For what was another healthy Aston Martin Racing powered contingent again this season, the German based Prosport Racing team have this time called time on their endeavours within the series as both their previous #99 and #100 entries of Raphael Rennhofer/Hugo Sasse and Fabio Rauer and Hendrik Still have both been omitted from the provisional entry list for this event.

Indeed, it was only a couple of weeks ago that we saw Rennhofer, Sasse and Still all compete within two of the teams AMR Vantage GT3 cars at the last round of the ADAC GT Masters Series from Spa Francorchamps.

Other than that, the remaining six AMR Vantage GT4 crews remain unchanged from previous rounds as Florent Grizaud and Kevin Jimenez need to recoup a sixty eight points deficit within their Am Class with their #72 GPA Racing AMR, Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub maintain a marginal one point lead within their Pro-Am class with their newer #7 Mirage Racing AMR whilst the silver classed #5 Mirage Racing and #39, #74 and #82 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR entries are now all too far back in the table to trouble the championship leaders even if they had a 100% finishing rate in Italy.

Ironically, it was the #99 Prosport car of Sasse and Rennhofer who headed the Aston Martin powered contenders in nineth overall within the silver class.

Qualifying for both races precedes race one on Saturday (race one being waved off at 17:00hrs local before race two starting at 12:35hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

The team, owned by former WEC racer Satoshi Hoshino (JPN) and managed by SUPER GT Series class winner Tomonobu Fujii (JPN), comes to Fuji hoping to improve on its best WEC finishes of third in class, recorded at Fuji in 2022. D’station Racing equalled that result when it was on the podium again this year in the season-opening Qatar 1812 race at Lusail, in March.

Among D’station Racing’s driving strength is Aston Martin’s most decorated active works driver, Marco Sørensen (DEN), a three-time FIA WEC champion in the GT classes and a Rolex 24 and 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner, and now the most recent Spa 24 Hours winner alongside fellow works drivers Nicki Thiim (DEN) and Mattia Drudi (ITA). Erwan Bastard (FRA), a French and European GT4 title-winner and Clement Mateu, join the Dane in the #777 Vantage.

For THoR, Fuji represents an opportunity for the team to close the gap in the battle for second in the LMGT3 class drivers’ and teams’ standings. Following team principal and driver Ian James (GBR), Alex Riberas (ESP) and Daniel Mancinelli’s (ITA) breakthrough win at COTA, THoR is now nine points away from second place and 37 points off the leaders. There is a maximum of 26 points available (one point for pole and 25 for victory) this weekend, while the season finale in Bahrain offers up another 39, meaning there are potentially 65 left to be scored in the remaining rounds of the 2024 season.

So far this year, THoR has recorded two second places and a victory in an exceptional first full season that has witnessed the #27 Vantage be a contender in virtually every race and record no less than five points finishes from seven starts.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 is now a race winner in WEC, thanks to the outstanding performance of The Heart of Racing’s drivers and team at COTA, last time out. But we firmly believe there is plenty more to come from new Vantage, which is still in its first year of competition and we are learning more about it with every race as we build-up data. Both our partner teams competing in Fuji are capable of fighting for the podium again this weekend and we are looking forward to seeing what they can achieve with a car that is now really delivering on its potential.”

It’s COTA win meant that Vantage is the third different car to win in the new LMGT3 class, which features no less than nine manufacturers in 2024.

Aston Martin’s record at Fuji in WEC is outstanding. Vantage has won in each of its three previous configurations (Vantage V8, V8 Vantage GTE and Vantage GTE) in the GT class, and has recorded two double-class victories (in 2013 and 2019/20) among the seven wins it has taken from its ten previous visits to the circuit. The brand has also won the event in two of the last three visits with partner teams. In total, Aston Martin crews have stood on the podium no less than 16 times, and on only two occasions has the Fuji podium been Aston Martin free since the series began in 2012.

Official practice for the 6 Hours of Fuji begins on Friday, 13 September at 1100local time (0300 BST) with the race beginning at 1100 (0300 BST) on Sunday.

Source material - AMR

Amongst those thirty-two cars we will only see the #8 Earl Bamber Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Setiawan Santosa take part as the D’Station Racing team have elected not to travel – mainly because the World Endurance Championship is in attendance at their home circuit of Fuji this weekend as well.

Santosa runs as a solo driver within the Am Class and sits a very credible fourth within his drivers championship table going into this final event and with fifty points still available, he could move up as high as second come the end of the season on Sunday.

The EBM team has been in the news today for other reasons as the New Zealand based team has been awarded a lucrative GT3 entry within this year’s Asian Le Mans Series over the New Year.

Photo credits – Team / series

Starting the season with two such cars with Mikey Porter racing the #9 car alongside Matthew Higgins whilst Rianna O’Meara-Hunt partnered Jodie Sloss with the sister #10 entry.

Since Oulton Park in June when the team elected not to take part due to other GT4 commitments abroad, the #10 entry has since dropped by the wayside as their drivers seek challenges new elsewhere, but the #9 car did return with Porter and Higgins with an all-new crew aboard the #10 car last time out at Silverstone.

This weekend’s entry list, however, lists just the solo #9 Forsetti with Porter being joined by an as yet undefined co-driver within the expected sixteen strong field for this weekend two sprint and two pit stop races.

Championship wise, Porter and Higgins have now dropped to third within the overall Championship table (now forty-six points behind) whilst they remain 118 points clear in their GTH class from their teammates in the #10 car.

Photo credit – GT Cup

So far, the entry list is just team based and does not make any indication upon possible drivers. The Blackthorn AMR team are fully season entrants within the Michelin Le Mans Cup and will presumably be using this pathway to a full season European Le Mans Series entry next season whilst the EBM team have only aligned themselves to the AMR platform for their customer drivers earlier this season with exploits into the 12Hrs of Sepang, a full season within the GT World Challenge Asia Series and most recently within the Thailand Super Series.

With so much news still to come from the series, eyes will be turned to the season opener at the Sepang International at the beginning of December before progressing to both Dubai and Abu Dhabi later in February 2025.

The future is bright in ACO rules racing.

Photo credits – Le Mans Cup / teams / TSS / social media

For a change, both classes of Aston Martin Racing powered teams featured well during Saturdays Qualifying period as the #10 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crew of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge secured the GT3 Pro-Am Pole position, whilst the two Forsetti Motorsport Vantage GT4 crews of both Mikey Porter/Jamie Day (#7 Silver) and Marc Warren/Will Orton (#47 Pro-Am) secured Pole positions of their respective classes, so it was game on right from the off as Forsetti had more to gain than most.

Unfortunately, that hope was very short lived for the #47 car of Warren as first, he was muscled off the track by the #90 McLaren to run through the gravel and down the order to last on the opening lap before further side to side contact with another car saw an unscheduled visit to pit lane for repairs. That lost the crew many laps and descended the rest of the race into something of a live testing session for the championship contending crew.

In a similar thread, the #10 Blackthorn car of Topham also found themselves being spun around from an unsuccessful overtaking move from behind at the final corner just fifteen minutes in that would drop them down to near the rear of the GT3 field. Having started sixth overall, this incident and a following puncture would ruin all of their hard work going into this event as the Silver-Am scraps was all that they could hope for.

Then on a positive note, the #87 Blackthorn car of Giacomo Petrobelli (with Jonny Adam) had moved up from P7 on the grid to be running third overall on pace before moving up another notch after one of the two Barwell Lamborghini’s had to pit with a puncture whilst the pole setting #7 Forsetti GT4 of Porter was also looking comfortable at the head of the GT4 field. 

The #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard (with Jessica Hawkins) had already had an off in the wet of morning warmup but was slowly moving up the field as opportunities arose.

By the halfway stage, Petrobelli had run a cracking opening stint to hand his car over to recent birthday boy Adam from second overall – as did Porter to Day in GT4 whilst the #97 Beechdean car was now up to P4 in class with the #10 Blackthorn car (now with Rowledge) just behind.

Whilst the #47 Forsetti car of Orton was still cycling around, the #7 car’s hope of a race win was severely hampered with both their mandatory additional twenty-four seconds hold time for being a silver/silver crew plus the extra fifteen seconds form finishing second last time out. By the time that that was all over, Day had dropped to P7 overall in class but with another hour to go.

Just over half an hour remaining and a very wide course through the gravel at Redgate’s for Day saw further chins hit the floor within the team garage as it appeared that Aston upon Aston contact may have been the course of that excursion for Day and with the #97 Beechdean of Hawkins looking quite sheepish to that effect.

Then the race took its final set of twists as a Full Course Yellow was called for after the #55 Ginetta nose-dived into the tyre bales at the Melbourne hairpin after apparent brake issues. Thankfully, the driver was otherwise OK, but the caution took the remaining grid to just two racing laps at the end to decide matters.

Thankfully, Adam got to enjoy a much deserved belated birthday present after he brough the #87 Blackthorn car home in second overall after some great progress from Petrobelli in the opening laps whilst the #97 Beechdean GT3 of Howard and Hawkins also benefitted from a late off (puncture) from the Abba Racing Mercedes to move up onto the final step of the GT3 Silver -Am podium again (despite a post-race time penalty affecting their finishing time/not their finishing position) whilst the #7 Forsetti car of Porter and Day scrapped out another Silver class P3 finish at the end to help keep their title hopes alive. The #10 Blackthorn car eventually finished a respectable P9 overall and P4 in class despite what had happened to them on track with the #47 Forsetti car listed as P29/P11, nine laps down.

Championship wise – it’s still all about the two Forsetti GT4 crews as Porter and Day still lead the overall GT4 Drivers Championship by 3.5 points, the same within their Silver Cup class but by 15 points whilst Warren and Orton see their GT4 Pro-Am class lead drop to 6.5 points all with just the Championship’s visit to Brands Hatch.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

For the other Vantage GT4 racer of Todd Parriott and his #31 Flying Lizard entry, he would have to make do with a P4 and a P6 in class for his efforts whilst the two Vantage GT3 runners of Jason Bell (#2 Flying Lizard) and Tim Savage (#007 Prosport Competition) their deficient BoP would again see them catch to the rear of the pack with P5 and P6 finishes in race one respectively but with an enforced spin for Bell and heavy contact with another car for Savage in race 2. 

Being able to catch up with the pack due to the Safety Car brought about by Savage’s contact with Ross Chouest’s Mercedes, and a post-race time penalty for that offending Porsche, Bell was able to lay claim to another P3 class podium.

The main action, however, was within the multi-classed GT4 America Series where the Heart of Racing again ran with their two crews of Newell and De Angelis within their new Evo’s #24 car with Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir with their usual #17A variant of the car within their now silver category. They were again joined by the #13 Flying Lizard entry of Parriott and Tom Dyer.

Despite having claimed a front row start for the new #24 Vantage GT4 Evo for race 1, that advantage was sadly lost during the opening race and despite having led the opening half of it, after a Safety car period interfered with the pit stop window. Despite having led the pack out of pit lane again, the gaggle of silver grade drivers behind Newell was enough for him to be removed of his track position by (at first them) and then other Pro-Am classed runners.

For them, race one would be a disappointing P7 in class for the #24 car and a lap down P6 in class for the Silver classed ladies of the #26 car with the #13 Flying Lizard entry finishing in-between both of them.

Race two was however different and gave the #24 Evo first blood within the SRO family of series Stateside after they were able to overcome a lowly qualifying position to take the overall race win with their #26 stablemates close behind for a class podium finish of their own.

A multi-vehicle accident on the opening lap lead to a length clean-up operation which both Newell and Greenemeir serve their minimum drive time following the Safety Car in position. That left both cars with their faster drivers now aboard against others with their lesser capable drivers and very quickly, both Heart cars were picking off those in front for position.

With just one car now ahead, this time a fortunate Safety Car allowed all to catch up onto the back of that car and at the restart became easy pickings for De Angelis for the Canadian to come home a comfortable first overall with Grisham third overall and second in silver.

Next stop for all SRO America Series will be from Indianapolis in early October.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Only the #7 Team New Zealand AMR Vantage GT4 of Graeme Dowsett and Ananthorn Tangniannatchai competed this make up race as far as these two AMR crews were concerned as the #11 Earl Bamber Motorsport entered Vantage GT3 of Earl Bamber and Anderson Tanoto were not at that event. For their troubles, the #7 crew earned themselves a P19 overall (but more importantly) a P9 in GT4 Pro-Am finish to start their weekend on something of a high.

Within the next race on Saturday evening, any highs from the #11 crew from Tanoto’s P6 Qualifying position were quickly snubbed out as a spin on the opening lap saw the new Vantage GT3 Evo narrowly missed by the chasing spun after the Indonesian overcooked things on cold tyres.

Despite eventually getting going again (and being many laps down) the #11 car retired from the night race at the midway point of the hour long plus one lap race format. The #7 crew would again see things out until the end with a P19 overall/P5 in class finish.

Then in Sunday’s concluding race it was better news for the #11 EBM Vantage GT3 after a P3 qualifying position was this time guarded and protected by the more experienced race in Bamber for Tanoto to bring the car home second overall for their first TSS podium finish. For the #7 crew, they would repeat their P19/P5 finish, so they are consistent if nothing else!

Now let’s see just where this takes Tanoto in terms of future events this year?



Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Having claimed their first podium of the Sprint season just a few weeks ago at Mugello, a realignment to their Pro-Am driver line up to assist Lorenzo within the Endurance rounds until the end of the season, hopes were high of at least a competitive showing.

With all three drivers entering their own Qualifying lap time under the sun of Saturday, it would Alatalo who would take the start of the three-hour race from P12 but from behind the Safety Car, such were the track conditions already.

Only being released ten minutes into the race, it wasn’t long before they were back under caution with cars off into the gravel, not going back to green again until just before the opening of the first pit stop window as Alatalo swapped to Lorenzo from P8.

Then came the torrential rain again with further Safety Car interventions at the halfway stage of the race clock. Sadly, by then the track conditions had also decreased dramatically as the rain intensified giving Race Control no option but to red flag the race.

After something like an hour’s break, the race was restarted but back then came the rain again just ahead of the final pit stop window, a point of the race which saw the #5 enter the pit lane – the driver get out (unknown reasons but with the car not visibly damaged) and retire from the race.

The race was then red flagged again so after anyway, but this time ultimately abandoned as done after several more cars aquaplaned off track and impacted heavily into the barriers and with results being declared.

The Championship now just has two rounds left to run – both from Monza with the Sprint series ending there at the start of October and the endurance series there at the end of October.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Already having received their GT4 Team’s Championship winning silverware ahead of today, the Norfolk based Forsetti Motorsport hold all the aces as far as further Aston Martin Racing powered championship win is concerned with their #7 Vantage GT4 crew of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day heading the overall and GT4 Silver classes whilst their #47 Vantage GT4 crew of Marc Warren and Will Orton do within their own GT4 Pro-Am class.

With testing and Free Practice results always hard to judge pace wise, it were the two Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crews that pushed the pace during their two Qualifying sessions as first Giacomo Petrobelli and then Matt Topham pushed the GT3 Am leaders all the way to finish their ten-minute qualifying time P6 and P5 respectively. The #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard seemed never to get going within the greasy offline conditions to eventually finish P16 overall.

Next up were the higher graded GT3 drivers with Jonny Adam taking over the #87 Blackthorn car with both Josh Rowledge within the #10 car and Jessica Hawkins within the #97 Beechdean AMR car as their silver graded drivers.

Again, the Blackthorn cars performed well with their best lap times coming at the fourth time of asking, presenting the #10 with a cracking P6 overall and P1 in Silver-Am starting position with the #87 Pro-Am car of Petrobelli/Adam just behind in P7 overall (P6 in class) and with the #97 Beechdean car P16 overall and P6 in class.

Just ahead of the rains returning to the circuit, the GT4 class were able to run their two allotted ten-minute sessions with first Mikey Porter and Marc Warren out within their #7 Silver and #47 Pro-Am classed entries. Whilst Porter was only able to improve upon his previous lap times the once, Warren saw a succession of laps improve for time (time wise) for them to finish third and eighth respectively.

Then out came Jamie Day and with his first lap time secured the provisional pole position for the #7 car (bettered it again with his next lap) before saving their tyres ready for the race happy with his days work at the front of the GT4 queue. Orton was only marginally off Day’s times, but this time ran a four-lap session before timing out with an aggregated starting position of P4 overall but P1 in Pro-Am.

Sunday’s weather looks like there could be a lot more rainfall at the circuit before the race tomorrow but dryer from midday onwards for the race itself.

Wet or dry – it may not quite be the #DoningtonDecider that we all know but it might confirm who can control their nerves and who can’t!!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media