Italian Partner Team, Solaris Motorsport today completed a two day extended test at their nearby Adria International Raceway circuit as they continue to prepare themselves for the Silverstone round of the International GT Open Series later in September.

Having suffered a catastrophic accident at the Paul Ricard Winter Test that wrote off their V12 Vantage GT3 back in March, the Francesco Sini / Mauro Calamia driven #007 car has always been on 'the back foot' with various set up/balance issues during the opening rounds of the series.

Such were the extent of their issues that in June the team decided to miss the Hungaroring round of the series in early July in order to make use of the extended break period between rounds for some extensive testing.


Speaking with the team earlier this evening, they already feel that this two day test has left them in a 'better place' after working through a rigorous programme of set up options as well as testing new components.

They have also indicated that they expect to test again sometime in August at a venue to be confirmed in England prior to racing at Silverstone on the 2nd and 3rd September.

Photo credits - Solaris

Aston Martin Racing driver Richie Stanaway claimed the fastest lap record for a four door car around the infamous Nordschleife circuit in Germany today.

Not just any old car though as this was a Prodrive built Subaru WRX STI Type RA NBR Special!


This two and a half litre, turbo charged, 600HP rocket secured a record breaking time of 6:57:50 seconds around the 12.8 mile Green Hell with Stanaway behind the wheel.

Photo credits - Subaru USA / Prodrive

Todays opening gambits from the GTE class give early pointers to a close race in Sunday's third round of the European Le Mans Series over in Austria at the Red Bull Ring.

With the track action today including the Bronze Driver test this morning before the first of two Free Practice session this afternoon the six car GTE grid were spread by little over 0.5 seconds with the #90 TF Sport V8 Vantage GTE of Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Nicki Thiim being the highest placed AMR in P2 whilst the #99 Beechdean AMR car of Andrew Howard, Ross Gunn and Darren Turner finished that session in P6.


Tomorrow morning shall see the ELMS field return to the track for their second and final Free Practice sessions ahead of class Qualifying in the afternoon. As long as the warm track temperatures remain and any further thunderstorms remain at bay we should expect to see the leading lap time of the #77 Proton Competition Porsche (1:29:728) fall somewhat during the course of tomorrow.

Photo credits - TF Sport / ELMS

Its great to see the return of The Racer Group return to the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship (as another one off entry again) this weekend as the California based team dust down their V12 Vantage GTD for their first competitive entry into their national headline sportscar series this year.

Drivers Brandon Davis and James Davison are certainly no strangers to either the car nor the team having already raced the blue #007 in both previous years of the IMSA series as well as this year in the Pirelli World Challenge.


This crew will join at the event the TRG's full season IMSA Continental Tyre Sportscar Challenge V8 Vantage GT4 entry of Kris Wilson and Craig Lyons, a crew who presently lie mid table in the GS class after a mixed bag of results so far this season.

Reigning European Le Mans Series GTE Champions Beechdean Aston Martin Racing (AMR), will travel to South East Austria this weekend to resume the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) after a nine week summer break.

The Red Bull Ring is a 4.326 km circuit, nestled in the beautiful hills of the Styria Mountains near Spielberg and offers spectators great viewing opportunities. The Red Bull Ring features three long straights allowing drivers to slipstream their rivals and attempt an overtake into turns one, two and three.

The gap in the ELMS season is scheduled in order to accommodate the Le Mans 24 Hour race but it has also allowed the competing ELMS teams time to reflect on the first two races and make plans and preparations for the remainder of the season. Beechdean AMR drivers Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Ross Gunn, head to the Red Bull Ring third in the championship standings, a mere 5 points from second. A good points haul this weekend will keep them in the championship hunt.

Round three of the European Le Mans Series takes place this coming weekend (21-23 July) at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

With victory at Silverstone followed by the runner-up position at Monza, TF Sport lead the LMGTE Teams’ classification with 44 points, nine clear of its nearest rival and therefore head to Spielberg with Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Nicki Thiim confident of a good result.

The team also took advantage of a test day last Thursday at Spa Francorchamps to put some additional miles on the #90 Aston Martin Vantage V8 and to focus on driver development with Yoluc and Hankey, reporting that the test was a success and good preparation for the forthcoming events.

With just under a fortnight to go until the biggest race of the Blancpain Endurance Cup season, the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Ahmad Al Harthy says the Oman Racing team is more than ready for the category’s blue riband event than ever.

During the recent official pre-event test day at the Belgian Grand Prix venue, where the squad produced a strong showing with the No.97 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, Al Harthy and regular team-mate Jonny Adam were joined by third driver Salih Yoluc, who raced with the squad during the previous round at Paul Ricard in France, and team newcomer Euan Hankey.

After nearly an eight week break, the 2017 European Le Mans Series resumes for Round three this weekend from the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Full season entries from Beechdean AMR and TF Sport again feature (quite prominently we hope) within the six car entry alongside three Ferrari 488's and a single Porsche 911 RSR that make up the GTE class entry, one entry down to last time out in Monza.

Of course, both the #99 Beechdean AMR and the #90 TF Sport participated within the 85th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June where the cars finished fourth and seventh respectively but without their usual Pro drivers - a great achievement by all.

The Le Mans winning Aston Martin Racing squad of Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra, finished Round 4 of the FIA World Endurance Championship in seventh place at Germany’s Nürburgring on Sunday.

The #97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE is the only car in the GTE Pro class running with a three-driver crew post-Le Mans after it was decided that the all-conquering team should stay together for the remainder of the season.

As Darren was behind the wheel for qualifying at Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans, it was Daniel Serra and Jonny Adam’s job to qualify the Aston Martin in Germany. Unfortunately they had to settle for eighth place in a closely contested session, struggling with the balance of the Aston Martin.

Jonny Adam took the start of the six-hour race on Sunday before handing the #97 over to Turner.

“The conditions at the start were a bit tricky as it had rained before the race so the track was a bit cold and slippery,” explained Turner. “Jonny managed to have a good run though and made up a position when one of the Ferraris ran into trouble.