Like most of the races since the flagship twenty four hour event earlier this year, just two Astons again fly the flag monist the 167 entries at this weekends seventh round of the VLN Series from the infamous Nordschleife this weekend.

Flying high since their SP10 class win last time out will be the #188 Mathol Racing prepared Avia racing V8 Vantage GT4 who's driver line will extend to three drivers of this race with the addition of Hendrik Still.


The #134 Aston martin Lagonda Vantage GT8 also makes a return after is DNF at the last round when early race damage sustained by a spinning car on the then wet track came back to roost and eliminate the car just before the end of the four hour race.

Again, the driver line changes within the car with Vincent Kolb being joined for this weekend by Alexander Kolb and David Thilenius.

Photo credits - VLN

CMRT by Eurasia return to the Blancpain GT Asia Series this weekend for the two races that will make up the penultimate round of the series from the the Shanghai International Circuit, China.

Competing in the GT3 Am Class with their beautifully liveried V12 Vantage GT3, drivers Kenneth Lim and James Cai currently lay in fourth place in that championship, nestled amongst four other driver line ups who are split by just 22 points with four races remaining.


Indeed, the facts are that had the team not have missed the Suzuka round of the championship in June they may have been leading the championship being just 14 points behind the Am leaders!

SHANGHAI SCHEDULE

Friday 22 September
13:00 - 13:45: Free Practice 1
15:45 - 16:30: Free Practice 2

Saturday 23 September
09:10 - 09:40: Official Practice
12:35 - 12:50: Qualifying 1
13:00 - 13:15: Qualifying 2
16:15 - 17:15: Race 1

Sunday 24 September
13:45 - 14:45: Race 2

The news from MacMillan Racing today sadly leaves the total Aston Martin entry for Sunday's two hour, championship deciding race down to just three cars from both TF Sport and Academy Motorsport.

Neither team have unfortunately anything more than personal pride to race for at Donington after previous results and non finishes have already ruled them out of contention for any of the GT3/GT4 class championships. All cars will however be keen to avoid any involvement on track that may affect the remaining championships that need to be resolved by the end of Sunday's race.


Academy Motorsport will see out their return to the British GT GT4 Championship on a high following   on from their best result of the season in the SRO's parallel European GT4 Northern Cup championship where Matt Nichol-Jones and Will Moore secured a brace of second placed finishes at that series finale at the Nurburgring last weekend.


For that team, both the British GT and European GT4 championships have been a somewhat disjointed affair after a series of mechanical and accident induced DNF's have left them mid table in the GT4 Team's Championship.


The pair of highly decorative V12 Vantage GT3's of TF Sport arrive at the circuit with just an inter-team battle to settle with the #1 car of Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam leading their sister #11 car of Jon Barnes and Mark Farmer by just 4.5 points in the GT3 Drivers Championship.

The #1 car will also see out the season with a revision to its livery, sporting a shiny red metallic look all in contrast to the #11 car's shiny blue metallic livery of old!!

The full timetable to this event can be found HERE

Photo credits - Andrew Lofthouse / Jacob Ebrey

The British GT Championship have this afternoon confirmed that MacMillan Racing have indeed withdrawn both of their cars from the two hour finale to the 2017 championship at Donington this weekend.

Previously fielding a very successful brace of a V12 Vantage GT3 and a V8 Vantage GT4, the final round at Donington would have sealed yet another successful season for the team in only its second year of racing with Jack Mitchel and James Littlejohn claiming the GT3 Silver Cup prize at their first time of asking amongst numerous podiums for both cars.


As yet we are not aware as the reasons behind this action.

On a small good news front however, is the confirmation that Will Philips shall still be racing at Donington, this time alongside ex. MacMillan racing driver Matthew Graham in one of the In2Racing McLaren 570s GT4's.

By the fact that Philips has had time to arrange such a deal signifies that the MacMillan withdrawal had been on the cards for some time before now.

Disappointing news indeed!

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

Aston Martin Racing has triumphed in Texas, as Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A) took GTE Am victory in the Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas.

After taking pole position yesterday, their second win of the 2017 season ensured the trio both maximised their points haul for the weekend and regained the lead in both the team and drivers GT Am championships.

After an early spin following contact from a rival cost Dalla Lana the lead early on, the trio fought valiantly to pursue victory. A safety car released for barrier repairs after an on-track incident at the half way mark offered the #98 V8 Vantage GTE an opportunity to close the deficit to the leaders and in the final hour, Lamy made a move up the inside of turn one to reclaim first place.

Just a couple of weeks after taking delivery of their latest Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 acquisition, Australian based Miedecke Stone Motorsport scored their first racing podium in the car this weekend.

Having sourced this early iteration of Vantage GT4 from somewhere in Asia (they are not saying where) a couple of weeks ago, Andrew Miedecke tested the then multi-coloured car at the Queensland Raceway in readiness for Round 7 of their state New South Wales Motor Racing Championship event from their local Sydney Motorsport Park track.


Its the second time this year that Miedecke Snr has competed in the state championships, last time out was back in May when he shared a similar Vantage GT4 (which they had secured on behalf of a client) with tiptop racer Jeremy Gray.

Having elected to sit out the entire Australian Endurance Championship this year, recent events are being to show the beginnings of a ramping up from the team in readiness for next years Bathurst 12Hr event where the team hope to enter two V12 Vantage GT3's as well as their V8 Vantage GT4.

Photo credits - MSM

Thanks to a cryptic invitation placed upon social media by Radio Le Mans last night to look at the provisional entry list for the Creventic 24H Series Endurance Series inaugeral event at the Circuit of the America's in November - there is certainly some very interesting entries.

Firstly and we have known for some time now that Pirelli World Challenge entry De La Torre Motorsport have entered their Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 but have however confirmed a second driver in experienced LMP3/GT3 racer Ate De Jong who will be join Jorge De La Torre in the A6 class car.


The most interesting revelation in the entry detail is however the presence of the Aston Martin Lagonda V8 Vantage GT8 in what will be its first racing adventure outside of continental Europe. Although there is yet no driver detail it is safe to assume that Aston Martin's David King isn't simply going to let his one-off pride and joy be raced by any old Tom, Dick or Harry - so thats one to watch.

To date, the car has performed extra ordinarily well (mainly within the VLN series) where it has finished on the its class podium many times with many drivers as well as winning its class at the ADAC N24 race earlier this year.


Additionally, the list also details the return of the Speedworks prepared AMR V8 Vantage GT4 into the event. Driver details are again yet to be confirmed but this will be the first Creventic event for that car in over a year as it has been available for sale for much of that period.

If nothing else, this news has placed that 24H Series event firmly within our diary to watch!

They say that "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" and that was precisely the case in Austin, Texas yesterday for the start of 6 hours of the Circuit of the America's.

With the timetable for the event having shifted back slightly for 2017, there would no longer be any racing into the (cooler) night as before with the race starting under the full intensity of the midday sun, leaving the teams to deal with the uncomfortable mid thirties ambient and high forties track temperatures.

For the Aston Martin Racing GTE Pro cars, the race would be the first upon Dunlop's revised hard rubber compound and although they didn't perform particularly well in the 'mad dash' qualifying runs of Friday it was hoped that they would come into their own during the much longer racing cycles during the race.


From Qualifying, the #95 GTE Pro car of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen would again be at the head of the field for the team starting from third on the grid behind the #71 AF Corse and #67 Ford. The Valero liveried #97 car of Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra would start from P6 but importantly ahead of the two Porsche 911's who were also fielding new 'joker' rubber (from Michelin) for the event. Following own from their domineering performance throughout the three Free Practice sessions, the #98 GTE Am car of Paul Dalla-Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda would be starting their part of the grid from pole.

At the outset of the race things were looking rather good for Team AMR with Thiim already having snatched the GTE Pro class lead from the 488 Ferrari on the opening lap and with the #98 maintaining its grid position relative to its class but for Serra in the #97, the car would quickly fall down beyond the two Porsches to circulate only a few hundred metres in front of their AM class car.


Like Mexico, the team had decided to start the race with Paul Dalla-Lana behind the wheel thus allowing him to get one of his stints out of the way in the comparative cooler temperatures of the afternoon. Ten minutes in however, ex AMR GTE Am driver Francesco Castellacci passed the Canadian for position in a clean move at the final corner before he then came under the close attention of the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari. Although later on Dalla-Lana would contest the legality of the move, a slight mistake from him lead to an unavoidable rear impact between the #98 and the #61which left the #98 spinning out onto the track apron before being able to rejoin, fortunately having lost just one position - but there was damage.

Even before Dalla-Lana could catch his breathe from his own inter class battles, three battling LMP2's forced the #98 to take more collision avoiding action, loosing him yet more time on track - it was going to be one of those days at the office for the #98!


Meanwhile, Serra had at least found someone to battle with in the form of the the #66 Ford GT who had again found themselves towards the rear of the field but and just like the whole WEC season so far, the #97 just didn't seem to have anything left under the bonnet to pass the Ford by!

Whilst the #95 continued to frustrate the two AF Corse Ferrari's at the head of the GTE Pro field, Dalla-Lana had to bring his #98 car in for repairs to his rear defuser that was damaged in his earlier incident. Terrific work from the team saw that car in and out of the garage in under a minute and with a full service later would see Mathias Lauda take the car out. After a further quick visit to the pits for minor adjustments a few laps later however would see the #98 car plum last.

Over the next few hours the #95 Pro car of Thiim and Sorensen would continue to struggle to get back into contention with the two Ferrari's who were at times leading the class by nearly thirty seconds, a period during which would also see the two Porsche's come into the equation for the top three positions.

On a more positive note, the #98 was at least progressing itself up through its class to be P2 at the half way point of the race.


By this time all three drivers in the #97 car had been on track. Looking at the timing chart at the time the car wasn't massively slower than its sister car - maybe around a second a lap but that alone, lap after lap easily contributed to its then 60 seconds deficiency to the class leader on track. Was/is the three driver set up in the #97 its continued achilles heel as we can't believe that it has been carrying technical issues for race after race??

As the race entered its final hour the #95 was still the leading AMR is it continued to struggle to maintain its proximity on track to the leading Ferrari's and Porsche's 48 seconds ahead whilst the #97 was still a further one minute behind them but at least the #98 had recovered to retake the lead of the Am Class despite its multiple unscheduled stops as most of the GTE teams prepared themselves for their final - 'splash and dash' stops.

With half an hour remaining the AM Championship leading #77 Dempsey Proton car limped back into the garage with smoke emitting from under the engine compartment - if the #98 could maintain its position on track that result would have huge effect on their championship standings.


Despite a puncture for the class leading Ferrari inside the last ten minutes of the race, the #95 would eventually finish P4 after their long, hard and hot battle on track with the #97 car finishing (importantly for the Team Championship) ahead of the poorly BoP'd Ford GT's and the race penalised #91 Porsche in P5.

The note of the day however goes to the drivers and crew of the #98 GTE Am class who secured their second race win of the season beating its nearest class rival (the #61 Clearwater Ferrari) by nearly 50 seconds. That would be impressive in its own right but to consider that the car was spun around, had two unscheduled stops for car repairs and tinkering in addition to its normal racing woes is simply outstanding.


Well done everyone.

Photo credits - AMR / WEC / Dunlop

As the Aston Martin Racing GTE's hit the track for the first Free Practice session for the American round of the World Enduarnec Championship from Austin in Texas, its great to see the teams two GTE Pro class cars flying the roundel of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.

Of course, this relates to the fleet special Vanquish S cars that has been built in recognition of the RAF display team with the Red 10 being on offer to win by lottery all in aid of the armed service benevolent fund.

Full details can be found HERE

We have got our tickets - have you??