Aston Martins go two by two in both DTM and GT4 Germany at Oschersleben

Aston Martins go two by two in both DTM and GT4 Germany at Oschersleben


Two more European series start their 2025 campaigns this weekend from Oschersleben in Germany where both series will feature two Aston Martin Racing powered crews amongst them.

Starting off at the higher level sees the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team finally make their anticipated start within the DTM Series with their two AMR Vantage GT3 Evo’s for both Gilles Magnus and Nicolas Baert.


Diversifying out from their usual European based GT series this season will see the team embark upon an eight-round season across circuits in Germany, Austria and Holland. Featuring twenty-four cars for this opening round, the solo driven cars will compete within a one-hour race over both Saturday and Sunday.

The competition within the series will again be very tough.


Supporting this series will again be the ADAC GT4 Germany Series who themselves kick off their six-round season from Oschersleben with again, two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s from the Prosport Racing team.

This sees the Christoph Esser lead team run a double programme this weekend with the NLS2 event from the Nurburgring with the former champion Hugo Sasse into the equation.


Again running a pair of the older but very successful 17A variants of the Vantage, Sasse will pair with Roman Fellner-Feldegg as they did for the final round of the GT4 Winter Series at Barcelona earlier this year with former team GT3 racer Marek Bockmann pair up with relative GT4 newcomer Anton Abee.

They too will race an hour-long pit stop punctuated race over both Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 | Read more...
Six Aston Martins for this weekends four hours NLS2

Six Aston Martins for this weekends four hours NLS2

 


This weekend coming really is getting busier by the day as entry lists are confirmed across the global theatre of GT racing.

The latest all centres around this years forthcoming Nurburgring 24 and the preparatory races and Qualifying rounds catered for within the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie – particularly this weekend with NLS2 where we will see six Aston Martin Racing powered crews from Walkenhorst Motorsport and Prosport Racing teams.




Walkenhorst will this time be the busiest as they plan to field three AMR Vantage GT3 crews across the available SP9 classes as well as a new Vantage GT4 Evo within the SP10 class alongside two older 17A iteration of Vantage GT4 from the locally based Prosport team within both the SP10 and SP8T classes.

Earlier this week, Walkenhorst confirmed their full works Pro driver line up ahead of the 24hr with Mattia Drudi, Christian Krognes, David Pittard and Nicki Thiim, some of those drivers will be on hand again this weekend as they and the team get their eyes in around the infamous “Green hell”.


Starting with the full season NLS entries again has the #140 Prosport GT8R entry of Maxime and Guido Dumarey alongside their sister #175 SP10 entry of Jorge Viebahn, Yannik Himmels and Michel Albers. The #191 Walkenhorst SP10 entry for Niklas Abrahamsen and Hermann Vortkamp complete the GT4 line up in SP10 with their new Evo version.

Both Krognes and Drudi will partner in the team’s #34 Pro classed SP9 entry with former ADAC GT Masters runner Nico Hantke stepping up with Anders Buchardt within the #35 Pro-Am SP9 entry with the #36 Am classed entry being driven by Jorg Breuer, Stefan Aust and Christian Bollrath.


This weekend’s round will be 140 cars and a four-hour race starting at about midday local having already ran their qualifying runs in the morning – weather permitting of course!

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 | Read more...
Another packed set of grids for the SRO America trilogy of series due at CoTA this weekend

Another packed set of grids for the SRO America trilogy of series due at CoTA this weekend

 


SRO America is back in town this weekend as all three series get back to racing from the Circuit of the America’s in Texas with another bunch of nine Aston Martin Racing powered crews amongst them.

For both the GT World Challenge America and GT4 America Series, this visit to CoTA will be their second rounds of the season having both opened at Sonoma at the end of March whilst the GT America Series has already snuck in their second round of the year with a west coast visit to the streets of Long Beach California just two weeks ago.


Best performances within each series full season entries have come within the GT4 ranks as they are where the numbers of entries are compared to the just two AMR Vantage GT3 entries within the GT World Challenge.


Both bronze rated drivers within that series did spread their wings a little the other week to race their GT3’s solo at Long Beach within the GT America series and whilst Gray Newell had cause to celebrate both with an overall pole position and podium finish at the end of one race whilst Jason Bell possibly regretted the whole idea of it after technical issues all weekend.


Back within their usual series this time around, Newell will again compete alongside AMR factory driver Darren Turner aboard their #24 Heart of Racing AMR whilst Bell rejoins Michael Cooper aboard their #2 Racers Edge prepared GT3 Evo for two more, ninety-minute-long races.

In GT America there has been something of a trade of as it’s just the #39 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage GT4 entry for Max Hewitt after the #007 Prosport Competition AMR of Tim Savage swaps over to the GT4 America for this weekend. Both drivers rightly elected to skip the street circuit round of Long Beach to concentrate on the more forgiving circuits on the calendar with Hewitt still on something of a high after his P2 and P1 finishes in class last time out at Sonoma. 


His entry list again sees fourteen entries but with just three of those being within the GT4 class, just a finish this time around will automatically receive a trip to the class podium – but obviously, everything is in the winning these days after each of their two forty-minute races.

That leaves the now six AMR Vantage GT4 entries now listed within the GT4 America Series and their two, hour long races this weekend.


Last time out at Sonoma saw three crews visit their respective class podiums with a debut P3 finish in silver for the #4 JMF Motorsport entry for Braydon Arthur and Mike David Ortmann whilst theirs sister #3 car of Jesse Webb and Jonathon Neudorf enjoyed similar spoils in race 2 with a P3 finish of their own.




The #07 Skip Barber Racing AMR of the Garcia brothers also visited the Am class podium after race 2 but the weekend was hard graft for the other two AMR entries for Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir within their #26 Heart of Racing entry as well as the #15 Archangel entry for Adrian Comstock and Thomas Merril.


The additional car to this series will be the #007 Prosport entry for Savage and Dwayne Moses, a driver who has been with the team for a while and raced their older 15A iteration of Vantage GT4 within the World Racing League.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 | Read more...
An additional Aston Martin for this weekends British GT Silverstone 500

An additional Aston Martin for this weekends British GT Silverstone 500

 


An enhanced grid entry has just been confirmed for this weekend’s second round of the British GT Championship from Silverstone as now thirty-three crews prepare themselves for the Blue Ribband Silverstone 500 event.

The opening round to the 2025 season from Donington Park saw twenty-six GT3 and GT4 crews take to the track for the first time of asking at the start of the month and todays entry news out of the SRO sees one further Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 to add to the two full season AMR GT3’s and the Endurance Cup entered Vantage GT4.



Like Donington Park before it, this second round of the season is also another Endurance Cup round for those eligible entries for which the #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall is one.

They will compete within an overall GT4 class of fourteen car and be one of four cars entered within the Endurance Cup – three of which are racing within the Pro-Am sub-class. The opening round saw the #50 crew finish P20 overall but P2 within class for their efforts within that two-hour race – the Silverstone 500 will this time be a three-hour affair!


At the other end of the paddock, they will again be joined by both full season GT3 entries from the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams for their Pro-Am #7 entry of Jonny Adam and Giacoma Petrobelli and the #97 Silver-Am entry for Andrew Howard and Tom Wood respectively.

Donington Park certainly saw a fiery Italian aboard the #7 car – first snatching a P5 qualifying slot before being in the hunt of the early stages of that race. That was before contact with a slower GT4 saw the car pick up sizeable front-end damage (and penalties) that would eventually ruin their race to end the day P11 overall, P9 in class.


That, however, wasn’t the case for the #97 Beechdean crew in their debut race with yet another livery colour scheme where dogged persistence from Howard before handing a fast car over to the charging Wood saw them end the day P7 overall and P1 in class for a very welcomed early visit to the podium.

They will this time be joined by a second car out of the Blackthorn stable for team boss Claude Bovet and Charles Bateman within the #19 car. Bateman ran with the team within this season’s Asian Le Mans Series alongside both Adam and Petrobelli/Reema Juffali. Although permitted to race, this and all the other additional ad-hoc GT3 entries will not be points scoring.


This weekend’s timetable will again see private testing on Friday before Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying on Saturday ahead of Warm up and the start of the race at 12:30 on Sunday.
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 | Read more...
Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered successes this weekend in Europe

Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered successes this weekend in Europe

 


Two GT4 based series rounded off a compact but perfectly formed quartet of motor racing activity this weekend for the many Aston Martin Racing powered contingents within them.

Over at Nogaro, the French FFSA GT4 Series opened its 2025 account with another pair of hour-long races for what will be this year a reduced entry with the series this time only allowing both Pro-Am and Am class entries.


In long standing tradition, the series kicked off with a road trip down to the local town where the drivers, cars and crew were all on hand to mix with the locals for an autograph or two as well as a chat under the fine spring sunshine.

After that, the weather did go a little bit south for the Easter Sunday opening race with torrential rain falling all around the circuit making for a very tippy-toe adventure for the fifteen strong entry. This time around, only the French based Mirage Racing team has entered two full season Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo’s for its #7 Pro-Am pairing of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub whilst its #5 Am pairing of David Levy and Jodie Sloss was something of a late call for the team.


Starting the season off under extreme conditions, all were thankfully cautious throughout the hour-long race and made something of a refreshing change for those who sometimes think that the season can be won at the first corner. Starting P6 overall for the #7 car and P13 overall for the #5, both Safronov and Sloss did what they needed to do to stay on track before handing their cars overs to their co-drivers.

Despite their best of efforts, the #7 car basically held station throughout the race to finish P6 overall (and in class) whilst the #5 car came home for a debut P12 overall and just off the Am class podium in P4.


Race on Bank Holiday Monday got underway under heavily overcast, cooler but at least drier conditions than before with the #7 Mirage AMR leading the way for the team from P6 whilst the #5 was to start P12 overall – P3 in class for both Vaintrub and Levy respectively.

Despite four clean opening laps however, an over ambitious move up the inside by the #5 car on the #24 Porsche saw the Aston collect the front of the Porsche for them both to spin off into the gravel. No significant or obvious damage for either car but both were out of the race (an incident that later saw Levy post a public apology to the JSB Competition team). Getting back to green just before the opening of the pit window saw the #7 car remain in P6 as Vaintrub swapped out for Safronov for the final half hour.


At the end of the pit window, the #7 car had climbed up to P3 overall having elected to pit out earlier than their immediate rivals. They would continue to hold that position until the end for their first podium of the season as well as valuable championship points as the series moves onto Dijon in three weeks’ time.


The other GT4 series was the GT4 Italy Series who supported the FIA World Endurance Championship’s visit to Imola this weekend.


Within that series of twenty-three runners was the #23 Team Spirit Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Mathias Villadsen Lyngbye. Debuting within the series last time out Mugello earlier in March, saw the Dane this time secure aP5 overall and top step visit to the B Class podium after Saturday’s opening twenty-five-minute race for his efforts.


Sundays second race was a similar affair with a P6 overall finish again worthy of collecting a B Class top step visit to the podium.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Monday, April 21, 2025 | Read more...
Hard graft with no reward for the four Aston Martin runners after the 6hrs of Imola

Hard graft with no reward for the four Aston Martin runners after the 6hrs of Imola

 


A tough day at the FIA World Endurance Championship office today for the four Aston Martin powered entries as constant improvements within their two Hypercar entries proved fruitless whilst one LMGT3 had its race ambitions cut abruptly short following contact.

Just the second round of the Championship of course from the metaphorical home of Ferrari at Imola and whilst the two Valkyrie crews already knew that they wouldn’t have the pace to directly challenge those class rivals, the two within the LMGT3 class could.


Despite a wet opening session, the preceding sessions including Qualifying were all cool but dry as #007 Heart of Racing Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble pipped their sister #009 car of Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen at the tail end of the Hypercar class to start Sundays six-hour affair from P17 and P18 respectively.

It was better in LMGT3, and Ian James again got through to class Hyperpole within his #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 to claim P3 overall whilst the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR entry of Derek DeBoer (and Eduardo Barrichello and Valentin Hasse-Clot) had to make do with a P15 start position.


With the possibility of rain at some point throughout the race a distinct threat, the race got off to its usual fraught start with plenty of banging of panels and wheels throughout the thirty-six strong grid in those opening laps. Whilst James dropped in those opening laps to P3 in class, DeBoer would hold station in P15 for much of his opening stint including when he had a Corvette being spat out of a gravel trap almost directly into his path!

In Hypercar, whilst both cars could enter one off laps just tenths of a second off the pace of their class leaders, the longevity was that the new chassis was still ‘underpowered’ despite inter-round Balance of performance gains in comparison and with its lack of hybrid system by design, that would affect both cars performances all around the tight circuit despite the best of efforts from the drivers. For them, there would be no marvellous opportunist race result, rather than just the next logical steps along the cars developmental curve – this time by having both cars finish the race as opposed to Qatar’s opener when only the #009 completed that ten-hour debut.


Ninety minutes into the race, the #27 car of James was halfway through his customary double opening stint when he had the #31 BMW LMGT3 all over the back of him. Giving cautious space to the over-eager bronze rated driver aboard that car, the Englishman watched as the BMW passed him for position only by taking his car completely off track for which the Australian aboard the #31, he had to give that one back.

Two laps later, however, the same car tapped the rear of the #27 into the braking area of Rivazza spearing him (fortunately) backwards into the outside retaining wall and abruptly into tyre wall. A few seconds passed before James was seen extricating himself from what was left of his car but importantly, otherwise OK. That obviously left both Mattia Drudi and P3 qualifying pacesetter Zacharie Robichon without a chance to impress.


That would take that car out of the race and bring out the Safety car for the first time, leaving just the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR in class with Barichello now aboard as he chased down the forty-three second deficit to the leading BMW.

Just after the halfway mark, the #31 BMW was again being attracted to an Aston Martin as that car was attempting to line up Barichello aboard the #10 car for position. Again, that manoeuvre didn’t go according to plan and heavy contact was made between them as they made their way through Tamburello. Whilst the #10 car took the damage, the #31 would eventually take a drive through penalty for his efforts – not for the contact which was later seen as a racing incident by Race Control but for its unsafe return to the track immediately in front of three Hypercars.


With the skies darkening slightly, ambient temperature lowering and humidity increasing, eyes were again looking up as the race entered its final ninety minutes. AMR factory driver Hasse-Clot had now taken charge of the #10 car after a mega middle stint from the young Brazilian to race the car to the flag from his then P6 in class.

Too far to go without stopping again for fuel, the Frenchman battled his way up to P3 in class but with the former class leading #46 BMW right behind. Having to pit for that splash of fuel, the #10 returned to the track back down in P10 but eventually finished P11.


Faltering a little on fuel strategy, the team would have to work out where they might have been had it not been for that heavy contact with the #31 car which damaged their defuser and side sills of the car, but all will have to wait until the next round of the Championship from Spa Francorchamps in just under three weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / social media / DPPI WEC


Sunday, April 20, 2025 | Read more...
More technical woe for the E2P Racing AMR at the 24H Series visit to Spa Francorchamps

More technical woe for the E2P Racing AMR at the 24H Series visit to Spa Francorchamps

 


The second round of the 24H Series European Series from Spa Francorchamps this weekend proved itself to be another challenging affair for the E2P Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 squad.

With two AMR Vantage GT3 Evo’s taking to a rain-soaked track for private testing on Thursday, we saw the nominated #40 Comtoyou Racing car take to the track for the only time of the meeting with it not featuring again within any officially timed sessions thereafter. Reasons why – we don’t know!!


That left the #90 full season entry from the Spanish based E2P Racing team with drivers Pablo Burguera, Antonio Sainero and Oliver Campos again behind the wheel as the wet weather finally cleared in time for Qualifying.

Claiming a second row start overall and P2 in class, the #90 car was able to hold station within the top half dozen cars for the opening stint of Saturdays five-hour opener to the 5 + 7-hour race format over the weekend as the Belgian sunshine showed off the beauty of the #90 cars livery design in contrast to the coloured kerbing of the circuit.


That was, however, as good as it got for the team as electrical gremlins soon came back to affect the car – usually by not wanting to start again after a pit stop. This was sadly a continuation of effects suffered by the team at the Mugello season opener a few weeks ago, and despite having already swapped out engines after that event.

Ending day one over thirteen laps down to the overall leader, the importance of a good start of Sunday was clear to see but issues within the car kept it from the grid in time for the formation laps before the race got back underway.


Penalised a further ten laps by Race Control for that, the car finally returned to the circuit but was only able to circulate at the rear of the remaining twenty-one car strong field for much of that. The final straw for the team came within the final hour of the race when race fuel was seen venting from the car around the higher G left handers, forcing Sainero to pit as the effects of the fuel spills became a safety concern. The cause was quickly determined to be the filler cap missing but with just thirty-five minutes remaining and being multiple laps down – there comes a time and place to admit your defeat despite your best of efforts.


Understanding that the team already has a spare new Vantage GT3 Evo chassis within their possession, we hope that they will be back to give things another try for round three from Misano, Italy in four weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Sunday, April 20, 2025 | Read more...
All set for the four Aston Martin crews ahead of tomorrows 6 hours of Imola

All set for the four Aston Martin crews ahead of tomorrows 6 hours of Imola

 


Taking any sportscar to Ferrari’s backyard is always a daunting feat but the two Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars and two Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 (alongside that from the Racing Spirit of Leman team) have just done what they could ahead of tomorrow’s six-hour race at Imola.

Round two of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship in Italy this weekend after the season opener and global racing debut of the all-new Valkyrie Hypercar from Qatar back in late February sees the #007 and #009 Aston Martins again compete within their class of eighteen cars whilst the #10 and #27 Vantage LMGT3’s compete within a similar sized grid although what they have both arrived with is somewhat more familiar than the V12 beasts across the garage.


Before Qatar, it had just been a load of development testing for the two crews but running parallel programmes with the car within the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship as they do, the acquisition of race data from both sides has allowed the car to develop and improve already.

Free Practice 1 got underway earlier this week with the first wet session of the season which saw the #009 take long strides up the timing screen by the end of the session with the #007 more in contact with their peers than before. Within LMGT3, both cars figured around the midfield of the class, less than a second behind the fastest as all drivers got their eye in around the 4.9km circuit.


FP2 was much the same although the #007 lost all of the lap times set by Harry Tincknell when he was aboard for speeding within the pit lane whilst both the #10 and #27 crews closed the gaps to the pace setting Lexus cars to just over half a second.

Going into this morning’s final Free Practice session, both Valkyrie crews lifted their cars off the bottom of the timing screens both on pace as well as via the misfortunes of others to go into Qualifying in a positive vein.


The GT’s again went out first for Qualifying with Ian James again leading the AMR powered charge within his #27 car with Derek DeBoer still experiencing his first taste of the Italian circuit within his #10 car. Whilst a best lap time of 1:43:994 was good enough to take him through to LMGT3 Hyperpole, DeBoer’s best of 1:44:591 was not so the car that he shares with Eduardo Barrichello and Valentin Hasse-Clot was locked to P15 for tomorrows race.

It was then a great job from a standing start from Zacharie Robichon who took over the #27 HoRT in Hyperpole nd saw him grab a second row start in P3 for his efforts.


Next out were the Hypercar class with both Tincknell (with Tom Gamble) and Marco Sorensen (with Alex Riberas) driving the #007 and #009 cars respectively where the Dane lost perhaps his best lap time due to track limits on lap 4 to again finish behind their sister car in the timing ranks. Again, not making it through to Hyperpole, the two Valkyries both improved upon their Qualifying pace of last time to start tomorrows race 16thand 17th in class.

The Six hours of Imola gets waved off at 13:00hrs local tomorrow.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Saturday, April 19, 2025 | Read more...
An additional Aston Martin at this weekends Imola FIA WEC event

An additional Aston Martin at this weekends Imola FIA WEC event

 


There will be an additional Aston Martin Racing powered team competing at this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship’s visit to Imola this weekend but before you go scrabbling for that races entry list, the additional car is within the supporting GT4 Italy Series.

Racing their second round of the new season after their opener from Mugello earlier this month, this weekend’s entry list sees the return of the #23 Team Spirit Racing AMR Vantage GT4 for Mathias Lyngbye as he continues his racing transition to the GT format.


Lyngbye started his GT4 experience with an untimely DNF in the opening race before coming back with a P6 finish in class to get his championship account underway.

If you are thinking that the link between the TSR team and the Lyngbye name – you would be correct after Henrik Pederson-Lyngbye raced within the GT4 European Series with the team back in 2022. We are just not too sure of the actual family connection though.


Again, the series will run a thirty minute sprint race over both Saturday and Sunday with its twenty two strong multi-classed grid.

Photo credits - Series
Friday, April 18, 2025 | Read more...
WEC gets back to business this weekend from Imola

WEC gets back to business this weekend from Imola

 


Having already make progressive steps up the power band with previews to two other race meetings, this third preview report takes us to the ultimate as the FIA World Endurance Championship is back in business this weekend with its pair of Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s and two Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars.

Whilst the opening round of the season and global debut of the Heart of Racing Valkyrie from Qatar back in late February is all but a distant memory, the benefits of the team running parallel programmes with the car over in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship gives the team additional performance data coming into this six-hour round from Imola in Italy.


Having skipped the Daytona 24 in favour of additional test and development time ahead of the cars debut in Qatar, that round saw the #009 car of Marco Sorensen, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis take eventually take the chequered flag whilst their #007 car of Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn was blighted by the inevitable first round technical issues.

With Qatar being an extended ten-hour affair, this six-hour round from Imola will take both the #007 and #009 cars down to just two drivers as the two IMSA based GTP drivers of De Angelis and Gunn step aside this time having raced their IMSA equivalent together last weekend in the first IMSA sprint race around the street circuit of Long Beach, California to gain the cars best finish to date. 


Since Qatar, the Valkyrie has raced at both the 12Hours of Sebring and at Long Beach in addition to a twenty-four-hour test in Florida after the Sebring event with the car now also benefitting from improved Balance of Performance parameters ahead of this weekend’s event.

Joining them on track will also be the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s from both the Heart of Racing and Spirit of Leman Partner team stables as both the #27 and #10 crews look to quickly improve upon their mid class finishes from Qatar.


The entry list shows no changes within either car as Ian James returns to his #27 car alongside Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi who both enjoyed a positive WEC racing debut togther to bring the familiar blue liveried Vantage LMGT3 home P6 in class.

That is the same for the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman entry for both Derek DeBoer and Eduardo Barrichello who also debuted within the championship alongside AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot from their step up from the GT3 based European Le Mans Series for a P9 result from Losail.


Excluding success handicaps, the Vantage LMGT3 platform also benefits from an enhanced BoP with power benefits available below 200kph plus reduced base weight and additional energy being available to the drivers.

Free Practice around the 4.9km circuit will begin on Friday before the final Free Practice and Qualifying later on Saturday with a green flag wave off to the race at 13:00hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 | Read more...