Team boss Christophe Esser said that “It is a shame that we ended our involvement in the DTM Trophy prematurely, because the format with sprint races and one driver is really good and the DTM is a myth. Unfortunately, there were already incidents at the start in Monza and especially recently at the Red Bull Ring that neither our drivers nor we as a team can accept. Our drivers, Mike David Ortmann and Tim Heinemann, told us that they no longer want to drive in the DTM Trophy under these conditions. We respected that and share this attitude."

In order to fill those gaps now conspicuous upon the team’s race calendar, the team have been accepted into the final three rounds of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series at the Sachensring, Hockenheim and then a the Nurburgring at the beginning of November.

Whilst Mike David Ortmann has already been confirmed as the first of two drivers aboard one of their two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entries, the team are still looking for potential drivers to fill the remaining seats.

For their second driver who was competing with them, reigning DTM Trophy Champion Tim Heinemann, he is looking to continue his GT3 pathway that he presently does within the DMV-GTC Series with another team. The team is hopeful that they can field their remaining AMR Vantage GT3 into the final races of the ADAC GT Masters Series with (not sure if this is confirmed or just wishful thinking by them) with non-other than reigning World Endurance Champion GTE Pro Champion Nicki Thiim.

Esser added to this point that “Tim Heinemann is an absolute driving talent and we would like to continue working with him. That's why we want to do guest starts in the ADAC GT Masters with him and, if possible, with Nicki Thiim. In the past few weeks and months, Heinemann has already completed tests with our Vantage GT3 on the Nürburgring, Grand Prix circuit and Nordschleife, also in Hockenheim. "

Photo credits – DTM Trophy / PROsport

Back into the European series for this weekend, the previous four rounds of the season have been something of a baptism of fire for the returning Gentleman driver since his last racing experiences at this level of GT racing and as well for his silver co-driver Hancock.

This weekend’s round features an entry list of thirty-eight cars spread across the available LMP2, LMP3 and GTE classes with the #95 car again battling in a class of nine, mainly Ferrari 488 based cars with a couple of Porsche’s thrown in also for good measure.

As usual for this circuit, the association with rain is never too far away and that is something that the teams have already had to deal with having conducted their ‘private testing’ around the circuit yesterday as local planning laws prohibit events more than four consecutive days long at the circuit. During the morning session, caution was the better part of valour as the #95 featured as being the slowest on track to then gain confidence during the similarly wet afternoon session to finish second fastest in class.

Where this race goes for the team, nobody knows but any significant weather patterns will always influence the proceedings and coming out of Le Mans with a finish of that magnitude – confidence between Hartshorne and Hancock (Gunn is just like a rocket any day or night of the week despite his high workload these days) should still be high so we are hopeful of their best race result to date on Sunday especially as all the Ferrari’s have lost both fuel capacity and turbo boost since the last race at Monza.

The start of this four-hour race begins at 11:00hrs local.

Photo credits – ELMS / WEC / TF Sport

Presently, the #82 Feathers Aston stands in P11 in the overall Championship table but then just 43 points behind the leading Orange Racing McLaren 570s in their GHT Class against that of the #15 car being in P29 and P8 respectively.

Canning re-joins the Feathers team for Donington due to usual co-driver Darren Turner being on duty at the Goodwood Revival this weekend so we are sure that the former British GT GT4 Champion will be keen to better the single podium that he and Guess won at the last round at Snetterton in June.

This weekend’s race format will again follow the format of a sprint race for the Am in the morning followed by a pit stop punctuated/driver change race in the afternoon over both Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits – GT Cup / Teams

Last out at Road America at the end of August, there was double podium success for Jason Bell and his GMG Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 in the two races that made up the Am only GT America Series, another podium finish in race 2 of the GT4 America Series for the Bryan Putt/Kenton Koch Bsport Racing AMR GT4 as well as the best results of the year so far for the Ian Lacey Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Frank Gannett and Drew Staveley.

We also welcomed the latest AMR customer team in the form of M Squared Motorsport (Automatic Racing) into both the GT America and GT4 America for drivers Paul Kiebler and Mikel Miller.

Looking through the provisional entry lists for all three series, there appears to be yet more Aston Martin Racing newcomers present within the GT4 ranks as opposed to those who raced last time out.

In GT America, we again have the three expected entries from Jason Bell (GMG Racing), Gray Newell (Heart of Racing) and Paul Kiebler (M Squared Motorsport) but we also now show a #50 AMR Vantage GT4 for Ross Chouest racing with 3R Povoledo Racing.

They in turn also all turn out again within the multi-class GT4 America Series with their respective co drivers with Andrew Davis joining Bell, Ian James joining Newell, Mikel Miller with Kiebler and Aaron Povoledo pairing up with Chouest. With these, we still need to add into the mix the Bsport Racing Aston, the brothers Dexter in their family run Aston as well as the WR Racing Aston of Paul Terry who will this time be joined by one Owen Trinkler instead of his usual side-kick, Brandon Davis.

So in the GT4 arena alone, that will be four Aston Martin’s racing in the GT America Series and a whopping seven Aston Martin’s with the GT4 America Series. Add that to the Ian Lacey AMR Vantage GT3 competing again in the multi-class GT World Challenge America Series and that’s a very healthy AMR presence in North America thank you very much!!!

Take a bow Cy and Susan Jary, as well as the rest of the team at CSJ Motorsport as all your efforts are gratefully received on this side of the fence!

Indeed, our friends at CSJ Motorsport have confirmed that the Povoledo Racing effort has come about as a result of a crash for Chouest/Povoledo in their #89 Renntech Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT4 last time out at Road America that has left them car-less and they have in turn bought the distinctly liveried Texan/Union Jack covered car that CSJ Motorsport have had available all season. We also understand that the new drivers intend to race it with this livery which should look amazing around the Watkins Glen circuit.

In terms of Championship standings, in GT America Jason Bell sits P2 in the GT4 Drivers table fifty five points behind the leader but with still six races to go. Chouest (now in the Aston of course) rests P6 and Gray Newell P8 but both sadly not in any position to upset the leading drivers.

In the GT4 America Pro-Am class, everyone has a battle on their hands to reign in the runaway leading Nolasport Porsche which leads with a mighty sixty-three-point margin but again with six races still to go. The #15 Bsport Aston is placed joint second on 94 points and the #59 WR Racing in a possible P6 with only half the points but not let’s say never when it comes to modern GT4 racing and in the GTWCA Series, a season best P4 last time out at Road America elevate the Gannett/Staveley AMR Vantage GT3 crew to a very credible mid table position.

As usual, all six races of the weekend will be steamed live via their respective social media channels.

Photo credits – GT America / GT4 America / GT World Challenge America / CSJ Motorsport / Teams / F Lagunas

Last night, the Spanish Virage Team were racing around the Bugatti circuit layout of the Circuit de La Sarthe in the Ultimate Cup Series with their #16 AMR Vantage GT4 with drivers Julien Gerbi, Antoni Ledesma and ‘Birthday boy’ Umberto D’Amato.

Qualifying their car onto class pole for last night’s four-hour endurance race, the crew went on to seal the perfect end to the day’s events by finishing P9 overall but importantly P1 in class.

Over at the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca had the Michelin Pilot Challenge crews from the Volt Racing and Stoner Car Care teams compete in the latest round of the IMSA supporting series. For the #7 Volt Racing AMR GT4 crew of Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman, it was more of the case of improving upon their championship position after some difficult rounds so far but for the #99 Automatic Racing supported car, it was a case of introducing the car and the circuit to MPC novice drivers Weiron Tan and Anderson Tanoto.

For the #99 Asian contingent, their race would come to an unfortunate and premature end after contact with another GT4 car left them stranded at the start of the lap with a puncture and broken suspension. For the #7 car, they would eventually rally to finish P5 overall for some more vital championship points.

Back into Europe and after their P2 finish is a bizarre weather stopped race at the Red Bull Ring had TF Sport compete in the second race of the International GT Open Series as a taster for potential customer Sam De Haan with ‘resident’ racer Charlie Eastwood.

If you to entice anybody towards your product then what better way to do that than to place your car on pole position (which Eastwood did for race 2) and to then convert that into a light’s to flag win for your driver combo at the end. We will now wait to see just what comes out of that experience for De Haan for next year.

Then down a bit more to the south of France had the FFSA GT4 Series run their second race of their penultimate round from the Circuit de Ledenon. Yesterday saw the #007 AGS Events Racing team crew of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romain Le Roux take an overall race win that bolstered their Silver Cup Championship chances no end but today was not to be as successful for the AMR racers as yesterday.

Still claiming a class podium in P3, the #007 AGS was again the best of the AMR finishers with their #89 Pro-Am teammates finishing P7 in class and their #161 Am Class team mates P5 in that class.

Finally for this report, had the PROsport Racing team compete in yesterday’s return of the NLS Series from the Nordschleife with the local team entering both of their AMR Vantage GT4’s for their bothers Dumarey in the SP10 Class.

Whilst their #176 car would go on to finish P4 in class, the faster #177 car would be taken out of the race with a technical issue whilst leading the class.

Photo credits - GT Open / Virage Group / CSJ Motorsport / F Lagunas / FFSA GT4 / PROsport