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

Aston Martin Racing’s new FIA World Endurance Championship challenger – the Vantage GTE – heads East in search of its first podium this weekend, as the Super Season goes racing at Fuji Speedway in Japan.

Following a highly encouraging performance in the previous round at Silverstone in August, where the new car qualified on the GTE Pro class front row and was a podium contender, the team aims to turn that upward momentum into success this weekend.

“This car is now really finding its feet and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are really excited to go racing again in the FIA WEC,” said Alex Lynn (GB), who shares the #97 Vantage GTE with Maxime Martin (BEL) who is making his first trip to Japan. “There are more improvements to come from the Aston Martin Vantage GTE and hopefully on Sunday we will have shown the world what we are capable of. The target is a podium. We were one place away from that at Silverstone, so if we can achieve it this weekend we will be over the moon.”

So far both the #97 and the sister #95 ‘Dane Train’, driven by Danish duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen, have scored points in all three rounds. This is a testament to the tireless work of the team and its technical partners Michelin and Total which continue to unlock more of potential from the car. But as we go to Japan, always a favourite among the drivers with its challenging sweeping nature and super-enthusiastic fans, Thiim is looking to turn pace in to a points haul.

“Fuji is the first real overseas race of the WEC this year,” said Thiim. “It’s always an adventure going somewhere else and seeing a different country of fans. There is an amazing crowd in Japan. We are looking forward to a good result and this is the point in the championship where we really have to start getting the maximum out of the car. We are always going for the win, but a podium is minimum and this is definitely what we are aiming for here. I think the whole team has made another step, we saw that in Silverstone, and for sure for in Japan it is even bigger.”

Aston Martin Racing Team Principal Paul Howarth added, “We’ve show strong reliability so far, but with 10% of the points for the championship available in Fuji we must maximise our potential. The weather may play a role, and we quite often face variable conditions in Japan, but this is a factor for everyone. Our focus is on maintaining the momentum gained in Silverstone and building on it to achieve the best results. As this championship matures, so it becomes ever more important for us to ensure we get everything right on the track and in the pits and leave nothing on the table.”

The defending 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship GTE Am title-holders go to Fuji aiming to re-establish themselves as the team to beat, having won the opening round in Spa and led convincingly at Le Mans. The #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE, driven by Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A), have form in Japan, having won the race in 2016 and finished second the year before that. The similar TF Sport car driven by Salih Yoluc (TUR), Charlie Eastwood (GB) and Aston Martin Racing factory driver Jonny Adam (GB) finished a brilliant third last time out at Silverstone and will once again be a threat in Japan.

The 6 Hours of Fuji begins at 11:00 local time on Sunday, 14 October.


Source material - Aston Martin Racing

Having already claimed the GTH class Championship at the last round at Donington Park a few weeks ago, the Whitebridge AMR team will be going to the final round of the 2018 GT Cup Championship at Silverstone this weekend fully focussed on lifting the overall Championship win as well in their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4.


The last round at Donington brought out a plethora of Aston Martins as Nigel Hudson brought his V12 Vantage GT3 back out to play as well as Andrew Howard who brought, not just his Vantage GT3 but also a Vantage GT4 with a AMR works driver behind the wheel. Despite that, Whitebridge AMR drivers Adam Hatfield and Chris Murphy went on to end that weekend with a trio of race wins and enough points to confirm them as GTH Class Champions over the Century Motorsport Ginetta.

Ironically, Murphy and Hatfield owe much of their overall championship standing to another Ginetta based team (Team Hard) who offered the duo a continued racing platform aboard one of their G55 cars after their Whitebridge AMR was destroyed in a testing accident for another series during the early part of the season but since the team acquired the former Generation AMR SuperRacing car - they haven't looked back.


The three races that will make up the eight and final event of the season will follow the usual format of Qualifying and races 1 and 2 on Saturday (for the Am drivers only) with the longer race 3 for the AM and any Pro driver that they may have on Sunday.

With the #72 car holding just a slender 11 point lead in the overall championship table over long time leaders from Top Cats Racing all may not be decided until the end of Sunday afternoon but another #TeamAMR overall Championship win wouldn't go amiss!

Photo credits - Steve Jackman

Nearly eight weeks after containerising their cars and equipment after their best display yet in this elongated Championship, Aston Martin Racing will be arriving at the next port of call in the 2018-2019 World Endurance Championship on something of a high after some emphatic factory and customer team results with their old and latest GT3 weaponry.

Having endured something of a deficient Balance of Performance window in the opening two rounds of the FIA WEC's transitional 'Super-Season', the teams dogged ability to push on and look for the tiniest of improvement with their new V8 turbo GTE Vantage was enough for them to secure a 'more favourable' performance window for their home event at Silverstone in August.


Whilst the #95 Dane Train car unfortunately experienced the team's first on-track technical difficulties, the sister #97 car of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn were able to push on to secure a very warranted and justified fourth place in the GTE Pro class marking a distinct improvement in the new GTE package.


In GTE Am, Silverstone was of course so nearly a double podium for the squad as the new TF Sport driver line of Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Jonny Adam earned themselves their second P2 finish of the season so far but with the Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda only just missing out on the final step of the podium half way through the final lap of the race.


Next up this weekend coming is the first of the 'fly away' rounds in the Far East with the six hours of Fuji a month ahead of the next round at Shanghai just a month later which will round off the 2018 half of the Super-Season.

The provisional entry list shows no change to the two AMR GTE Pro cars with the two - two driver line up of Marco Sorensen/Nicki Thiim and Martin/Lynn again being quoted and also no change within the two - three driver line ups in either the #98 or #90 cars.


With the FIA Endurance Committee yet to make public any changes to the performance criteria from that of Silverstone it is thought that only a minor weight increase shall affect the Am class cars, the biggest question for Fuji shall again remain around the weather conditions at the circuit with the event having been hampered by torrential rain over many occasions.

With so much positivity happening within the #TeamAMR over recent weeks with the likes of a much improved performance last time out in the WEC, Jonny Adam securing the British GT overall win and Saturdays performance of the all new Vantage GT3 at the Nordschleife at the hands of Darren Turner and Maxime Martin can only be a good thing for the team as they look to see 2018 out on a high.


Track action starts this Friday with the usual two Free Practice sessions before the final Free Practice and Qualifying on Saturday. The six hour race starts Sunday at 11:00am local (BST +8hrs).

Photo credits - VLN / AMR / WEC

Despite achieving two podiums at rounds nine and ten of the 2018 China GT Championship this week, China Equity AMR's Jack Mitchell and Stanley Yang come away from the event having lost their GT4 Championship lead with just the season finale in Shanghai coming up in two weeks time.

With little information again coming out of central China in terms of video footage and timely race reports, we can see that the #618 crew benefited early on in race 1 of the week as the pole setting McLaren became carried away on the tight street circuit of Wuhan, colliding heavily firstly into another car before the barriers causing a long Safety Car period whist the debris as cleared.


For the immediate period after and up the the compulsory pitstop window at the halfway mark Yang led the race with the team's sister #618 car close behind before Charlie Fagg emerged from the pit lane in his Winning Team McLaren in between the two AMR's leaving something of a repeat of the final round of the British GT Championship when Mitchell secured his GT4 crown.

After putting in repeated laps quicker then Mitchell, Fagg eventually passed his fellow Brit to take the class win - something he seemed considerably pleased with considering what happened at Donington Park two weeks ago.


Race 2 of the Championship was something of a domineering affair for the two Winning Team McLaren's as they held a controlling 1-2 over both Astons leading into the pitstop window. Team orders or just a chivalrous act followed allowing the then trailing car of Charlie Fagg (who had taken over again from team GT4 Championship contender David McKintyre) to pass the leading McLaren to claim maximum points from the weekend.


The #618 car was hampered on the damp street track after Yang made early contact with the barrier requiring a long pitstop for repairs but at least a little luck was to come their way after the race. The sister Winning Team McLaren of Dong Liang was later disqualified from the race for a technical infringement - a decision that elevated the #618 crew up to second place for the second time of the event with the sister China Equity AMR in third.


That result returns the Championship lead to David McKintyre by just two points over Jack Mitchell with the final event in Shanghai to come!

Photo credits - China GT / China Equity AMR

Fine autumnal sunshine greeted TF Sport today for what was their final UK testing session of 2018 at Snetterton as the team gave their latest customers, Red River Sport their final taster of the Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 as their three drivers made their final preparations for their latest step up the sportscar ladder into the four round Asian Le Mans Series which starts next month.


In another little twist, the car on track today was not the car that Bonamy Grimes, Ivor Dunbar and Johnny Mowlem will race at the series opener in Shanghai at the end of November. Todays car was in fact Mark Farmer's new car that he used in the British GT Championship finale as the car that Red River Sport will be racing - the former Oman Racing by TF Sport car as used by Ahmad Al Harthy, Charlie Eastwood and Euan McKay in the Blancpain GT Series only last weekend in Barcelona had already been dispatched by container for the six week sea passage to the Far East.

Speaking with team boss Tom Ferrier certainly showed a few fingers being crossed on that turning up on time!



With today being the fourth such test with the team, emphasis was given to getting Gentleman driver Dunbar as much seat team as possible in the AMR as he had only a brief outing in the car first time out with TF Sport at Silverstone a couple of months ago. Whilst this was all going on Grimes would be out in the Red River LMP3 Norma under the watchful eye of the experienced Mowlem.

Before he hit the track, Grimes confirmed that their new relationship with TF Sport had come about as a matter of fortune and luck after the Red River Sport entered V8 Vantage GT4 shared adjoining 'garages' with the TF Sport entered Mark Farmer GT3 crew at the AMR Festival at Le Mans in June with the resulting informal 'chats' later extending into this business agreement.


The clincher for the deal was the venerable V12 Vantage's drivability that not only impressed the gentleman drivers but also the vastly experienced, multi Le Mans entrant Mowlem. When we became aware of this project back in late August after their first test together at Silverstone the deal had yet to be signed!


For the TF Sport crew as a whole, they all fly out to Japan on Sunday as the World Endurance Championship resumes with the 6Hours of Fuji next weekend. Drivers Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood are already over in the country and may participate in a local GT type of event at the circuit this weekend. Remaining driver Jonny Adam was also at Snetterton continuing his AMR factory testing duties this time on the new Vantage GT4 after three days in Spain testing the new Vantage GT3.

With so many national and European race series having already come to an end you would have thought that this year's motor racing season was coming to another natural conclusion for the year, but in fact this weekend is just as busy as another other in the year (and will be for the next few weeks) as many members of the #TeamAMR family will be striving for success around the world.

Firstly, the China GT Championship's penultimate round in the more central Chinese city of Wuhan is already underway with a mid week fixture around its street circuit as China Equity AMR look to strengthen their slender four point GT4 championship lead over the chasing pack with just four races remaining.


In a slight change to the driver line up, Stanley Yang takes his seat back again behind the wheel of the  team's championship leading #618 car and will with freshly crowned British GT GT4 Champion Jack Mitchell as Ryan Liu takes a 'back seat'. The team's #619 car will again be driven by David Pun and Will O'Brien.


We understand from race organisers that there will be NO live stream of either race over their social media channels which is a great shame!


With huge significance for the Aston Martin Racing team, Saturday sees the first competitive race entry for its yet to be homologated V8 Vantage GT3 at the penultimate round of the German VLN Series from the Nordschleife. Entering its final and critical phase of development, the demands of the Green Hell will be used to finely tune the new GT3 platform ahead of its official homlogation date of early March 2019 but which time many new cars will have already been supplied to the first bunch of customer teams.

AMR factory drivers Darren Turner and Maxime Martin will get the honour of driving the #56 car in Saturday's four hour race and that will be after Martin and Jonny Adam have finished with it after a further two day test at the Circuit de Catalunya this week. You will recall that AMR test and WEC reserve driver Ross Gunn had the overall honour of launching the new car onto the world stage by 'coming first' in the Aston Martin Racing Festival race at Le Mans in June although then the car was  more a of GTE than a GT3.

Supporting the factory effort in the new GT3 and launching their own pathways through to the all important VLN GT3 Permit aboard one of the AMR Performance Centre's Vantage #150 GT4 will be Ross Gunn competing alongside AML development driver Chris Goodwin in what we believe may be his first public racing experience with Aston Martin?


Long term AMR Performance Centre customer Jurgen Kroner will again peddle his wares around the circuit in the Centre's Vantage S car alongside Marco Muller and a double stinting Turner in the AMR Performance centre #144 Vantage S.

Full season entry from Avia Racing will again be back with their #188 Vantage GT4, presumably desperate to overcome their recent run of bad luck with two DNF's and most latterly a DNS after a season that started so well for them.


Back in the UK, the Dunlop sponsored Britcar Championships hold their penultimate round of the season at Silverstone with just Chris Murphy and his Whitebridge AMR holding the flag for the marque with the EDF Motorsport prepared Vantage GT4 of Mal Sandford again sitting the round out after something of a mixed bag last time out at Snetterton.


Finally in club racing, the Aston Martin Owners Club also have their final round of the season at Silverstone alongside Britcar. It was hoped that Gleb Stepanov's Aston Martin Vulcan could have been there again after it wowed the crowd last time out at Snetterton but now we understand that following an extended run out at both the Best of Italy Festival and then a private Aston Martin Vulcan customer test at Vallelunga the other week, that has now put pay to that possibility sadly.


And at Snetterton 22GT Racing will be along with one of their V8 Vantage GT4's that they helped run at the Aston Martin Racing Festival At Le Mans in the 750MC event on Saturday.

Photo credits - EDF Motorsport / AMOC / AML / China GT