Having been frustrated by misfortune on track for his previous two visits to the IMSA sanctioned Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, Indian driver Akhil Rabindra was hoping for something better as the Series visited the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca on the west coast of the USA at the weekend.

Being joined this time by Stoner Car Care's Rob Ecklin Jnr, the crew of the #09 CSJ Motorsport supplied Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 Qualified for Saturdays two hour race in P7 having had some overheating issues with the car in the earlier sessions of Friday.


With Ecklin starting the race, he did well to avoid a first lap multi car incident that affected three cars immediately beside and to the rear to establish a consistent pace in P6 until a Full Course Yellow for debris neutralised the race immediately before the first scheduled stops for the GS (GT4) class cars. Being permitted to pit under the Safety Car another case Automatic Racing's poor pit stop procedures dropped the #09 down to P13 by the track went back to green.

The sister #97 Invisible Glass liveried car of Kris Wilson Gary Ferrera would also be penalised for spinning the wheels again during their stop and that would ultimately spoil their race.


With tyre degradation becoming an obvious issue it soon became a case of not whether on not the car had enough fuel to get to the end but also that of whether the tyres would last out with other teams sacrificing track position for the benefit of new rubber - that was shown to be anything up to 5 seconds per lap difference.

The #97 would add to their woes after a heavy impact with a BMW GT4 whilst overtaking a TCR car - simply a case of the Aston not being aware of the immediate proximity of the BMW in that manoeuvre.


With less than 30 minutes remaining, Rabindra had quietly made his way up to P2 in a top trio of cars that had yet to made their final stop for fuel. Taking the gamble, the team elected to only refuel him and not replace any of his somewhat 'tired' rubber. The delay in his fuel stop alone dropped him back to P9 by the time he returned to the track but that was only to get worse when it was realised that they didn't get enough fuel on board for him to reach the end of the race.


A further 'splash and dash' stop for Rabindra dropped the #09 car back to P18 at the finish an away behind the sister #97 car who finished in P11 despite all of their issues.

With all having travelled so far to get to this penultimate round of the season, that was all a bitter pill to swallow - hopefully the crews can shine at the season finale at Petit Le Mans later next month.

Photo credits - CSJ / Stoner Car Care

Hot off the heels of the final round of the 2019 British GT Championship season from Donington Park last weekend sees the Optimum Motorsport team back on the road again for this weekends penultimate round of the 2019 International GT Open Series from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain.

This circuit is apparently the location of Ollie Wilkinson's debut into the European series just two years ago and 2019 has seen a dramatic improvement in maturity, confidence, competance and general driving ability of the 23 year old from Leeds having achieved his first full Pro race win in the series at the Red Bull Ring, securing the overall GT3 Silver Cup class in the British GT Championship as well as being elevated to a BRDC Rising Star driver just a few weeks ago - all in his first season with the all new AMR Vantage GT3.


Whilst his season within the British GT Championship unfortunately ended for him and co-driver Bradley Ellis with a late DNF, he and GT Open co-driver Darren Turner will both be determined to erase the memory of the last round of the GT Open Series from Silverstone just two weeks ago when spins in both races destroyed any chance of a decent points haul for the #96 car.

Whilst TV evidence supports that Wilkinson was not responsible for either spin it goes to prove how sometimes results are wholly reliant upon the performance of others competing around them.


“Silverstone was a tough weekend but that’s firmly behind us and we’re hungry to make up for lost points. Our recent test in Barcelona – our first running there in the Aston – was encouraging and we learnt a few things to take forward into the race. But a clean and clear qualifying session will be key for us. We’ve had issues in the last two, including a broken subframe, which has stopped us from maximising the opportunity. That said, I’m really pleased with how my form is progressing, I was just a couple of tenths off Darren’s pace in Q2 at Silverstone" Wilkinson said.

Whilst they are not in the title race in the Pro category, four decent race results from both Barcelona and at the final round at Monza in early October would really boost their final finishing position in the Championship as Wilkinson continues to chase the AMR Drivers Academy ultimate prize.


Despite the current season coming to an end the news is still coming out thick and fast so make sure that you keep an ear open to any fresh news concerning this team!!

Photo credits - GT Open / Optimum

All previous examples of the British GT Championship's infamous hashtagged final race of the season have all provided highly exciting and eventful races that have in the past (mostly) gone in the favour of any Aston Martin Racing customer team in the equation, but Sundays events took all of that to the next level.

Going into Sunday's finale there were four AMR cars all with a statistical possibility of lifting a class or overall crown should all other results go their way. Indeed, such was the complexity of the issue that TF Sport had even created themselves a large excel document listing all of the scoring permutations just in case!


The 'favourites' had to be the then class leading entries of the #42 TF Sport Vantage GT3 car of Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam, the #97 TF Sport Vantage of Tom Canning and Ash Hand along with the #11 Beechdean AMR Vantage of Martin Plowman and Kelvin "Twinkletoes" Fletcher all up for a potential haul of accolades in both GT3 and GT4. All they had to do was to follow the team plan and not fall off the track!

The #96 Optimum Vantage GT3 of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis did have a small statistical possibility of taking the overall GT3 crown but following issues during Free Practice and Qualifying it seemed that that duo had 'settled' for the GT3 Silver Cup title which they received on Saturday as their prize for a job well done in the first season of British GT.


Speaking with many of the drivers concerned, it was quite surprising just how 'matter of fact' they were being about it all - even for those who hadn't won anything of this level before as it would after all be what it was going to be. One thing was always going to be for sure though, that none would go down without the biggest fight that they could muster on track!!

On the formation lap, clearly some had got a little ever excited with two GT4's coming together at the Melbourne Hairpin putting themselves effectively out of the impending two hour race even before it had started - fortunately none of the AMR family of cars were affected as the actual race then began behind the Safety Car.


With the Am drivers taking the start, the opening laps saw Davidson do exactly what he needed to do in terms of following (whilst still applying the pressure) onto their Championship rival in the #72 Barwell Lamborghini - then the BMW of Angus Fender got past the #47 for position to start applying (helpfully) some significant pressure onto Adam Balon.

In GT4, Tom Canning was doing the same as he followed the class leading #29 Stellar Performance Audi R8 whilst the #97 TF Sport car of Patrick Kibble acted 'like his wingman' keeping their Championship rivalling Multimatic Ford Mustang of Scott Maxwell safely behind.


Whilst the order within GT4 would remain the same until the pitstop, pressure clearly got the better of Balon who dropped behind Davidson and into the crosshairs of both the #96 Optimum of Wilkinson and the #99 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard. At the halfway stage the #47 pitted for their extended pit stop from P4 whilst the #72 was now down in P11.

For the GT4 starters of Canning and Kelvin Fletcher (#11), they both ran impeccable opening stints with fast lap times built upon the basis of zero mistakes and that helped them to be able to pass on almost undamaged cars onto their respective co-drivers.


Obviously there were a few other Aston Martin Racing teams competing in the event. Despite Academy's experiencing another problematic opening day to the meeting to a point where many of the teams mechanics would spend more time working upon the #62 car of Will Moore and Alex Toth-Jones that the car ever would on race track over the weekend, at least they, with Micah Stanley and Ben Hurst in the #61, would see their season out with two solid, mid table finishes.

Also, the two Optimum GT4 cars of Connor O'Brien and Jack Butel (#35) and Mike Robinson and Patrik Mathiessen (#75) would sadly see out the season on something of a crash and a whimper (despite earlier promises in Qualifying) as O'Brien would crash out in an incident at the Old Hairpin where he would at first leave the track before rejoining it (facing the wrong way) and being collected by the Race Performance Mustang ending their season on the spot.


That incident also prompted another Safety Car period that would rotate the tables slightly for both the #47 and #97 TF Sport cars at the restart.

Firstly, the #15 Multimatic Mustang of Seb Priaulx would take P2 from Ash Hand as the pack began to space out a little once the circuit went green again - that would reduce the points deficit between the two cars slightly in the Championship but was OK as long as things didn't get any 'worse' on track.


In GT3, the biggest drama was just about to unfold going into the closing minutes of the race when the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini at first gave Jonny Adam a more than decent whack up the rear going into the final corner of one lap before giving him further 'kisses' down through the Old Hairpin before overtaking him for P5 a corner later on the next lap.


That overtake took the #47 car off the top of the table in GT3 and with Adam seemingly unable to respond that all allowed the #69 Barwell car of Sam de Haan and Jonny Cocker to be the surprising victors at the chequered flag just half a lap later. That 'disaster' within one side of the TF Sport garage opposed directly with the joy and elation on the GT4 side as Hand delivered the #97 Vantage GT4 home to claim P3 in class and the GT4 crown.

Martin Plowman would also avoid all the clashing and banging on the restart (action that would ultimately claim the #96 Optimum GT3 into the gravel on the final lap) to finish P4 overall in GT4 and convincingly claim their GT4 Pro-Am title which was being celebrated in the pit lane even before the #11 car returned to Parc Ferme!!


Even at their younger ages, it was extremely professional of all four members of the TF Sport crew to mellow their celebrations as the team responded to the events on track and pondered any protest against the actions of the #18 car against the Adam/Davidson car. That action quickly went into full effect as the #47 car's Prodrive engineer was soon on his way to Race Control armed with the car's software data upon his laptop closely followed by both Adam, Davidson and other AMR representatives.


Passing them waiting outside the office of Race Control was reminiscent of waiting outside the headteachers office at school but obviously a lot more rode upon the outcome of any decision they might make - it could have easily been a very long night for all as the race results remain strictly provisional.

Investigation/appeal - counter claim/investigation from all parties all ended with WPI Motorsports appeal against their five second post race penalty finally being rejected by the Stewards allowing both Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson to be officially declared GT3 Champions based upon their adjusted P5 finish to the race thanks to a 0.037 of a second gap to the #18 car now behind them in the results.


To say that the eleven Aston Martin Racing GT3 and GT4 race cars entered this year dominated the season wouldn't be so, whilst the #47, #96, #97 and #11 car's have dominated six British GT Championship titles in both GT3 and GT4 classes which they have won, the 2019 season has been one of the most competitive and closest seasons to date and is a testament to the SRO ability to regulating such close inter marque competitiveness.


What a race - what a season and thank you to all who made that possible!

Now - when does 2020 start......???

Aston Martin marked the most successful campaign in its domestic racing history, winning six of the eight available titles in the 2019 British GT Championship, following the series finale at Donington Park. Three partner teams, TF Sport, Beechdean AMR and Optimum Motorsport all secured titles in either the GT3 or GT4 classes in a dominant season debut for the new Aston Martin Vantage.

Works driver Jonny Adam retained his British GT drivers' title for a record fourth time in a dramatic season finale. The most successful driver in the championship's history, Adam and TF Sport team-mate Graham Davidson survived a late-race skirmish with a rival to be classified fifth in the race, which was enough to secure the title in a season that included two victories.

Coming in to the final round with an six-point deficit to the series leaders and a 20s success pitstop penalty for winning the previous round at Brands Hatch, the odds were stacked against the Scottish duo. But following a brave stint from Davidson, Adam was on course to take the title in fourth position as his rivals faltered. Adam was then hit by a rival car on the penultimate lap dropping him to sixth position and second in the championship, until a subsequent post-race stewards enquiry reversed the positions and gave them the points needed to secure the title.

TF Sport also provided the leading lights in GT4 where Aston Martin swept the board. AMR Academy drivers Tom Canning and Ash Hand secured the overall class championship as well as the Silver Cup with third place in class, following an exemplary drive by both. They were followed home by another Aston Martin Racing partner team Beechdean AMR, whose drivers Martin Plowman and Strictly Come Dancing contestant Kelvin Fletcher, who secured the GT4 Pro-Am title. Patrick Kibble and Josh Price's sixth place was enough to give TF Sport the GT4 Team's crown as well.


All in all, and including the GT3 Silver Cup title that Optimum Motorsport won at Brands Hatch, Aston Martin secured two titles with the Vantage GT3 and four with GT4, representing the most successful haul by any manufacturer with a car on its season debut.

Adam said: “What a season it's been, to be 54 points off the lead of a championship and then come back and win is mega for everyone at TF Sport and Aston Martin Racing. To wrap up some championships and showcase how good the new car is on its debut season is an immense achievement. British GT is an important customer-base and to win four championships is really important to me personally. It's a lovely feeling. To see so many new Aston Martins on the grid this year at the first round was really nice, so to come here at the final round and for Aston to dominate in the points in all classes shows how good a car we've built. Graham has driven so well this year, and he has really wanted to win this championship. To have the nerve to drive the way he did today and give us a shot was amazing.”

Davidson added: "After Silverstone I thought it was all lost but I did what I could do and somehow we have got to this result at the end of the year. But it just goes to prove that persistence, practice, training and simulator work makes a difference. Jonny knows how to win a championship and he knows how to work with his co-driver. Even yesterday it seemed a distant chance, but I went out there and just got the best out of the car and didn't take any chances. It's nice to win it with Aston Martin and TF Sport. Jonny is the best driver coach in the world."


Aston Martin Racing President David King added: “What a fabulous result for the new Aston Martin Vantage. It's unprecedented to see a new car dominate such a competitive championship as the British GT series. That three teams were able to secure championship titles and deliver on the promise of the Vantage is testament to the tremendous hard work and engineering talent of everyone at Aston Martin Racing and of course our partner. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank those teams for making such a big commitment to a new car in its first season. I am so pleased we could repay their faith in us. When we envisaged the new Vantage racing car, it was always with a view to creating a user friendly platform that was fast in the hands of professional drivers and customers alike. That we have been so successful in British GTs and competitive in so many other places around the world, proves that we have achieved our objectives.”


Source material - AMR

Tomorrows final round of the 2019 British GT Championship is all set up nicely to produce yet another cracking #DoningtonDecider that we have all come to expect over the years with three Aston Martin Racing Partner team drive line ups 'well in' with a chance of lifting their respective class title with another with an outside chance at the end of another two hours of racing.

Glorious weather today at the Leicestershire circuit allowed many of the thirty eight GT3 and GT4 cars to circulate faster than what they did at round 6 from the circuit earlier in the year and with similar weather and warmer temperatures again expected tomorrow's two hour finale will be a fast and furious one for sure.


All of the AMR's up for Championship contention - #47 GT3 TF Sport of Graham Davidson/Jonny Adam, the #97 GT4 TF Sport of Tom Canning/Ashley Hand, the #11 GT4 Beechdean AMR of Martin Plowman/Kelvin Fletcher and somewhat with the outsider #96 GT3 Optimum car of Ollie Wilkinson/Bradley Ellis all kept their 'powder somewhat dry' in the opening Free Practice sessions earlier today, letting others go thrashing about the circuit always with a risk of damaging their cars.


For all except the #96 car, none of these crews have to win (whereas the #96 do) to keep alive their championship aspirations but they did have some issue with their brakes during the morning which is hopefully now cured.

At the end of this afternoons combined Qualifying sessions it was the Balfe Motorsport McLaren 720S that grabbed pole position from the #72 Championship contending Lamborghini of Phil Keen and Adam Balon but worryingly the #72 has been consistently quick all day today. The #47 TF Sport car of Davidson and Adam will start from the second row of the grid - close enough to the #72 to keep them in check and far enough forward to hopefully keep out of the pack on the opening lap.


In GT4, the #97 TF Sport car of Canning and Hand have repeated what they have been doing almost from race three by Qualifying up towards the front other pack, starting P2 but with (possibly importantly) their sister #95 car of Patrick Kibble and Josh Price starting between the them and the Championship contending Ford Mustang of Scott Maxwell and Sea Priaulx down in P5.

The #11 Beechdean AMR GT4 race tomorrow to retain the top honours in the GT4 Pro-Am class with a P2 start in that class - P11 overall in GT4 but four places behind their pole setting Fox Motorsport Mercedes. Their main championship rivals however (Graham Johnson and Michael O'Brien) will be starting in their Balfe McLaren 570S from right behind them in P12 overall - the Balfe car must win to have any chance by the time the chequered flag falls at 15:00hrs tomorrow.


That all said, the race will be what it will be. Champions will be crowned and will make for an early start to their celebrations whilst others will come up just short at the end of what has been another highly entertaining season of GT racing at the highest level.

We obviously just hope that the former will be an AMR crew or two or three!!!

Confirmation of GT3 Qualifying and starting positions can be found HERE for GT3 and HERE for GT4


Whilst all eyes will be upon those in the Championship races lets not forget those who are not with the Mark Farmer/Nicki Thiim pairing probably running its final outing tomorrow in the #2 TF Sport GT3 whilst Andrew Howard is again out with Valentin Hasse Clot in the #99 Beechdean AMR GT3 after their first race together at Brands Hatch. Then in GT4 with have both the Optimum cars of Connor O'Brien and Jack Butel in the #35 and Mike Robinson and Patrik Mathiessen in the #75. We have already mentioned the #97 TF Sport car of Kibble and Price so that just leaves both Academy cars of Micah Stanley and Ben Hurst in the #61 car finally Will Moore and Alex Toth Jones in the #62 if it runs as it seems that both cars were again blighted with technical issues today. The #62 hasn't run beyond FP1 it seems.


Game on...........................

Photo credits - British GT / S Jackman

Today, R- Motorsport announced a new key component of their international motor racing programme: They will establish the new Aston Martin Vantage Cup by R-Motorsport series. Further plans with details for the motorsport future will be announced at a later stage.

The Vantage Cup by R-Motorsport car is based on the Aston Martin Vantage V8. The cup race car is a high performance race version of the road-going Vantage with its 4-litre, twin-turbo V8. Four Cup racing series are planned worldwide over the next four years with the first races scheduled to take place soon in 2020, first in Europe and later in Asia in 2021.

Source material - R-Motorsport

Last weekend the team was out racing at Autopolis on the South Island of Japan in the Super GT Series, this weekend D'Station Racing AMR are back out racing again - this time at the penultimate round of the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series from the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in central Japan.


Last time in the teams brand new #777 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 at Autopolis, drivers Satoshi Hoshino, Tsubasa Kondo and Tomonobu Fujii claimed a very credible P2 finish in the typhoon shorted race and they will be looking to go one better again at this weekends five hour race.

Photo credits - D'Station Racing AMR

The last race of the 2019 British GT Championship is finally upon us this weekend and once again the SRO have had to dust off their infamous hashtag from previous years to again proclaim Sundays two hour race as being another #DoningtonDecider with many of the Championship's GT3 and GT4 class titles still very much up for grabs.

The opening races from Oulton Park back in mid April are all but a distant memory for a Championship that figured a colossal eleven examples (sometimes twelve) of Aston Martin Racing's latest turbo charged versions of the Vantage GT3 and GT4.


For many of the AMR family of teams within the Championship, pre-season testing was something that was pretty thin on the ground going into the first two races at Oulton Park as the Prodrive factory struggled to get all of the first batch of GT3 and GT4 orders out in time leaving the respective team's young and sometimes inexperienced driver crews with little preparation time within their chosen cars  beyond that of using the AMR test and development chassis'.

That aside and very quickly forgotten, the eight races completed so far this season have have left us with yet another dice around Donington Parks 2.5mile circuit (for the second time of asking this year after the demise of Rockingham Motor Speedway), this time to determine just who will win the GT3 Team, GT3 Drivers, GT3 Pro-Am Championships and the GT3 Blancpain Trophy Award as well as the GT4 Drivers, Pro-Am and Silver Cup titles.


One title has of course already been concluded with Optimum Motorsport's Ollie Wilkinson and Bradly Ellis having securing the GT3 Silver Cup honours last time out at Brands Hatch. They are also well positioned to potentially finish well within the top two or three in some of the other GT3 Championships depending upon how the results go and that would be another impressive string to the new BRDC's Rising Star's driving bow!

For the main, GT3 Championship contenders Davidson and Adam have enjoyed an extraordinary first season together after Davidson stepped up to the highest level of UK GT3 racing last year with Jetsteam Motorsport where he learned a lot from AMR factory driver Maxime Martin before joining forces with another AMR Factory driver (Adam) for this year at TF Sport. For a man to be in contention for his fourth own GT3 title and a man who has coached many of the last five gentleman driver champions - that says a lot about Adam's capabilities as not just a race driver himself but also as an outstanding driver coach.


For the crew of the #47 TF Sport Vantage GT3, their biggest issue this weekend will be overcoming their 20second additional pit stop time over their cars minimum stop time as a result of their race win last time out at Brands Hatch whilst their Barwell opponents have no such time penalty!

In GT4 we have two squads and two sets of drivers all hoping to stand upon the top step on Sunday afternoon having been proclaimed as Champions.


Having had issues with available rolling stock and then a race meeting well worth forgetting at Oulton Park sees TF Sports Tom Canning and Ashley Hand in contention at the top of the tables for both the GT4 Drivers and Silver Cup titles whilst Beechdean AMR's new GT4 recruits for this year sees their Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman up in the lead of the Pro-Am title race going into the weekend. Hand and Canning also have an additional ten second in the pit lane to contend with from their P3 finish at Brands Hatch so in their cases, the crowns are theirs to lose!!

Fletcher has also hit the headlines again this week by agreeing to stand in for someone on the BBC's Strictly dance programme so we should be seeing him tripping the light fantastic to the grid at least with many more dance references being made over the course of the weekend we're sure!!


Whilst these three cars are the only Aston's in contention for a Championship 'gong' the other eight cars across Sundays grid will obviously be key to what happens at the top of each respective Championship. Not that any will race tactically or ungentlemanly of course but its highly likely that someone like Nicki Thiim will want to end his second (and potentially last he has said previously) season within the Championship 'in style' - in other words with a race win and that will take points away from others who might need them dearly.

Thiim and co-driver Mark Farmer have had something of a 'mare of a season, last year promised so much and there were high expectations for this year but sadly early incidents and accidents for Farmer have put him into a lesser place, somewhere where his confidence has been adversely affected despite  a gutsy P2 podium from them at Silverstone.


Beechdean AMR also started with an AMR factory driver aboard the #99 car with Andrew Howard at the start to the season but a significant incident for Marco Sorensen at Le Mans at the WEC in June saw the need for him to recuperate (plus already by then the #99 car was not in a Championship contending position) so Howard 'released the Dane' and went looking for other available AMR young guns to share the experience with and help them along their racing path - hence in involvement of both Ross Gunn and Valentin Hasse-Clot with the latter seeing out the season with Howard for his first visit to Donington.

In GT4, all bar three of the drivers became part of the Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy process (Will Moore at Academy and Plowman and Fletcher at Beechdean not being eligible) so all have been through a constant training and continuous assessment programme with the factory team and their technical partners. For some the improvement has been obvious but sadly for some, a constant stream of bad luck on track has taken its toll on quality track time whilst others have seen their progress come too late to make for any impression on the Championship.


Whatever happens, Sundays 300th British GT race will be spectacular both on and off the track with forty one cars due on the grid together with thirteen race cars of yesteryears including the very first Aston Martin (Marsh Plant V8) to win in the Championship.


It will be a great day - the weather is supposed to be great too - make sure you're there to see it!!

Game on ............!!

Some interesting news just being picked up upon tonight is that two new names will now feature in this weekends penultimate round of the ADAC GT Masters Series form Hockenheim.

Again, the entry list for the event features just a sole Prosport Performance Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 but this time gone are the most established names of both AMR factory driver Maxime Martin and former series Champion Daniel Keilwitz to be replaced with two up and coming names from the AMR family of teams.


Instead we see Prosport Performance's GT4 European Series driver David Griessner step up to the plate alongside fellow GT4 racer from the Generation AMRSuperRacing team in Matt George for the two - one hour races from Germany this Saturday and Sunday.

George has put it out there that he tested with the team at the Nurburgring last week and that that was followed up by receiving a call from the team last night offering him his first GT3 race.


The team have of course been reduced to a single entry in the series since releasing both Hugo de Sadeleer and Vanlentin Hasse Clot after just the second round of the series and since have been unable to supply Florian Thoma a co-driver after he decided to step up to their GT3 programme.

Needless to say that both are extremely excited about it and we wish them all the best!

Correction ............

Both the team and series have today confirmed the entry of both of the teams AMR Vantage GT4's into the two GT4 Germany races over the weekend contrary to yesterdays provisional entry list.

The team have confirmed that Alex Mies and David Ortmann will again be racing together after their first event toagtehr in eta GT4 European Series finale in the #18 car whilst the sister #19 car will be shared by newcomers Christian Konnerth and Yannick Fubrich.

Photo credits - Prosport/social media

This weekend sees the ninth and penultimate round of the IMSA sanctioned Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from the iconic WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca circuit sited just off the Coast near Monterey, California.

Aston Martin Racing Partner Team's Automatic Racing and CSJ Motorsport have both made the long journey from their bases in Florida and Texas respectively to be at the circuit in time for Saturday's two hour race into the Californian evening with both of their AMR Vantage GT4's.


Long term series partners Gary Ferrera and Kris Wilson reunite for the first time in a couple of races aboard the #97 Automatic Racing Invisible Glass sponsored AMR Vantage GT4 whilst Indian driver Akhil Rabindra shares the CSJ Supplied AMR Vantage with fellow long term team favourite and Stoner Car Care boss Rob Ecklin Jnr.

In the 'merry go round' of driver swaps and replacements that have taken place within the team since the Daytona 24 season opening weekend, it appears that all the drivers have been smitten with the new turbo charged V8 Vantage GT4 since its international audition with the team at Daytona.


Rabindra has certainly made a massive impact with the team and series with his speed and consistency of his driving since his arrival at Road America where he shared the predominately white car with Kris Wilson. There, only bad luck and misfortune after first contact and then a resulting off for Wilson in the wet and wild conditions of Road America thwarted a near certain podium assault in their first time of asking together.


Then last time out at the Virginia International Raceway three weeks ago, Rabindra joined up with AMR WEC Factory driver and AMR Driver Academy Coach Ross Gunn to again only just miss out on a shout of the podium due to track and weather conditions at the time ending the day in P6.

With precipitation unlikely to be an issue in California we should (hopefully) see what this young man can do!

Photo credits - CSJ / IMSA / Automatic