On a day that has sadly seen the official confirmation that the BMW factory GTE Pro team will now not be returning to the World Endurance Championship for the season 2019/20, it has been great to see Surrey based TF Sport have today confirmed their entry application for another single GTE Am class entry into the Championship for next season.


Having made the progressive steps up the GT ladder over the years, this 2018/19 transitional 'Super-season' was the teams first experience of racing upon the world stage with their 2016 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE, a car that has been raced by their trio of drivers with great success to date.


Podiums at Spa last year followed with others at Silverstone and Fuji, culminating with their a class win earlier this month at the 6Hrs of Spa Francorhamps all leave the team with every possibility of lifting the GTE Am Class Championship title by the end of the 24Hours of Le Mans next month.




Team boss Tom Ferrier confirmed that it had always been their intention to continue in the FIA World Endurance Championship and they have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that they remain at the highest level of GT racing. "We have high hopes that our entry will be accepted and that we can return to Silverstone in the new Aston Martin Vantage GTE.” he added.


No drivers have yet been confirmed and all applications are of course subject to official confirmation from the FIA WEC.

The third round of the 24H Series European GT Championship takes place this weekend from Brno in the Czech Republic and its a return of the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 of Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Ranbindra.

Having enjoyed something of a blessed campaign so far, the #1 car gained their first podium of the season at Mugello (having only just received the car from Prodrive the week before) where they secured a P2 class finish despite stopping out on track and having to have work carried out on the car during the overnight sabbatical. Then at the next round at Spa just over a month ago, the trio went one better to secure their first class win.


As with all Creventic organised events, track action begins with private testing on Thursday before the start of official business later on Friday with Free Practice and Qualifying before the first three hours of the twelve hour race later on Friday afternoon.

The balance of the race will be completed at 10:00hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits - 24H / PROsport Performance

Despite the smiles and hopeful anticipation from the drivers and team, the second round of the German ADAC GT Masters Series from the Most Autodrom in the Czech Republic brought German team PROsport Performance back down to the ground for another reality check after another difficult double header at the weekend.

Despite finishing the races at the opening round at Oschersleben, continuing technical infringements of one description or another left the team's two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 cars with zero points heading into the weekend. Testing at the Czech circuit earlier in the month had left the team certainly hopeful of a good showing at the second round as performance gains had been made.


Slow compared to their peers during Fee Practice on Saturday, the team's two cars Qualified even lower down the grid for race 1 - down in P23 for the Daniel Keilwitz/Maxime Martin #99 car and P29 for the Hugo de Sadeleer/Valentin Hasse-Clot #98 car.

A thirty one car grid and a very tight left-right chicane acting as turn 1 and 2 would always going to lead to incident on the opening lap and that was certainly the case as over half a dozen cars took to the shortest route across the gravel trap to avoid a stranded car on track. A Safety Car was immediately deployed costing the hour long race nearly 10 minutes of running around what was commented to be a very technical - balance critical circuit. Opening drivers, Keilwitz (#99) and de Sadeleer (#98) had very little running time before they handed over to their respective co-drivers as the pit window opening after just 26 minutes.


For the #99 car, now with AMR Factory driver Martin behind the wheel, the steady progress of cars in front getting penalties or suffering from early tyre degradation allowed him to slowly pick off cars to finish P10 by the end of the hour albeit 26 seconds behind the leader but six points is six points at the end of the day. The #98 car of Hasse-Clot was unable to replicate this and finished P23.

With the two cars again Qualifying down in P24 for the #98 and P28 for the #99, there was still an optimistic chance that some opportunist points could come their way again for Sundays race.

Another T1 incident on the opening lap again produced another Safety Car to recover another stranded car but the restart quickly lead to an early red flag as a spinning Porsche caused barrier damage on the outside of a fast swapping corner that needed repairing. By the time repairs were made and the remaining pack was let go by the controlling Safety car only 38 minutes remained.


The trouble was, just like whats being seen in other ACO and SRO sanctioned series, the new V8 Vantage GT3's simply couldn't get out of the slower, more technical corners quick enough and were losing seconds per lap to that problem. In race 2, there was to be no repeat of Martins rise through the field at the end and both cars would finish P19 and P20 respectively - some 40 seconds down - even after a fragmented red flag influenced race.

Martin put on his social media that the results were 'embarrassing' and in some regards he is right - the fact that AMR's new fleet of race cars are not seemingly able to compete on the world stage consistently is something to be concerned about. The teams and the drivers are all doing what they can but it just looks as if AMR have taken a massive backward step which clearly they haven't as nobody would release a new product obviously slower than the one its replacing. It must be a case of BoP?!?


Hopefully the series can do something to help out before the next round at the Rd Bull Ring in three weeks time.

Photo credits - PROpeak Performance / ADAC GT Masters

Sundays two races that formed round two of the British GT Championship from Snetterton certainly didn't leave anybody disappointed when it came to track incident and accident but the rewards that were gained by the Aston Martin Racing runners were hard fought for.

Watching Saturdays Free Practice and then Qualifying times across the GT3 and GT4 classes certainly showed that there was no consistency with any of the teams or drivers as each were required to set their own times for the two race Am's start one followed by the Pro's in the other format. It appeared to be the consensus up and down the pit lane that the operational window of the new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 was very tight and nobody had found the ideal set up going into race day.


Indeed, it appeared that most cars within the TF Sport, Optimum, Academy and Beechdean teams had elected to run a different set up to Qualifying as late as Sunday morning warm up and again even in between races. With the exception of AMR factory driver Nicki Thiim qualifying for race 2 on GT3 pole and Tom Canning in P2 for the GT4 class in race 2, all the other nine cars were towards the rear of their respective packs. One GT4 team commented upon how their cars were unexplainably 2 seconds a lap slower to what they had obtained at a test at the circuit just two weeks ago - was than a negative effect of an inter round balance of performance change or just a change in circumstance?

Martin Plowman, the very approachable guy that he is, offered the fact that he and co driver Kelvin Fletcher had gone too far the wrong way with balance, sacrificing top end speed in favour of grip. The trouble with the Snetterton 300 circuit is that you need both! Similar comments were being made by some of the GT3 drivers so clearly there was an issue - the question was where and could it be rectified in time for the races.


Race 1 began under bright skies and sunshine producing some of the highest track temperatures of the meeting so far with the opening lap producing enough drama to fulfil a race report of its own. Graham Davidson in the #2 TF Sport GT3 soon found himself doing a little autocross along the start straight as a neighbouring Optimum Vantage GT3 of Ollie Wilkinson had inadvertently squeezed another car in the middle of the track across onto the far side forcing the Scot to take avoiding action by keeping his foot firmly planted along MSV’s prized cut grass!

As the GT3 field then approached the Wilson hairpin for the first time, a missed braking point from the ABBA Mercedes lumped his AMG GT3 heavily into the rear of Mark Farmers #2 TF Sport Vantage causing sizeable rear end damage but at least he as able to continue. Then Andrew Howard chasing up behind in his #99 Beechdean AMR Vantage hit the fluid being deposited on track by the now terminally ill Mercedes to spin off onto the fortunately grassy infield before being able to rejoin but a long way back into the GT4 field. There was was also done.


Early contact between cars with any thirty seven car grid is always inevitable (like above) but for the #75 Optimum Vantage GT4 of Mike Robinson, he wouldn't be so lucky as wheel to wheel contact with a BMW GT4 damaged his front wheel wheel and suspension putting the car he shares with Patrik Matthiesen into early retirement.


And this was all before the end of the first lap!!

Fortunately, things did soon sort themselves out as the gaps between cars grew and that at least stopped any more wasteful and pointless contact between squabbling cars and drivers for a time. Wilkinson in his #96 made the most of the chaotic start moving up to and holding very convincingly P3 overall with Josh Price being the highest placed AMR GT4 runner - albeit down in P8 in class.

For the next twenty minutes or so of racing up until the start of the mandatory pit stop windows, it appeared to be a case of simply holding your position as few cars made progress through the field. Sadly, the new Vantages were again struggling with low end power to get themselves out of the corners and that always left the drivers compromised at the next. For the #99 Beechdean GT3, Howard's earlier issues on track would be compounded by a further 5 second success penalty after finishing on the podium last time out at Oulton Park and for the #96 Optimum GT3, a mistimed pitstop would cost them a potential podium finish after a drive through penalty was awarded for the remainder of the time missed.


Again, the next fifteen minutes appeared to stagnate in the GT3 class until Jonny Adam (now aboard the #47 TF Sport GT3) inched his way onto the back of the Team Parker Racing Bentley in P3. Lap after lap the Scot tried to pass the #7 car ever conscious that the JRM Bentley of Sebring Morris was now catching him. Then on the final lap of the race it all kicked off. Morris passed Adam but the #69 Lamborghini had also joined in and in Morris' haste to get away he collided with an another car damaging his bonnet. Unable to see the track he had to back off and in a final sprint along the straight to the flag it was the #47 car that took the final stop of the podium.

It certainly wasn't all over then either - passing by the along pit lane to Parc Ferme, an animated Rick Parfitt Jnr certainly made his emotions clear to Adam but wisely left things to his team to sort having just seen his podium vanish in the final 500metres of the race.


For #TeamAMR, the #47 was to be the only podium of that race with the other cars too far down, damaged or already out of the race to compete against some clearly faster rivals. Howard even dared to broach the subject in interview after his pit stop when he 'tip-toed' along the Balance of Performance subject by suggesting this his car was underpowered!!

For several of the AMR cars, the break in between races at least allowed for some repairs to be made - extensive ones to the #2 TF Sport and #62 Academy cars after Alex Both Jones made his own race ending contact with the Jaguar GT4 on just the 15th lap.


Race 2 was to start under skies that had clouded over and darkened slightly as even very light rain began to fall. That and with the air and track temperature still being quite high all would start again on slicks with any rain bound to spice things up!

At the front of the pack was Nicki Thiim in the #2 TF Sport car who would have the clearly fast Lamborghinis from Barwell Motorsport starting just behind him with Jonny Adam behind them and a couple more in P6. In GT4, TF Sports Tom Canning was bouyant of the chances of a good race with his #97 car starting P2 overall in GT4 just behind Team Parker Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 of Scott Malvern whom he knew he would have to overtake early to have any chance of winning.


With the race start more disciplined with the Pro's than earlier, there were fortunately few moments of accident and incident as this hour long race soon established a rhythm. No really able to break the drag to the Lamborghini's, Thiim had to settle with just staying in front of them knowing that one had a 10 second success penalty to serve at its stop. Just after the half way mark Thiim pitted to hand the car back over to Farmer for the final 28minute run to the flag.


That didn't start off too well for Farmer as first a delayed stop and then slower GT4 in the pit lane holding him up lost the #2 car valuable time. In GT4, Canning had completed a very fast yet this time mature stint in his car to hand over to Ashley Hand who would temporally lose the P3 position having just existed the pits on cooled tyres.

Howards weekend would go from indifferent to worse as he would get unceremoniously punted off the circuit just after the bridge at Nelson by one of the BMW GT3's - not very gentlemanly but at least the there was no significant points paying race position lost at the time although he might argue with that!!


Almost in a repetition to Sundays earlier race, everything came down to the final fifteen minutes of racing. Both Lambo's were now almost attached to the rear of Farmers Aston Martin and it wasnt long before that inevitability happened with first them and then the Balfe McLaren GT3 overtaking the striking metallic blue liveried AMR dropping him down to P4 overall.

With the podium chance in GT3 now lost attention turned to GT4 as Hand was having a great battle for P3 again with the then Balfe McLaren GT4. Fortunately, luck came the way of the #97 car as the #20 was given a 10 second stop and go penalty for avoidable contact earlier in the race. That would give Hand a clear run to the flag and the first podium and points for the #97 crew. Unnoticed by the cameras and those on site, the complexities of the Pro-Am and Silver Cup GT4 classes had allowed the #11 Beechdean AMR car of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher to sneak up the leader board to take what was then P2 at the chequered flag but a post race penalty to the 'race winning' Audi soon elevated them to race winners in the Pro-Am class.


Despite the obvious and ongoing power issues with the cars and the series (more the series rather than the car we're sure) hard work and determination from the respective teams and drivers allowed three AMR cars to take their first podium and significant points of the season in their respective tables as the Championship moves onto round three and the 'endurance' race at Silverstone in June.

For TF Sport, despite the disappointment of race 2 in GT3, Snetterton has proved itself to be something of a success after the disaster of Oulton Park with their first podiums and points in both classes. Their account is now open and that will also encourage their #2 and #95 cars to do likewise.


For Academy Motorsport, two DNF's for one of their two GT4 cars in each of Sunday's two races was something that team boss Matt Nichol Jones and his young drivers didn't deserve but they will overcome their issues to succeed (hopefully) sooner rather than later.

For Optimum's three cars it was good and bad. For their Silver Cup GT3 entry it was an extension to their championship lead over the #7 TPR Bentley whereas their two GT4's struggled with pace all weekend - kept another clean race but leave Norfolk with just a handful of points between them. As they become more accustomed to and can harness the full potential of their GT4's then their points will come.


Finally with Beechdean AMR team, the GT3 pairing of Andrew Howard and Marco Sorenson also leave with just a single point having never appeared able to challenge. At least their disappointment can be countered with the second podium and first race win of the season for their #11 GT4 crew - a result that sees them take the overall lead in the GT4 Pro-Am title race.

Next stop Silverstone.

Photo credits - Steve Jackman (as watermarked)

The latest version of the entry list for August's penultimate round for the Blancpain Intercontinental GT Challenge from Suzuka in August has just been published.

Previous outlined as an entry, todays list confirms both the entry and driver line for Garage 59's Aston Martin Racing's V8 Vantage GT3 into the global GT3 endurance series as part of a 37 car grid.

Already full season entries into the Blancpain GT Series, Garage 59 will enter their #188 car and its drivers Alex West, Chris Goodwin but with the added brilliance of their new resident Pro Driver Come Ledogar.

Previous conversations that we have had with others about a further Aston Martin Racing customer team entry have yet to materialise.

Photo credit -  Garage 59

“Ollie is in just his third season of competition and to have a direct comparison with Darren in the car will be invaluable going forward. Bradley is an integral part of the team and continues to be very much be involved with Ollie’s career, both in his mentoring role and competing in the British GT Championship.”

Turner last competed in the GT Open series back in 2014 when he and co-driver Jody Fannin won a race at Silverstone in a TF Sport prepared V12 Vantage GT3.

A productive weekend was had by Aston Martin Racing and their two V8 Vantage GT4's at Sundays Qualification Race ahead of the main ADAC Zurich 24H event later in June.


Having already ran their new 2019 specification at a VLN Series event earlier in the year, this was the first time that the team had run two new chassis with most of the members of their driver line up that shall compete in the N24 as part of a full factory effort in the SP8T (GT4) class.




Due to prior commitments from others and contrary to previous entry lists, AMR factory driver Darren Turner would end up on double driving duties aboard each of the #36 and #37 cars amongst the ninety eight cars that started the race's own qualifying process on Saturday morning. Joining Turner aboard the #36 car would be customer team Garage 59 racers Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin whilst in the #37 car would be Peter Cate and Alex Brundle.


Starting Sundays six hour race from rows 21 and 22 of the first group of starters, both cars cycled through their stints to end up with the #37 finishing just ahead of the #36 in 31st and 32nd positions overall and P2 and P3 in class out of six runners. No prizes to be won here this time but some valuable experience and data to be had by all as their attention no turns to the main event.




The full N24 event itself takes place over the weekend after Le Mans 24!


Photo credits - AMR

Some very interesting and jumbled sets of lap times have come out of the first day of track action at the second round of the British GT Championship from the Snetterton 300 race track in Norfolk today.

With eleven Aston Martin Racing cars again competing within the thirty six car grid spread across both GT3 and GT4 with the latter also being split between the Pro-Am and Silver Cup classes, early action within this mornings two Free Practice sessions saw some more early pace setting from the AMR teams.


On a greasy but drying track first thing this morning, it was the #2 TF Sport Vantage GT3 of Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer who headed the timing screen with the #99 Beechdean AMR car of Marco Sorensen and Andrew Howard not far being in P3. In GT4, it was the #11 Beechdean AMR car of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher who were flying the flag with an overall P4 with the #97 TF Sport GT4 of Tom Canning and Ashley Hand again showing early pace.

As the track dried for the final Free Practice of the morning, again the #2 TF Sport car headed the AMR bunch and again just ahead of the #Beechdean AMR GT3 in P4 and P5 respectively. In GT4, whilst times had quickened - positions on the timing screen had dropped with the #97 again the fastest.


With Snetterton being another race double header, that obviously meant that each car's Pro and Am driver each submitted their own time to determine their respective starting position for each of tomorrows races.

For race 1 (with the amateurs starting), the #47 TF Sport GT3 of Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam will start form the second row of the grid in P3 having finished just 0.303 behind the pole setting BMW. The #96 Optimum GT3 of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis is P6 with the #99 Beechdean AMR finally beating the #2 TF Sport to start race 1 in P11 and P12 respectively.


In GT4 Am Qualifying, it appears that circuit owner Jonathon Palmer's loathe of track limit abuse came very much into play with multiple laps times being removed by Race Control. The #95 TF Sport car of Patrick Kibble and Josh Price was not one of those for them to secure a P3 start in class eight places ahead of the next AMR in P11 with the #35 Optimum car of Connor O'Brien and Jack Butel.

For tomorrows second race, it will be the turn of the Pro drivers to take the start and it will be a return to the front for the #2 TF Sport car of AMR factory driver Nicki Thiim who claimed that accolade by just 0.055 of a second from the #72 Barwell Lambourghini. The teams sister #47 car starts P7 with Jonny Adam and the #99 Beechdean AMR of third AMR factory driver Marco Sorensen in P8. Bradley Ellis' #96 Optimum car completes the AMR grid in P11.


In the GT4 Pro class and with the exception of the #97 TF Sport car which starts in P2, if you want to see another Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 then you will sadly need to look towards the rear of the grid with five AMR cars making up the final eight cars on grid. The issue here was that the #35, #75 and #95 cars were all hit with track limits (which presumably would have been their 'fastest' runs.

As with every GT race in the Championship - anything can and indeed usually does happen - we only have to look back to the opening rounds at Oulton Park to see that and it will be interesting to see what lessons have been learned from the drivers, especially the younger GT4 ones in order to channel their obviously driving talent into something that has restraint and control. With most of these youngsters also under the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy - support and advice is never too far away!


Race 1 starts at 11:10hrs and Race 2 at 15:25hrs

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Optimum

Three old cars from Aston Martin Racings past are presently competing this weekend at the Spa Classic in the Endurance Racing Legends entry list of thirty three cars.

Two much raced AMR DBR9's of both Dominik Roschmann and Nikolaus Ditting join the Franz Wunderlich/Peter Praller ex JMW Vantage GT2 for two - thirty minute races on Saturday around something of a rather damp looking Spa circuit.



This meeting is their second of the season after a season opener at the Espíritu de Montjuïc from Barcelona in early April.

Photo credit - Spa Circuit

Some great career opportunities have been posted this week by Prodrive for various job positions directly associated with the Aston Martin Racing FIA World Endurance Championship programme.

Full details of everything on offer can be found HERE


Also, Worcestershire based Academy Motorsport are presently looking for experienced No.1 or No.2 mechanics for their own Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 programmes both in the British GT Championship and GT4 European Series.

Interested parties should contact team owner Matt Nichol Jones directly.

After something close to a total disaster for them at the opening meeting of the ADAC GT Masters Series at Oschersleben circuit at the end of April, German based PROsport Performance (running their Aston Martin Racing based programmes under the PROpeak Performance banner) will be looking to improve their 'game' as the next round of the series from Most in the Czech Republic this weekend.

In the German national GT3 only series, the team did managed to take the chequered flag in both races with the Maxime Martin/Daniel Kielwitz #99 AMR Vantage GT3 only to have the car later removed from the official results on the grounds of individual technical infringements after each race. Race 1 was with a non connected fire extinguisher and race 2 was with being found to have over boosted the engine beyond that of it homologation at some point during the race.


The sister #98 car of Hugo de Sadeleer and Valentin Hasse Clot faired no better really, stopping on the start/finish line with a technical issue in race 1 (and being declared as finishing 1 lap down to the race winners) before also being non classified in race 2 for the same reason above.

During the running of each race, it was clear that their two new Vantage GT3's were struggling with pace compared to their more established rivals and the team will be hoping that their tireless work behind the scenes both at base and at Prodrive, together with some testing at the circuit two weeks ago will help them make up for this performance shortfall.


"The track at Most is quite interesting, it is very technical. There are some really nice and above all fast corners. However, as in Oschersleben on this track it will be very difficult to overtake. The Vantage GT3 has a lot of potential, but we need to work it out step by step. It's a new car, the team is new to the championship, so we have to work and make steady progress. The test went well. We've learned a few things, so I think we can take a step forward on race weekend" he said.

Having had to compete as a sole entry in the Invitational Class of the GT4 European Series with their older 2016 generation of Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 at the first two rounds of the series this year, Generation AMR SuperRacing have finally taken delivery of their TWO new 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT4's this week.

Seen giving both cars a run out at a track day at Silverstone today, in-car footage shot by team principle James Appleby of driver Matt George driving showed an obvious delight in both with finally getting behind the wheel of AMR's latest creation.


All being well, one of these cars (with the other as a spare) will feature at the next round of the GT4 European Series at Paul Ricard at the end of May. We would imagine that co driver and main financier to the team, James Holder will have at least one test in the car before that race weekend.

Photo Credits - James Appleby

Hopefully enjoying some better weather than last time out, Aston Martin Racing's two GTE Pro cars are presently in the midst of a final two days of pre 24 Hours of Le Mans testing at a collective gathering of fellow World Endurance Championship GT teams at Monza in Italy this week.

With drivers Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen, Maxime Martin, Darren Turner and Jonny Adam certainly there today and with reserve driver Ross Gunn now flying in, testing at this fast sweeping circuit will give them all a good insight into the full acceleration, hard braking with a few complex corner sequences thrown in between that the Circuit de La Sarthe shall present to them in June for both the Official Test Day at the start of the month and then again two weeks later at the main event.