The latest member to the extended Aston Martin Racing powered family enjoyed similar success to more established teams and drivers this weekend as Ismaeel Ellahi secured a class win at the end of the IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series visit to Canadian Tires Motorsport Park earlier today.

No stranger to either the series or in GT4 powered racing as a whole, this was both Ellahi’s and his supporting CSM Motorsport’s first racing exploits into the real world with their new AMR Vantage GT4- something that only arrived within their workshop the week before.

 

More akin to the Porsche chassis both within the States and Europe, this weekend’s two forty-five minute GSX classed races looked comfortable for all as Ellahi first took a P3 qualifying position for race one yesterday to secure a P3 in class result before some better for race two. For that, Ellahi converted his P3 starting position into his first AMR powered class win within the series which he and CSM will see out to years end.

 

A great start for all concerned.

Photo credits – social media

 

Good times finally came the way of the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team this weekend as their silver graded crew finally made it through to a podium finish early today to take an overall race win within the ADAC GT Masters Series.

Racing this time from the Nurburgring, the #39 AMR Vantage GT3 of Jamie Day and Baudoin Detout benefitted from this weekend’s adjustment in Balance of performance for the turbo charged Vantage to take full benefit of that fact within Sunday’s hour-long race although opportunities were lost within Saturday’s race.

 

With Detout qualifying the car tenth out of the sixteen strong grid for the hour-long race yesterday, the Luxembourger was penalised not only for his false starting position (for which he received a visit to the penalty lane) but also had the effects of that exaggerated with being spun out at turn one for only the second time around.

From that point, and despite the support of DTM racer Nicki Thiim being within the camp this weekend, there was no return for the AMR pairing throughout the hour -long race and they had to make do with another P12 finish.

 

Sunday was, however, a completely new day and Day literally made the most of his qualifying run by securing his first pole position within the series this year.

Also taking the start to race two of the weekend, Day managed to maintain his race lead throughout his half-hour stint before he eventually handed over to Detout with a gap to second place of no more than two seconds. This time, a faultless stint from Detout saw the #39 car running unchallenged at the head of the grid whilst those from second to fourth were left to squabble over the remaining podium places.

 

At the end, the #39 Comtoyou Racing AMR team took their best results of the ADAC GT Masters Series so far with a fine lights to flag race win – Aston Martin Racings first in the series since 2012!!

Photo credits – ADAC / Social media

 

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park proved itself to be another brutal racing affair for the three Aston Martin Racing powered entries with IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge Series despite things beginning very well for some.

On Friday, the #26 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Hannah Greenemeir had snatched the crew and teams second consecutive pole position of the year after Hannah Grisham had done likewise Watkins Glen two weeks earlier.

 

However, unlike last time out, the domination of the blue #26 car only lasted until the fourth corner when an over ambitious lunge from a car behind spun the Aston Martin around leaving it mid corner and at the full mercy of the chasing GS and TCR classes. Luckily, the car was avoided by all and the crew where then helped by the calling of a quick Full Course Yellow because of this and another incident just a few corners on.

Within that secondary incident, the #66 Car Blanche AMR of Allen Patten found himself making inadvertent contact with another car – all of whom were avoiding the #26 car on track only to spin the championship leading McLaren around, but the #66 car managed to maintain its P5 position within the order.

 

Just twenty minutes further in, a significant incident involving both a GS and TCR car saw an immediate Safety Car being called as both the drivers and the circuit damage were being attended to. Eventually when the pitlane was opened, both the #66 and #14 Circle H Racing AMR’s pitted only for the #66 to get later pinged for speeding within the pit lane (getting a drive through penalty for their efforts) whilst the #14 would get later spun around at the final corner. That would see the car hobbled with a puncture which would later turn out to be serious suspension/steering issues that would force the Hampton/Thomas Merril driven car behind the wall and into retirement.

Despite their earlier issues on track, the Hannah’s had made progressive moves through the GS class order for Grisham to be running as high as eighth during the earlier parts of her stint, but an untimely black and orange flag for rearward parts of the car hanging off dropped them back down again. Like Watkins Glen, the ladies earlier pace in qualifying was rewarded with a lower placed finish at the end – this time way down in P15.

 

It was the #66 Car Blanche car of Patten and Trenton Estep who again came off the best out of the three AMR powered runners as despite their earlier contact and later pit lane violation, still came through to claim a P4 finish at the end to keep their championship hopes alive as the crew now find themselves in sixth with just four races to go.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FIA World Endurance Championship dream continues for the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crew earlier today as they went from their P3 podium finish at Le Mans last time out to LMGT3 Pole Position at the end of todays class Hyperpole.

Racing this weekend in Brazil with the fourth round of the FIA WEC season and the six hours of Sao Paulo, saw Gray Newell first set up the teams assault within Hyperpole by finishing fourth during class Qualifying before team substitute driver Kobe Pauwel go for gold in the second session.

 

Today’s results in qualifying and Hyperpole across the LMGT3 and Hypercar classes saw the #27 AMR Vantage LMGT3 finish a surprising P15 in class and not make it through to Hyperpole wilts the teams two Hypercar entries rotated on the usual qualifying format.

 

This time it was the #007 car of Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell who progressed through to the second stage with their P10 result and will start tomorrows race from nineth on the grid whilst the #009 car of Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen start P15 overall.

Photo credits – DPPI / Team / social media

 

Our last round of weekend previews comes in the form of GT4 powered racing as both the Iberian Racing Festival and Britcar Series deliver us some more Aston Martin Racing powered entries to go alongside those already mentioned.

Running this time as a solo, bespoke event for the Campeonato De Portugal de Velocidade Series at the street circuit of Vila Real this time sees just two AMR Vantage GT4 powered crews as listed within the twenty-five strong entry. More used to seeing these names and teams running within the Iberian Supercars Series, this weekend will see just #28 Racar Motorsport AMR of Vasco Oliveira with Manuel Giao compete alongside stablemate Rubens Vaquinhas within his #777 RV7 Team Aston Martin.

 

Last year saw double that AMR powered entry within a smaller overall entry and also proved productive for Vaquinhas who secured two Am class race wins over the weekend to help him on his way to an overall Am Class championship win.

Back within the UK, the Britcar Endurance Series will be running their fourth round of their six-round season with another ninety-minute race at Snetterton on Saturday.

 

Father and son pairing Bill and Martin Addison compete again together within their 17A variant of the Vantage GT4 platform. The pair did also compete together last time out at Spa Francorchamps where one of them did survive a multi-rotation spin at the bottom of Eau Rouge during the heavy rain of Free Practice.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

Having skipped a beat last weekend with both the DTM and ADAC GT4 Germany Series from the Norisring last weekend, the ADAC GT Masters Series is this weekend back in action with their two races of their fourth round of the season from the Nurburgring.

With just sixteen GT3 powered entries again being listed, it will again be the #39 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 car of Baudouin Detout and Jamie Gray taking our attention.

 

The team will presumably be on fine form this weekend after helping Nicki Thiim transfer his pair of pole setting times in DTM to take two overall race wins last weekend around the improvised street circuit layout of the Norisring in downtown Nuremburg.

The season so far has been a progressive and predictably difficult one as Day helps Detout step up to top-flight GT3 racing for the first time after the Frenchman started GT racing for the first time in GT4.

 

Last time out at the Lausitzring back in mid-June, the pairing secured both a P9 and P6 overall finish at the end of each hour long – pit stop punctuated races so they will no doubt be looking for more this time around.

Photo credits - ADAC / Team

 

With the early track sessions to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Sao Paulo just about to take place for the first time later today, there’s probably just about enough time to highlight that fact.

Round four of the revised 2026 calendar, this weekend’s visit to Brazil is also the first fly away round of the season following the postponement of the scheduled opener from Qatar as well as being the first round since the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in mid-June.

 

The Heart of Racing team of course return with their pair of Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars as well as their pair of Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s but with a little driver change within one of the latter’s, thanks to another diary clash with the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

Unfortunately for local racing hero, Brazilian Eduardo Barrichello will be missing his second home race of his so far short WEC career to concentrate upon his IMSA championship lead for the Heart of Racing team up in Canada so for him, there will be no repeat of his podium winning finish that he enjoyed last time out with the Racing Spirit of Leman team.

 

His space within the #23 HoRT AMR Vantage LMGT3 alongside both Jonny Adam and Gray Newell will be Kobe Pauwels again as was the case at the rescheduled season opener from Imola in mid-April. The #23 crew enjoyed a P3 podium winning position last time out at Le Mans.

For their sister #27 AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi, it will be business as usual for the regular trio having suffered terminal gear box failure at Le Mans whilst being constantly being within the top three in class during the early hours of the Sunday morning.

 

That leaves the two Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar entries for the back to two driver line up of both Harry Tinknell/Tom Gamble within the #007 car and Alex Riberas/ Marco Sorensen within the #009 car respectively.

Both crews enjoyed a very positive Le Mans 24Hr alongside their third-man drivers of Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis with the #009 car again getting through to Hyperpole2 before the #007 car out finished their sister crew to attain their best ever finish to the race within the cars two-year racing history at the circuit to finish P8 and P14 respectively.

That was running under ACO rules of Balance of Performance, and it will be back to the FIA WEC version of events this time around so it will be interesting to see just how the top set Hypercar series pans out.

Two ninety-minute Free Practice sessions will fill the timetable today (Friday) before Free Practice 3 precedes Qualifying/Hyperpole on Saturday. The six-hour race is flagged off at 11:30Hrs local.

Photo credits – Team / DPPI / Social media

 

 

 

 

It’s something of a reduced IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship presence at this weekend’s visit across the border to the Canadian Tires Motorsport Park as its just the LMP2 and GTD classes that get the run out alongside that of the Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series.

After the crash-fest that marred the action of the race from Watkins Glen two weeks ago, there will be many with their fingers crossed that there will be no repeat of that this time around.

 

That means that within the main race, we shall only be seeing he fully season #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD alongside that of the rebranded and reimagined Car Blanche team who not only step up to the GTD Pro class but will also furnish another driver line up for this race as well as a patriotic red and white livery as well.

Also, being another race weekend where both the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships again clash calendar wise – hard choices have again been made within the Heart of Racing camp as Eduardo Barrichello misses out on his home WEC round this weekend in favour of his continued championship lead within the GTD class.

 

He will this time be joined by fellow HoRT driver Roamn De Angelis whose Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP entry gets a weekend off from the series. Within the #68 Car Blanche team, Valentin Hasse-Clot will this time be joined by Aussie race Scott Andrews again after he impressed with the then Van Der Steur Racing team for the round from Laguna Seca back in early May. We wait to see just what this new livery will look like but anything beyond a plain white car is always good.

 

Within the supporting Michelin Pilot Challenge Series, there will be just three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews this time around for their sixth round of the season as the Medusa Motorsport team elect not to travel leaving just the #14 Circle H Racing, #26 Heart of Racing and #66 Car Blanche teams and crew to do what they can after another turbulent round from Watkins Glen.

 

We will also welcome the all new #25 CSM Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 entry of Ismaeel Ellahi for the first time as he returns to the series having swapped over from the Porsche chassis for his two fifty-minute rounds.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

For the final two Aston Martin Racing powered racers competing in Europe last weekend, it was sadly for them a case of what might have been had their not been pegged back in terms of performance from the start.

Yes, we’re back to that sordid tale of Balance of Performance again which is the primary reason that neither the #90 E2P Racing AMR Vantage GT3 did very well from the start of the 24H Series to the Nurburgring nor did the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM AMR Vantage GT4 as they battled out only their second round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series from the Norisring.

 

For the Spanish based E2p Racing team, that was the tale being painted upon their social media channels today after their poor showing P9 in class finish to the six plus six-hour debut race for the series from the German circuit. Their matters were made exacerbated by the premature ending of Saturdays six-hour opener due to barrier damage after a high speed off for one of their competitors (thankfully uninjured as a result) and also being needlessly turned around by another car coming up the inside from a country mile away.

 

The team will now concentrate upon the fifth and final round of the European season from their home track of Barcelona towards the end of September.

Then over in Germany, the Cosy Racing with ESM had similar issues as a 30kg base weight increase to their car severely affected their chances around a circuit already not to the benefit of their AMR Vantage GT4 platform.

 

With drivers Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogllock behind the wheel again, these were two very abled drivers who would have wrung the last once of power out of the car but had to make do with a P8 result in race one on Saturday. Then, and despite a reduction in that BoP change to just 20kg in race two – that only allowed the #4 crew to post a P5 result as they now look towards their third round of the season from Oschersleben at the end of month.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst the current Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 was running riot within the DTM Series with Nicki Thiim behind the wheel, some older examples were having similar fun and games at the Le Mans Classic as the SRO sanctioned GT3 Revival Series ran its next two races of the season around the full Circuit de La Sarthe.

Also commemorating the twenty-year anniversary of the platform, the race did also welcome in some forerunners to that class with some well-known names behind the wheel too as Barwell Motorsport also fielding their Aston Martin DBRS9 for the likes of Stephane Ratel of the SRO itself.

 

Featuring two fifty-minute races around the circuit, the #6 Barwell DBRS9 secured a pair of class podium finishes as Ratel and co-driver Robert Hissom finished second within the AM1 class in both races to the Ford GT Matech.

Within the other AM2 class, the V12 AMR Vantage GT3 of Jonathon Mitchell came away with the best Aston Martin powered performance scooping P3 at the end of race one and a class win in race two.

 

 

Dr Afshin Fatemi and his Spiderman liveried #16 car also enjoyed a good run out as he returned with an improving P8 and P5 results respectively whilst both Janos Santa and Franz Wunderlich/Pascal Huteau each suffered misfortune as Santa had a DNF in race one and a P10 in race two whilst the #62 former R-Motorsport driven pairing only managed a couple of laps per race.

Photo credits – Series / teams

 

Within the International GT Open Series, there was unfortunately no dominance for either of the two Aston Martin Racing powered teams as both BoP, race penalties and other events hit both the Pro-Am and Am class entered cars at the Hungaroring.

With Jonny Adam on F1 duties this weekend at Silverstone, Kobe Pauwels was the one who got the nod to sit alongside Charles Bateman within the #97 Blackthorn AMR entry whilst it was business as usual for both Piotr Wira and Tomasz Magdziarz within their #14 Good Speed Racing entry.

 

This time, it was back to the usual seventy-minute race one on Saturday with a sixty minute second race on Sunday (with individual qualifying for each) where both Aston’s would be starting sixth within their respective classes within the midfield of the grid.

With both Pauwels and Magdziarz each taking the start to race one, the race was kept basically clean over the opening laps despite some typical inter-class panel bashing as some jockeyed for position and up towards the pit stop window opening. Finally, a late Safety Car for a Ferrari beached in the gravel interrupted the flow with just twenty minutes remaining where the race eventually ended with the #97 car finishing P12 overall/P5 in class with the #14 car finishing P21 overall/P5 in class.

 

The Comtoyou Racing team alongside driving talent Nicki Thiim today achieved that extremely race event in modern GT racing by scooping not just a pair of overall pole positions but also two overall race wins at this weekends DTM Series visit to the Norisring.

Again fielding a pair of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s for the Dane and fellow teammate Nicolas Baert, it was the Dane who took the performance momentum secured at the previous round from the Lausitzring into the improved street circuit layout within Nuremburg to achieve this feat.

 

Saturdays race opener proved itself to be the usually expected exciting one as twenty-one GT3 cars (with their solo drivers) entered the tight hairpin for the first time. Securing the race lead during the opening laps, the race was soon red flagged for a nasty incident at the hairpin that saw one car miss its braking point/or lose their brakes, to hit into the barrier before slamming into the car in front. Whilst both drivers were eventually hospitalised as a result – neither are understood to have sustained life-threatening injuries although one did sustain a significant leg injury.

That meant that Thiim had to take on another restart with just over twenty minutes of the hour-long race remaining but at least his tyres were still relatively fresh from his mandatory stop just before the red flag. Getting back to green, Thiim didn’t have too much to defend from the opening lap pressure to come home for his only second race win within the series of his career and Comtoyou Racing’s first. Baert would come home P15 overall.

 

Race two on Sunday in contrast was at least started under cloudy but dry conditions before the rain arrived at the circuit forcing Race Control to send out the Safety Car for the initial wet laps. Getting back to green, the pack endured the slippery conditions until another red flag was shown – again for a multiple car incident at the hairpin, just this time not as serious as Saturday but with only twenty minutes having elapsed.

 

The restart allowed those to fit wets if they chose to as the quick quickly dried. With some close company by a Ford Mustang, Thiim had to very dominant on track to maintain track position as the compulsory stop was still looming but another quick stop from the team saw the Dane maintain his lead and take his second race win of the weekend. Baert again finished down in P15.

Photo credits – Team / DTM

 

 

 

 

Despite their pace, this weekend’s European Le Mans Series visit to the picturesque circuit of Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari at Imola, Italy proved itself to be another disappointing affair for the Racing Spirit of Leman LMGT3 powered team.

After Clement Mateu had narrowly missed out upon a class podium starting position for today’s four-hour third round of the season for the #59 Aston Martin Racing Vantage powered car that he shares with Marius Fossard and Valentin Hasse-Clot, all of that effort eventually counted for nothing as heavy contact at the midway point of the race left the car stricken at the side of the track.

Starting just after midday with air temperatures quickly rising into the early thirties, Mateu initially held his ground at the start as the pace setting Corvette scampered off during the opening laps. The race quickly descended into multiple periods of Virtual and full Safety Car periods which then gave teams options on strategy and by calling Mateu in early, that did drop him down to seventh overall in class as the race again tried to settle.

Those early efforts were quickly hampered by Race Control after Mateu was given a Drive Through Penalty for a start line infraction and that did drop them down to near the rear of the fourteen strong class for the bulk of Mateu’s double stint.

 

As the race was approaching its midway point and the end to Mateu’s time within the car, the Frenchman had elevated himself back up the order to seventh and was looking to improve that still further as he attempted a possible double overtake going into Variante Tamborello. Realising his error, Mateu attempted to cut the first section of the corner only to impact heavily into the side of the #63 Mercedes which left that stranded in the middle of the gravel and the Aston Martin sidelined just a little further along with each car paying no further part in the race.

 

The team and crew will now have to regroup and go again at the next round of the season from Spa Francorchamps in late August.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media