibly something a little different a little later in the year whilst the blue, former Mark Farmer car (written off in his start line accident at Spa last year) would be turned into a rolling pit stop training device for the team - once they find a little time to make the necessary adjustments!


For the team, the new workshop gives them many increased facilities over the primitive ones of their former base - more workshop space (up to 7 race cars), a separate 'clean' room for those more complicated repairs, a meeting room, large ledges to collect and display their trophies and finally (and most importantly to Tom) - heating!!!

Finally, what Ferrier really wants to replicate in 2019 are the reasons why three letters were sent to the team and now take pride of place upon the wall of the meeting room, each from the BRDC, David Richards of Prodrive and Dr Andy Palmer of Aston Martin Lagonda - all of whom personally wrote to him congratulating him and his team on their performances, professionalism, taking the brand forward in the racing area as well as by winning notable Championships. That kind of recognition always goes a long way in any working environment.


2019 is now just a few weeks away and we can't wait!

Other photo credits - Andrew Lofthouse

With the new 2019 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 now fully homologated it appears that the honour of running the car's first competitive race in that official format lies with one of the marques newest Partner teams over in Japan.

Just over a month ago did we learn that Japanese team D'Station Racing would be purchasing (initially) one example of the new iteration of the turbo charged GT3 racing car from the Prodrive factory ready for a parallel season in both the Super Taikyu Series as well as the Japanese national headline Super GT Series.


Amongst the news of this new customer team and return to the mainstay of Japanese GT racing was also confirmation of the inclusion of AMR factory driver Darren Turner within the car for both the opening two rounds of the Super Taikyu Series as well as the endurance round of the Super GT Series.


'Fresh' from his 1000mile participation with the #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE crew at the sixth round of the World Endurance Championship from Sebring last week, Turner is presently acclimatising himself into the opening gambits of the event ahead of the five hour, multi class endurance race around the Suzuka International Circuit that he, Tsubasa Kondo and Satoshi Hoshino will compete in this weekend.


In a strange twist of circumstance, whilst Turner has made his way over to Japan both team drivers who will race in the car in the Super GT Series (JP Oliveira and Tomanobu Fujii) are both at the Nordschliefe for the opening round of the VLN Series.

Photo credits - D'Station Racing AMR

Having endured a season last year of extreme bad luck but also under performance, yesterdays news of Oman Racing by TF Sport confirming their entry into the 2019 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup sees the team return to the class of racing that has seen them perform so well in before.

Last years venture into the Silver Cup proved unsuccessful for drivers Ahmad Al Harthy, Charlie Eastwood and Euan McKay despite their on site mentoring from the teams 'resident professional' Jonny Adam so have decided to return to the series Pro-Am Class for 2019 - a class that has seen them perform so well in historically including taking the overall Class honours back in 2017.


During our visit to TF Sport HQ today, we understood from team principle Tom Ferrier that Al Harthy has been granted special dispensation by the SRO to run as a Bronze (Star) rated driver as opposed to his Silver ranking of last year but with a caveat of not being able to run a full factory professional driver alongside.

Not short of any top flight racing experience between them, Eastwood will be regarded as the Pro driver whilst Salih Yoluc joins the squad again, this time as a full season driver this and with his Bronze (amateur) status that his role affords him.


With TF Sport expanding to run two GT3's and two GT4's within the British GT Championship this year, it has already been decided that the car that Al Harthy, Darren Turner and Jonny Adam ran at last years Gulf 12Hours event will become a sole BGT car for both Adam and Graham Davidson whilst the team acquires a further Vantage GT3 platform solely for Ahmad and his Blancpain GT Series campaign. That will help the team with back to back race weekends when there is so little time between rounds or even in the face of adversity should one chassis become damaged.

That new car has yet to be delivered to the team hence their absence from the latest Blancpain GT test in Italy this week but they the trio did attend the recent series BoP test at Paul Ricard with both their available GT3 chassis.


The first round of the 2019 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup takes place from Monza in little over three weeks time.

Photo credits - Gulf 12Hr /

Fearful of a year devoid of any full (or even any part season) entry from any Aston Martin Racing customer team in the VLN Series this year has come todays news of an amazing entry for one of the AMR Performance Centre's Vantage GT4's.

The number #150 SP8 has carried a plethora of up and coming as well as established names from within the world of Aston Martin Racing over the years as they have strived to progress, get their full Nordschliefe GT3 licence ready for bigger things over the horizon.

There is no exception to that trend for this weekend with the release of the provisional entry list for the opening round of the 2019 VLN series around the infamous reveals two previously unseen but still well known names.


Former sportscar and Formula 1 racer Martin Brundle joins Alexander West in the #150 Vantage under the watchful eye of the Performance Centre driver Marco Muller as a third driver and AMR reserve driver Ross Gunn also in assistance outside. We last saw Brundle race in an Aston Martin at the AMR Festival from Le Mans back in June last year whilst West is still experiencing his first few events aboard any AMR race platform after his co-owned Garage 59 race team swapped from the McLaren chassis over to the new Vantage GT3 ready for a fresh full season attack in the Blancpain GT Series in 2019.

Whilst the latter is preparing himself ready for the ADAC Zurich N24 later this year, Brundle (who has never raced at the circuit before) will be doing what is required of him in order to qualify for his full Nordschleife Permit so that he and his son Alex can race in a further undisclosed event around the track in an undisclosed car.


It will be interesting to see just how they perform at the Green Hell!

West photo credit - Garage 59 / AMR

German based PROsport Performance - or rather PROpeak Performance as they have just announced for their Aston Martin Racing activities in 2019, have today another driver line pairing that will compete within their National ADAC GT4 Germany Championship.


Running in parallel to their already announced ADAC GT Masters (with their two AMR Vantage GT3 cars) and the SRO GT4 European Series sees the team run young Frenchman Jeremie Lesoudier with their young Swiss racer Florian Thoma for the six event series that starts at Oschersleben at the end of April.

Thoma has already been confirmed as running in one of the team's Vantage GT4 cars in the GT4 European Series alongside Akhil Rabindra.

Twenty three year old Frenchman, Lesoudier comes fresh from the French Porsche Carrera Cup Championship in which he secured four podium finishes (including one win) in his first year in 2018.


This announcement comes straight off the back of a successful test with the AMR Vantage GT4 development car in Barcelona last week and comes ahead of the team's imminent arrival of (some) of their new Vantage GT3's and Vantage GT4's stock that they have on order from Prodrive.

Photo credits - PROpeak Performance

Whilst the World Endurance Championship was reconvening for their double header with the IMSA Series over at the Sebring Raceway in Florida last weekend, two other series featured their first rounds of their 2019 season but on the other side of of the world.

The Australian GT Championship kicked off its new year with its usual four race support act with the opening round of the 2019 FIA Formula One Championship from the Albert Park street circuit in Melbourne. Featuring just a single Aston Martin Racing car entry this year, that honour has been left to the passionate AMR/AML fan and former owner of the Australian national GT championship - Tony Quinn to race with in his V12 Vantage GT3 whilst he patiently awaits the delivery of his new turbo charged 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 later into the season.

With newer cars, evolutions and younger guns ahead of him, Quinn managed to collect a useful haul of points across the weekend to first Qualifying in P8 before finishing in P8 for race 1, a DNF after a spin out and from being tagged by a passing car in race 2 before a P20 in race 3 before a P9 in the final race on Sunday out of a total entry of twenty five cars.

That points haul has left Quinn in P8 in the Championship as it moves on to its next round in May.

This week has seen a significant increase in the number of Aston Martin Racing customer teams test (mainly across Europe at the moment) as these teams start to receive their orders for new generation GT3 and GT4 cars from the Prodrive factory.

Blancpain GT Series runnings R-Motorsport and Garage 59 were at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France earlier this week for the series balance of performance test ahead of their season that starts in Monza in just under a months time. Both teams had a number of absent faces from the test due to driver commitments elsewhere.


New AMR team - Garage 59 were there with their two new V8 Vantage GT3's and had to get the driving assistance of AMR reserve driver Ross Gunn to help as the team evaluate line ups to race alongside the likes of Chris Goodwin and Alex West. These cars tested again in the factory produced white base layer although the team have confirmed that liveries and line ups are due imminently. The R-Motorsport cars looked sublime in their china grey and blue detail.

For British GT runners Academy Motorsport and Optimum Motorsport, their drivers Will Moore and Patrick Mathiessen respectively tested their new Vantage GT4's for the first time this week at both Snetterton and Oulton Park ahead of their season that start in under four weeks time.



From a rather cold and wet looking Zolder racetrack, Belgium team Street Art Racing took one of their new Vantage GT4's out for its first test ready for their two car entry into the this years GT4 European Series.


Like many teams around Europe, they are having to make do with just one car at the moment for their full GT4 driver line up.


Their series rivals, German based PROsport Performance also tested the V8 Vantage GT4 for the first time (albeit the factory development car) at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain (above) as their prepare for their  two GT4 car entry into multi European series whilst the photo below shows another GT4 due for imminent delivery t its new owner after another Ross Gunn shakedown test this week.


Over in Japan, one of the latest teams to convert to the AMR platform for 2019 sees D'Station AMR undertake their first Official Super GT test at the Okayama International Circuit with their new Vantage GT3.


Having already undertaken some tyre testing with their car ready for the highly competitive GT300 campaign, drivers JP Oliveira and Tomonobu Fujii have the driving services of Darren Turner to look forward to.


Its all getting rather busy!!

Photo credits - Customer teams / social media