Another great weekend for Aston Martin Racing success around the world today as Jack Mitchell todays secures the China GT Championship GT4 Drivers title alongside China Equity AMR winning the Team title in Shanghai this earlier morning.

With the results still provisional, todays final race of the season was certainly something of a nervy one as Stanley Yang had to fend off the close attention of the #540 McLaren to a point where both cars actually collided (twice) with one another on only the first corner of the second lap. That contact proved to be the end of the race for the #540 car first spinning and then stopping out on track but at least Yang was able to continue and hold station on track in P3 although his speed had dropped slightly going into the pit stop window.


The cars of the weekend were clearly both KTM X-Bows who had already locked out two steps of the GT4 podium yesterday with Mitchell and Yang splitting the pair to claim second in Race 1 and to go into todays final race 8 crucial points ahead of the #570 McLaren of David McKintyre. The weekend was always going to be difficult for the McLaren due to the superiority of the AMR V8 Vantage GT4 around the Shanghai circuit but the final nail went into the #570's Championship's aspirations after contact with the #619 China Equity AMR car that damaged the McLaren's suspension and power steering - a situation that could well have happened with the #618 Mitchell/Yang car earlier in the race - then the championship positions would have been reversed!


After the pit stops Mitchell was to emerge from the pits to continue the battle with the KTM's with the sister #999 China Equity car alongside. With their championship rivals at the Winning Team clearly not having the track position to contest the championship fight the race was to end with David Pun graciously allowing Mitchell past just before the flag in order for the #618 car to claim both P3 in the race but also the GT4 Drivers and Team Championships in the process.


Well done to the China Equity AMR team for putting the resources into place for the 2018 season to have a truely competitive chance this year after their tentative steps in the clearly expanding series last year where they finished third overall. With the team a significant investor within the Aston Martin Lagonda company we would assume that they will be back in 2019 with several examples of certainly the new AMR Vantage GT4 and even maybe the new GT3 Vantage.

Obviously well done to Jack Mitchell who claims his second GT4 Drivers Championship of the year after lifting the British GT GT4 Drivers Championship last month and we look forward to where about you might pop up in next year as well!

Photo credits - China GT / China Equity AMR

With presumably multiple new Aston Martin Racing Vantage's on order with the Prodrive factory, Partner team China Equity AMR will see out their domestic China GT Championship with four Vantage GT4's running at this weekends finale in Shanghai.

GT4 Championship Jack Mitchell is indeed joined again by Stanley Yang as the team pulls out all the stops to help the recently crowned British GT GT4 Championship overcome his two point championship deficit to lift GT4 class title by the end of Sunday.

After Qualifying today for Saturday's first race of the week, Mitchell was the fastest individual around the Shanghai International circuit and by the time Yang entered his times the duo find themselves starting from P2 on the grid for race 1 tomorrow. His main championship rival, David McKintyre in his #570 McLaren which he will again share with Charlie Fagg will start from seventh in tomorrows opener and a finishing position in that order will create an interesting final race on Sunday.


Joining the #618 car will be three more V8 Vantage GT4's from the Chinese team, the first time since the opening races back in May and all distinctly liveried whilst running almost a new driver line that before in the championship.


The #619 car will run an all Bronze crew of Yves Volte and Tu Rong Zhen, the #721 car another an all Bronze crew of You Zhao and Yang Zhi Yi and #999 car for Shang Zong Yi and the returning David Pun. The #721 and #999 cars certainly appear to have some sort of connection with last years AMR customer team Zea Fea Racing.


Photo credits - China GT / China Equity 

It was great to read so early on into the winter months that Mark Farmer has indeed decided to go public and confirm his continued participation within the British GT Championship into his fourth season and also continue his association with Tom Ferrier's TF Sport in the process for 2019.

Speaking with Farmer at the #DoningtonDecider, a race that he and co driver Nicki Thiim won and then didn't - loosing out to the Barwell team in the process, was that he was already sure that he would be back in to British GT fold having tested the new variant of turbo charged Vantage GT3 at Snetterton back in August - the only unknown then (and still is) around who his co driver would be.

Farmer is a driver who has traditionally purchased his race cars outright, like he did when he first started in GT3's with 22GT Racing and into his tenure at TF Sport and his purchase of the new Vantage GT3 is no different this time either.


“I am excited to re-commit to the British GT Championship for 2019,” Mark stated. “The racing is super-close; the Pro line-up is stellar and the occasions magnificent. We had a great run with the Aston Martin Vantage, and in particular in the last season, with three race wins three podiums from nine starts.

“Sadly, it wasn’t enough to win the Championship, but It was good to take the fight to the wire,” he continued. “We consistently demonstrated our pace but were thwarted by bad luck in a couple of rounds, including a big fire at Spa which almost killed the car!


There has been no official word from Aston Martin Racing whether or not they would make any of their factory drivers available again to their customer teams in 2019. The calendars between the British GT and the World Endurance Championship suggests that it is possible but even Nicki Thiim would like to see a reduction of his own driving commitments after a hectic 2018.

With the new Vantage GT3's not likely to be delivered to the teams until the end of 2018 at the earliest little more can be done by the team or driver to prepare themselves but after all the announcements at Donington of so and so ordering two of those and one of these new AMR's - at least we now know who will be driving one of them and in what!


Also being reported today was the apparent position of 2018 British GT GT3 Champion Flick Haigh not returning to the championship in 2019 to defend her title.

Having also spoken with Shaun Goff (boss of Optimum Motorsport) at Donington last month, he did acknowledge that all avenues allowing 'progressive steps' were being considered by Haigh and the team including European GT3 and indeed GTE racing.

Optimum has acknowledged that they have signed up for two new AMR Vantage GT3's and that you can only purchase a GT3 with a GTE upgrade kit rather than a built GTE platform, so either options could be possible for her.


Whereas Mark Farmer today declared a firm intention participate, todays story of Haigh already not defending her BGT crown just seemed a bit early although Optimum's PR team have since come back to confirm the story to be correct which is a shame!

We will see what the winter brings for her!

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey /

Our best wishes extend this weekend to the British GT GT4 Champion Jack Mitchell who will travel to Shanghai for the final, championship deciding round of the China GT Championship with his China Equity AMR team.

With the team swapping around his co driver from the regular Ryan Liu to Stanley Yang for the championship's first visit to the street circuit of Wuhan two weeks ago, and despite two P2 finishing positions at that event, Mitchell now finds himself back behind the Winning Team's McLaren 570S of  David McKintyre going in the finale.


The deficit has come about by the #570 McLaren finishing on the top step of the GT4 podium at Wuhan for both races giving McKintyre a slender two point lead of Mitchell and rekindling the battle that both have been enjoying all season.

With twenty five points available per race it is certainly all to play for as China GT returns to the Shanghai circuit again.

Photo credits - China GT

Sadly there is no SP-X class Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 in the listing for this weekends final round of the 2018 VLN Series from the Nordschleife.

With the cars baptism on the toughest race track in the world at the previous round two weeks ago well and truly made, the teams new car will see out the week testing with its customer teams around the UK as it was today at Snetterton.

That being said, Nordschleife rookies Ross Gunn and Chris Goodwin return for the second leg of their GT3 Permit application process again in the AMR Performance Vantage GT4 entered in to the SP8 class.

Spotted this beauty for sale on Racecarsdirect.com today - an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT2 originally ran in the European Le Mans Series by Essex based JMW Motorsport.

Its most recent appearances this year have been at the Aston Martin Racing Festival at Le Mans in June as well as selected rounds of the new Masters Endurance Legends series with Shaun Lynn.

Full details can be found HERE

With the new turbo charged Vantage GTE entering only its fourth event of the 2018-19 World Endurance Championship on the back of their best result to date, Aston Martin Racing would have been hoping that they had 'cracked it' as soon as Marco Sorenson crossed the line to claim GTE Pro pole position on Saturday.

Free Practice sessions at previous races had sometimes left us feeling quietly confident of the cars performance only for that to be quashed with Qualifying performances of another level from the more established Fords, Ferrari's and Porsche's but when the #95 car claimed pole and its sister #97 claimed another second row start anything suddenly became possible.


With the track getting a good soaking in the build up to the start, the race would start from behind the Safety Car to allow the drivers to adjust to the conditions on track - the worst that they had been over the entire weekend so far. Thiim and Lynn would start the #95 and #97 cars respectively and would run almost line astern during the opening stages of the race again proving that that qualifying performances were no fluke and that the car had true pace even in the wet and considering its small amount of wet weather running so far in its career.

At the hour mark a very sizeable blowout for the MR Racing Ferrari left a large debris field spread along the start straight forcing an immediate Safety Car period that would force the closure of the pit lane just as the GTE would need to come in. Once the pit lane did become available it produced the conundrum of whether to stick with wets or go for slicks despite the still greasy track.


With an LMP1 spinning off the track into the barrier having just swapped to slicks, the team elected to pit both the class leading #95 and second placed #97 and sent them both back on their ways still on wets - a bold decision that would soon come back to bite as the rain stopped, lap times dropped forcing both GTE Pro cars back into pit lane under green running conditions for new tyres. That dropped both cars to the rear of their class with still over four hours remaining.

The trouble with such a competitive class that was split by little over a second in Qualifying, is that any mistake/error/misjudgement in execution being hugely costly and difficult to recover on track. Despite the continued best efforts of the team and drivers the time lost on that additional stop was impossible to make up  and their cyclic rise and fall in the timing screen only down to others pitting ahead of them.


By the time of the end of the race the Dane Train had raised themselves up to P6 in class but a lap down to the winning Porsche whilst the #97 Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn car remained the last of the GTE Pro runners.

From the reaction of some of the drivers after the race it was clear that they saw Fuji as something of a missed opportunity as their frustration and disappointment was clear. Despite the obvious disappointment of what may have been in some trying conditions and situations at Fuji, that reaction of the drivers is something we see as encouraging as the car and team have clearly hit a progressive curve of improvement with their new car.

Aston Martin Racing Managing Director John Gaw said: “This weekend in Japan we’ve demonstrated that we can we mix it with the best of the manufacturers in qualifying and to see the car on pole position was encouraging. We have also seen that the car has class-leading pace across a stint in wet and intermediate conditions. We still have work to do in dry conditions across a full stint. We have taken more data from this weekend to go back and analyse fully to find out how we close the gap in these conditions.”
After a brief rest bite at home, the team will travel back east for the final round of 2018 in Shanghai, China in a months time where they will be looking knit together the car's Qualifying, reliability and new found pace into something that will be the car's first WEC race win!

Lets hope so!!

Photo credit - AMR / WEC

TF Sport came away from their first ever fly away round of any championship on a well deserved high as the #90 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE secured another second placed finish in the World Endurance Championship after the 6Hrs of Fuji and despite finishing third on the track at the time!

With Charlie Eastwood starting his first WEC event from P5 on the grid in class,  the young Irishman had his work cut out starting from behind the Safety car in the unsurprisingly wet Fuji conditions and having to avoid everyones else troubles as accidents and incidents lead to a number of caution and Safety Car periods. As the track slowly dried came the need to all cars to swap onto slicks as he handed the car over to Salih Yoluc from P4 at the one third distance.


Yoluc then put in some of his best and most consistent driving to date with a fine middle stint, sometimes running as high as P3 as other pit stops cycles passed as TF Sport themselves gambled upon their own pit stop strategy from that of their competitors in a search for that little edge!

The teams only piece of misfortune came was just as Yoluc pitted to swap over to Jonny Adam for the start of his race action as a Full Course Yellow delayed to Scot somewhat so that he exited pit lane some forty seconds behind his target Porsche infant. Putting in quicker lap after quicker lap Adam finally took P2 from the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche with just the one stop and final hour to go and at one point held the class lead before fuel necessitated his final stop with an hour to go.


With new tyres, a full'ish tank and little over fifty minutes to go Adam was looking back at a forty second deficit again to the Team Project 1 Porsche ahead which he did reduce somewhat before 'accepting' that the battle was futile and consolidation of P2 was more to the point as the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche came back at him from behind.

In the final twenty minutes of the race the #88 Porsche eventually sailed past the #90 AMR as if they weren't there leaving Adam to finally cross the line for what was first a P3 finish - a position which in itself was a marvellous achievement.


Post race came the news that the #88 Porsche had received a 31 second time penalty for an apparent breach of minimum refuelling times that resulted in the car being dropped behind that of the #98 Aston Martin Racing GTE Am car meaning that TF Sport left Japan today with a P2 finish ahead of the #98 AMR in P3.

In Championship terms, this result leaves TF Sport third in the GTE Am Championship tables some 12 points points behind the Team Project 1 Porsche in second and a further 14 points behind the now troubled #77 car from the Dempsey Proton Porsche as the WEC sees out the first half of their transitional season in Shanghai in November. The outcome of the forthcoming FIA technical investigation into the Dempsey Proton team's alleged antics at Fuji may well have further bearing on those championship positions.


The 6Hrs of Shanghai is on 16th November.

Photo credits - TF Sport / WEC

Having already won the two previous races of the final GT Cup Championship round at Silverstone this weekend, Whitebridge AMR's Adam Hatfield and Chris Murphy have now been confirmed as the overall GT Cup Champions of 2018 as well.

With todays final race of the season finale being abandoned due to weather related track conditions, the crucial points gained on Saturday were more than enough for the crew of the #72 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 to secure the overall crown to go with their class title that they had already secured at the previous round at Donington.

Having already secured their GTH Class Championship title, the Whitebridge AMR duo of Adam Hatfield and Chris Murphy are on the cusp of something big tomorrow at the final race of the 2018 GT Cup Championship from Silverstone.

A pair of class wins for Hatfield this afternoon aboard his #72 AMR V8 Vantage GT4 has stretched their Overall championship lead to 20 points over the chasing #51 Top Cats Racing Marcos Mantis with just the final, pit stop and driver change race to go tomorrow which the #51 must no win to have any chance.

Fingers firmly crossed for these guys tomorrow!


Down in the south of France, Generation AMR SuperRacing are having a great time in the FFSA GT4 Series Grande Finale with Matt George claiming overall pole position for tomorrows final race of the season.

James Holder qualified their green and black #144 car in P38 for todays race and the duo ended that race P9 overall so on that basis a podium finish is a distinct possibility!

Photo credits - FFSA / GT Cup

Aston Martin Racing Managing Director John Gaw said: “To see the car deliver on its potential is hugely satisfying as is the impact this result has had on the team. We knew from the numbers that it was always possible, but until you do it they are just numbers. It just takes the team on now to another level. What was really pleasing was to see the execution by the team. Not one of the drivers received a track limits penalty and that level of execution is really important because you have to get everything perfect to be on pole position.”

Its been a good start to the racing weekend for Aston Martin Racing, its affiliates and customer teams around the world as all get ready for the start of their respective races tomorrow and Sunday.

Starting at the top, the World Endurance Championship reconvenes at Fuji International, Japan this weekend for what is the fourth round of their transitional Super-Season with the factory team looking to build upon the success and promises that were delivered last time out at Silverstone in August.

Keeping their drivers actively engaged with their customer teams around Europe looks to have paid off in the early sessions with the #95 GTE Pro car of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim heading the timing screen at the end of Free Practice 2 today. With the ten cars in GTE Pro being split by less than 1 second proves just how tight and competitive the class has become and how every milli-second counts.

The AMR Performance Centre entered Vantage GT8 with drivers Andy Palmer, Peter Cate and Chris Hoy qualified P13 in the TCE grid, third in the SP3 class for the start of tomorrows 24H Series twelve hour race around Spa Francorchamps. Despite this appears to be the Aston Martin's CEO first racing experience of the iconic track the trio were fastest in class for all of the other sessions on track today.

The race begins at 09:50 tomorrow.


A bit further south at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France, Matt George and James Holder stuck their #144 Generation AMR SuperRacing V8 Vantage GT4 at the top of the timing screen by the end of todays first Free Practice and then backed that up with a P5 by the end of FP2 this afternoon.

Not involved in the outstanding Championship battles, the duo are clearly enjoying themselves as they wind up their European season before looking forward to another winter campaign. Qualifying and the weekends first race take place tomorrow with the final race of the year on Sunday.


GT Cup concludes its 2018 season at Silverstone at the weekend with GTH Class Champions Adam Hatfield and Chris Murphy looking to extend that to include the overall championship win as well. Whitebridge AMR will be busy though having entered three V8 Vantage GT4's for both Hatfield/Murphy as well as one each for James Murphy and a returning Barry McMahon.


Nigel Hudson will be the sole V12 Vantage GT3 representative at the meeting and will again race solo after his very up and down return to the Championship at Donington last month.

Good luck to them all!

Photo credits - AMR / Adrenal Media / Steve Jackman / FFSA / 24H Series / TF Sport

The Australian GT Championship races out their final event of the season at the Tony Quinn owned Hampton Downs race track this weekend, an event that sadly also marks the final time at the circuit for the 'foreseeable future'.

A staunch connoisseur of cars from Aston Martin, the former Scottish born and now New Zealand business man recently sold his controlling interest in the Australian GT Championship to Trofeo Motorsport who later confirmed that the Championship's annual pilgrimage to the South Island of New Zealand would come to an end at the end of the 2018 season.

Two more series come to the end of their 2018 campaigns or their racing involvement within continental Europe. The Creventic's 24H Series round off their European part of their season this weekend at Spa whilst the French FFSA GT4 Championship rounds of their season with a championship decider at Paul Ricard.

For the twelve hours of Spa, Aston Martin Lagonda CEO Andy Palmer makes another appearance in the series with Peter Cate after their first experiences with the Series at the 24Hours of the Circuit of the Americas in Texas last year aboard the Aston Martin Vantage GT8.


Returning with the trusted AMR Performance Centre prepared Vantage GT8 this weekend, Palmer and Cate will this time be joined by former gold medal Olympian Sir Chris Hoy. The former Nissan based GT and LMP racer has obviously been wooed away and enticed into the Aston Martin brand having enjoyed his return to the race track at Le Mans during the Aston Martin arcing Festival back in June when he shared a Vantage GT4 with former F1 racer Martin Brundle.


Running the shorter race format than the series name usually suggests, track activity at Spa starts this Friday morning with Private testing before day and night Qualifying later in the afternoon/evening ready for an 09:50hrs (local) race start on Saturday.


Seeing out their final race in the French National GT4 Championship will be the Appleby Engineering prepared Generation AMR SuperRacing V8 Vantage GT4 of James Holder and Matt George.

With the primary focus from all concerned this year being on the development of the new Jaguar GT4 Invictus Games Racing project within the British GT Championship that Holder has financed, that has left little time for the team to participate in the full FFSA season. Speaking with the team at the BGT finale at Donington last month, this race may also be the last with the normally aspirated V8 Vantage with the team holding options on the Prodrive factory for the new turbo charged car.

Photo credit - FFSA