2023 will see TF Sport’s first all-French line-up as Arnold Robin, Maxime Robin and Valentin Hasse Clot make their European Le Mans Series debut, in the LMGTE class aboard TF’s Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

After making their GT3 debut at the beginning of 2022 and finishing fourth in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Gold class standings, the sibling duo now team up with AMR Factory driver Hasse Clot, in a bid for the LMGTE class title.

Although Hasse Clot is no stranger to the British marque, Valentin will join Arnold and Maxime in making their race debut in the Vantage GTE machinery, the livery of which will be revealed at a later date.

 

Team TGM will move their entire racing program to Aston Martin for 2023 with its IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge campaign joining its previously announced Rolex 24 at Daytona assault with the British brand.

Last month the team announced its partnership with Aston Martin and TF Racing for the upcoming 2023 Rolex 24-Hour race at Daytona. The team’s two-car 2023 full-season effort in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge will now feature Aston Martin Vantage GT4 race cars in the GS category.

“We’ve seen the success of the Aston Martin program throughout the past few years and are very impressed with their development of the Vantage GT4 and consistent results,” said team owner and driver Ted Giovanis.

“Aston Martin vehicles won both the IMSA Michelin Pilot GS and the WeatherTech GTD championships in 2022. They also won and took runner-up in the driver and team FIA Endurance GTE Am championships.

“Most impressively, Aston Martin won the 2022 running of the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. To say they have been stalwarts in sportscar racing worldwide would be an understatement. Their outstanding results over the past few years, with multiple championships, have been exciting to watch. Everyone at Team TGM is looking forward to embarking on this new partnership with the marque.”Additionally, the championship-winning team will renew their driver lineup from 2022 with team owner, Ted Giovanis sharing the No. 64 Aston Martin with Owen Trinkler and brothers Hugh and Matt Plumb co-driving in the No. 46 Team TGM Vantage. With the similar livery on the two cars, the No. 64 will sport distinctive orange wing ends and rearview mirrors, with the No. 46 car in blue in these areas.

“We have what is arguably the best driver lineup in the Michelin Pilot Challenge paddock, so why mess with it?” said Giovanis.

“Although very competitive, this team is more like family, and we feel we have the right combination of driver talent and experience to win another championship in 2023.

“We tend to excel in the endurance format and will be looking to start very strong at Daytona in January when we have one of just two 4-hour races in 2023 (the other at Indianapolis in September).“

The IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona is scheduled for January 28-29, 2023.

Source material - Team TGM

 

A turbo charged version of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 has just hit the shores of South Africa in time for the final round of the domestic South Africa GT Series this weekend.

Nothing new in a new iteration AMR competing within that country of course as that accolade went to the Garage 59 team when they competed within the Kyalami 9hrs Intercontinental GT event at Kyalami few years ago, but this news will see the platform move into their domestic GT theatre for the first time.

 

And long may that be the case as several Aston Martin Racing powered teams have continued to pound the tracks of Europe this week ahead of the start of their 2023 season, which for some is just a couple of months away.

Over in Portimao this week, you will find the Bullitt Racing AMR team continue with testing with their AMR Vantage GT3 ahead of a recently confirmed entry into the Asian Le Mans Series which starts in Dubai in February.

 

Following on from their earlier Asian Le Mans Series confirmation, the Japanese based D’Station Racing team have today confirmed another two-car entry into next season within their domestic Super Taikyu Series.

Having raced this year with an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and well as converting to the Vantage GT8R from the Vantage GT4 platform in time for this year, the team have confirmed a continuation of their 2022 drive line up aboard both cars.

 

Shamefully having to catch up again with the weekends news again leads us straight into offering our congratulations to the Century Motorsport team and crew for their tremendous class pole through to class win at the inaugural 24H Series Kuwait 12hrs event at the weekend.

Racing their distinctive black, orange and gold liveried Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 usually seen within the GT Cup and British GT paddocks of late saw their gentleman driver David Holloway return to the desert for another extended race format event having competed previously within the Gulf 12hrs event.

It has been another mighty few days for various Aston Martin Racing powered teams this week as entry confirmations have been landing in their in-boxes ahead of next year’s Asian Le Mans Series.

We have already warmly received the news that the D’Station Racing team from Japan will again be making that long trip to the Middle East for the quick fire, four round series together again with their long-standing friends at TF Sport.

 

Two eight-hour races from the Circuit of the Americas this weekend sees out the World Racing League Series for the year with three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s competing amongst the now traditional sell-out grid.

Having started at Nola Motorsport Park way back in February, a massive one hundred and fifty-eight hours of racing has already taken place within the series even before the capacity grid of ninety cars get to the CoTA circuit.

The latest slice of Prosport Racing 2023 news was confirmed by the German based team today as they announced that they will be promoting their GT4 champions up into the heady heights of the GT3 class for next season.

Possibly still tending heavy heads of their own from the SRO Award night in London over the weekend, saw the Christoph Esser team confirm that their ADAC GT4 Germany Champions Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse will now be taking the step up into the GT3 (SP9) class for the 2023 Nurburgring Langstrecken Series (VLN Series) within one of the teams available Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s.

Primarily racing as a duo, additional hands will however be required within the car for the longer rounds of the series and namely the ADAC TotalEnergies 24H event which will run next year towards the end of May.

With Sasse only just collecting his Nordschleife Permit at the conclusion to the 2022 NLS season, this will of course be a big step forward for the young German pair who worked so well together in both the GT4 Germany and GT4 European Series.

This news is again only a small slice of available news due to come from the team after they sourced additional AMR machinery in time for an expected expanded racing commitment next season both in GT3 and GT4.

Photo credits – Teams / ADAC GT4 Germany

 

It appears that our earlier surmising that the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team were about to confirm a return to the Asian Le Mans Series next year were indeed correct as the Japanese announced earlier today.

Not only were they confirming their return to the ACO rules series, but they also confirmed the retentions of the technical services of Tom Ferrier’s TF Sport crew as well as their World Endurance Championship silver co-driver, Charlie Fagg to partner Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii aboard the teams #77 AMR Vantage GT3.

 

With both the Gulf 12Hrs and 24H Series putting up four events between them within the Middle Eastern racing theatre throughout both December and early January next year, its somewhat sad to see that only one Aston Martin Racing powered team has made that long journey for any of those events.

Having competed in both the British GT Championship and GT Cup Series in recent seasons back home, Century Motorsport has again paved the way back east for gentleman driver David Holloway to go racing with his AMR Vantage GT4 in the forthcoming and inaugural 24H Series event in Kuwait after his last continental adventure with them at the rescheduled Gulf 12hrs event at the start of the year.

 

Less than two weeks after the public announcement of their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE powered European Le Mans and 24 Hours of Le Mans plans for 2023 had the Danish GMB Motorsport team out in Spain testing their latest racing hardware.

Having won the GT3 Le Mans Cup Series with a Honda NSX saw the Casper Elgaard lead team confirm a transition to the AMR brand in time for the final year of GTE racing within ACO rules series for their GT3 winning crew.

Whilst we already know of some established Aston Martin Racing powered teams moving on and up the ‘racing ladder’ with another brand next season, it’s great to read that their void may well be filled with another AMR powered runner.

Utilising the ability of the internet last night, we strolled across another advert upon the Racecarsdirect.com website we found that the Van Der Steur Racing team in the USA has put the word out that they are looking for potential drivers to fill the seats within their soon to be expected AMR Vantage GT4.

More akin to racing Hyundai’s within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, this advert signals (we understand from others) a long-held desire to move up the IMSA class system to run a GT4 in which has been listed as either the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series and/or the new IMSA Sportscar Challenge.

Whilst we are all aware of the Michelin Pilot Challenge of late with Volt Racing’s Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman finally securing the overall crown at the final round of the season a month ago, this Sportscar Challenge Series is a replacement for the Prototype Challenge Series with the redefined series allowing GT4 based cars to run alongside the LMP3 based cars for the first time.

With the opening round to the IMSA sanctioned series at the Rolex 24 event at Daytona just under two months away, time is obviously now of the essence with all enquiries asked to contact the team at +1 (410) 877-4088 or at chris.deely@efcusa.com in the first instance.

Full details of the listing can be found here at https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/132987/imsa-gt4-tcr-drives-available

Photo credits – Teams / Racecarsdirect

 

Like we have said before, there are not too many races left in the calendar before we see out 2022 but one of those events is the final round of the Super Taikyu Series from Suzuka, Japan this weekend.

Again, featuring amongst the traditionally large multi-class grid for this final five-hour affair will be the two D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT8R and GT3.