The entry list for next weekend’s GTD only round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship from the Virginia International Raceway is now out and there’s another surprise move from the YRB Racing Car Blanche team.

Limited to just the GTD and GTD Pro classes due to the limitations of the circuit, we will again be seeing one Aston Martin Racing powered crew within each as the GTD class as the championship leading #27 Heart of Racing AMR continues within that class with Eduardo Barrichjello and Tom Gamble this time behind the wheel.

 

The surprise is that the #68 Car Blanche entry not only moves back across to the GTD Pro class having raced within both classes so far since their emergence from the Van Der Steur Racing name, but this time Valentin Hasse-Clot has fellow AMR works driver Marco Sorenson by his side for this event.

That class reassignment sees the GTD Pro class entry move back to ten entries whilst the #27 HoRT entry will be battling within a class size of thirteen cars for this two hours and forty-minute race.

 

With just this round and two more to go, Barrichello maintains an even more slender lead at the top of the GTD class as results have cut that down to just twenty-four points after the cars disappointing P15 finish last time out at Road America. Next weekend’s race will be pivotable for the team to maintain their championship ambitions for the Brazilian racer after the Car Blanche crew enjoyed another podium finish.

Photo Credits – Teams / social media

 

 

 

The DTM completes our weekend build up reports as the German series moves onto the Nurburgring as their twenty-one-car field race out the two sprint races that will make up the sixth round of the season.

Within that number, there will of course be the two Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s of both Nicki Thiim and Nicolas Baert after the Dane lost his championship lead last time out at Oschersleben as his success ballast and Balance of performance adjustment for that round took full effect.

 

Having gone from pole to win in both of the two races at the Norisring in order to take the overall championship lead, the #007 car of Thiim was then hit with the maximum success ballast which then saw him battling hard for the scraps, picking up just one additional point for fastest lap in race two. Thiim now stands twenty-one points behind the now leading Mercedes Benz AMG GT3 of Marco Engel.

As for Baert’s championship run – well, that couldn’t really get any worse for the Belgian racer as he was again saddled with another two DNF’s at Oschersleben albeit with the credit of his crew winning fastest stop in race two.

Photo credits – ADAC / Team / social media

 

 

 

 

In the rather timely manner in which they operate, the European Le Mans Series confirmed their entry list earlier today ahead of their fourth round of the season from Spa Francorchamps, Belgium next weekend.

Only yesterday were we writing about the unfortunate departure of Clement Mateu from the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 powered team and the series with us (then) just how that would have impacted upon the team for the remaining half of the 2026 season.

 

Well, today’s news from the series has confirmed that Anthony McIntosh will indeed be returning to the team (for at least this event – maybe more) in lieu of Mateu having done similar last season when Derek DeBoer also found himself unable to complete the second half of the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Swiss based squad.

Thanks to another clash between the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and the ACO rules ELMS series, the #59 RSLM driver Valentin Hasse-Clot also finds himself committed to racing stateside next weekend meaning that there were actually two seats going spare within the #59 car. Today confirmation has seen Hasse-Clot’s position being taken by Canadian racer Parker Thompson whilst the remaining full season driver, Marius Fossard completes the driver line-up for the team as they run a bronze/silver/silver format this time around as the #59 car makes up the confirmed forty seven car line-up.

 

 

With the Le Mans Cup Series also supporting the ELMS in Belgium, Hasse-Clot’s absence will also enforce a driver change within the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entry that he shares with fellow class championship leader, Philipp Sager. We understand (although not yet confirmed by the series) that Fossard will be double dutying between series for the team this time around.

That change will come off the back of their class win at Le Mans.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

Whilst yesterday we were sharing some good news from within the Aston Martin Racing powered camp, today sadly sees the need to share some sadder news with you regarding Clement Mateu and his European Le Mans Series campaign this season.

 

Posting today upon his social media, the Frenchman confirmed that his 2026 ELMS campaign with both the Racing spirit of Leman team and their AMR Vantage LMGT3 as well as co-drivers Valentin Hasse-Clot and Marius Fossard, ends with immediate effect.

 

Recently blessed with another addition to the Mateu family, he described how additional costs of his ELMS and Le Mans 24Hrs endeavours so far this season have now become unsustainable for him to continue despite the best of efforts from himself and his partners. 

 

This news comes out (into the public domain at least) just over a week before the fourth round of the ELMS season from Spa Francorchamps. Hopefully, the team has been given more notice than this to search for a suitable bronze graded replacement to allow for the #59 crewed car to continue in Belgium and at the final rounds of the season.

 

Within the ELMS series, a bronze graded driver is a mandatory requirement within the LMGT3 class. 

For an astute businessman and a proud father that he is, we feel that this decision (although hard) is precisely the right decision for him and his family and that he should and can be proud of his achievements so far!

 

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

 

After what feels like a lifetime since their last round, the British GT Championship is back in town this weekend as their GT3 and Gt4 based grid reconvene at the somewhat parched Snetterton circuit in Norfolk for two more fast and furious sprint races.

In reality, that last round at Spa Francorchamps back in June was still some eight weeks ago in late June where the British GT grid of twenty five cars shared the Belgian circuit with the cars from the French FFSA GT4 Series to create at best, a very interesting racing environment for many or at worst, a platform where the ‘lesser’ driver in the smallest of cars could not stand with the much faster GT3 cars thundering passed them leading to multiple yellow flag incidents on track.

 

That being said, the #27 Grange Racing AMR Vantage GT4 Pro-Am pairing of Dan Lavery and Darren Turner had nothing to fear as that duo continued their rapid rise up the class order to win at Spa.

The sole AMR Vantage GT3 entry from the Beechdean AMR squad for drivers Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn were looking well placed within that race to continue their healthy points haul in the championship so far but for some unforced errors on track that saw post-race time penalties ultimately drop them down the order to eventually finish fifth.

 

It was a similar tale for the #21 MK Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton which saw an off-track experience for Hawkins during qualifying leave Orton unable to run his laps leaving their car at the back of the British GT GT4 class for the start of the race. As expected, being a silver/silver pairing, they did rise up the order to also eventually finish fifth in class at the end.

That left both the Pro-Am GT4 pairing of Joe Wheeler/James Townsend in their #40 Townsend Racing by Fox Motorsport entry plus the #97 GBR Stratton AMR Vantage GT4 Evo entry of John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson to lament upon what might have been after numerous errors (of their own and others) left them slightly lower down the class order but with both crews still securing valuable class points.

 

Going into this weekend’s two, one-hour sprint races on Sunday, the #007 Beechdean GT3 crew still lie third within the GT3 Pro-Am Drivers Championship but have now slipped to sixth within the Overall GT3 Drivers order whilst both the #21 MK Racing and #27 Grange Racing pairings remain strong contenders within the top four of the Overall GT4 Drivers Championship whilst also being 1st or 2nd within their respective classes.

Proving that consistency is the key within any championship, the #97 GBR Stratton crew presently sit fourth within their GT4 Pro-Am class, just ten and a half points behind the more race headline winning #27 crew with the #40 Townsend crew just a further eight points back behind them. The points availability this weekend will undoubtedly change all of the above at some point.

 

With an Amber weather alert for heat already in situ for this Thursday, events at Snetterton this weekend will be very hot for one reason or another with just how drivers and teams manage themselves in what will be some very uncomfortable conditions on both pit lane and the track. The same will go for their tyre allocation.

Private testing will again be available to the teams on Friday before the more formal track sessions beginning on Saturday.

Photo credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey / social media

 

 

 

 

Some encouraging news out of North America today as the Racers Edge Motorsport team confirm an Aston Martin Racing powered entry into the next round of the GT4 America Series from Road America at the end of the month.

Since the British brand almost dominated the entry list within the series just a few years ago, it has been an unfortunate gradual decline in numbers ever since to there not actually being any Aston Martin powered entries within the series – until now!!

Today’s news sees racing legend Billy Johnson return to the team and alongside Christian Bach who will be making both his racing career debut within the series and with the teams AMR Vantage GT4 Evo.

Photo Credits – Team

 

 

The ADAC GT4 Germany Series is back in business again this weekend coming as the series moves onto the Nurburgring for its fourth round of the season.

The #4 Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crew of Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok will be looking to maintain that recent string of form found last time out at Oschersleben.

 

There the crew capitalised up Springob’ pole position in race one to win overall before they converted Gogollok’s P3 start in race two into another podium finish in third to now secure third place within both the overall and Junior Drivers Championship’s going into this round.

It appears that the #4 car will also benefit from a drop in its declared Balance of Performance minimum weight of last time out (which ran as high as an additional 40kg over the cars minimum base weight at the start of the season at Oschersleben) to run with just 20kg for this weekend.

 

Whilst the entry list for the Nurburgring has yet to be confirmed, we do expect it to again run with the nineteen runners that it has so far this season, but there is always the prospect of a guest entry or two.

The race format will also be the same with Q1 and Race 1 on Saturday before Q2 and Race 2 on Sunday – both races being an hour long with a compulsory pitstop window in the middle.

Photo credits - ADAC

 

The fifth round ninety-minute adventure of the Britcar Endurance Championship earlier today proved itself to be an unfortunately short one for the Addison Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4.

With the father and son combo of Bill and Martin Addison again behind the wheel of their #189 GT class entry, yesterday’s testing results looked favourable for the pairing as most of today’s twenty-five strong, multi-classed entry enjoyed a day’s testing around the arid looking Donington Park circuit ahead of today’s qualifying and race.

Bucking the trend of their usual performance, it was Bill Addison who qualified the car P22 overall and P12 in class ahead of this afternoons ninety-minute round around the shorter National circuit layout.

 

Despite a clean start by all, the #189 race ended abruptly at the start of only the third lap when the camera panned across to see the red and white liveried car side on to the tyre wall on the outside of Redgate’s. Having evidently made its way through the gravel before impacting nose on to the barrier before losing its bonnet and its part within the race. The causation of this event wasn’t seen by the cameras but there were other cars behind them on track at the time.

 

After some very busy race weekends recently, it’s nice to know that this weekend coming sees just one Aston Martin Racing powered entry compete any recognisable championship that we are aware about from Donington Park on Saturday.

Having placed our resident proof-reading expert under some pressure since the busyness of last weekend’s track action, that news will come as some relief to them after they corrected with non-deliberate error or two into just one ninety-minute race this time around.

That attention will be featured onto father and son duo, Bill and Martin Addison who will again be competing with their 17A AMR Vantage GT4 within the Britcar Endurance Championship’s fifth round.

 

This time featuring as a solo ninety-minute race around the shorter national layout of the circuit, their #189 Addison Racing entry will again compete within their GT class entry amongst thirteen other entries in class and a total expected race entry of twenty-eight multi-classed cars.

It will be straight into action for the Britcar entry as a twenty-minute qualifying session in the morning will lead into the start of the race just after lunch. We believe that these races are usually streamed via YouTube if you’re interested.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Whilst one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered team continued with their fine form from last time out, the other stabilised their performances to come home with some more silverware of their at the end of last weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe Spring Cup event from Magny-Cours.

The Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR team, and particularly their #34 silver class entered Vantage of Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez, had enjoyed some well-deserved success last time out in the series from Misano just two weeks ago and this time round in France would see that continue – at least for the first race.

 

Having endured some torrential rain during some opening sessions, the first race of the weekend was an into the night race around at least a now dry former home to the French Grand Prix, the #21 silver classed entry from the Comtoyou Racing team had struck early gold by claiming pole position within their class for drivers Oliver Soderstrom and Arthur Dorison. The #7 Comtoyou Racing Pro classed entry of Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels had also bounced back from a torrid round in Italy to claim sixth overall in qualifying.

Whilst that pole position didn’t turn into a podium finish for the #21 crew (as they finished 5th in class), it did for both the #7 and #34 crews as both crews took third in class at the end.

 

Sunday was another day and another qualifying session where this time, the #7 car inherited overall pole position after the faster BMW powered crew were penalised with their sister #21 car also going great guns again, claiming a P2 start to this race.

Whatever happened during the heat of the day, both Walkenhorst AMR entries this time struggled for pace in both qualifying and the race to end their weekend no higher than seventh in class for Day/Villagomez and P8 for the #35 Maxime Robin Gaspard Simon entry.

 

During the race, however, Lady Luck finally evaded the #7 crew as they fell back down to P11 at the finish whilst the #21 crew finally earned their first podium finish of the season after their P3 finish.

For the bronze classed #11 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni, there was at least some improvement for this crew compared to what was tehir first round of the Sprint Cup season last time out in Misano, but they did still finish at the back of the pack at the end of each race.

 

The Sprint series runners now get a bit of a break after near back-to-back rounds as the Endurance Cup round from the Nurburgring is next up for the teams – the next round of Sprint will be from Zandvoort in about six weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

 

 

It was a worthwhile return to the GT Cup Championship for the Oselli Motorsport team at the weekend as the Aston Martin Racing powered dup secured a brace of P3 class finishes for their efforts at Silverstone.

With both Matt Eddolls and Sam Maher-Loughan again behind the wheel of their #95 AMR Vantage GT4 Evo, they and twenty-one other runners (including the Full Send Racing AMR entry of Steve Lloyd and Tom Wood) raced a slightly differing format to the weekend as race one was to be a usual fifty-minute race whilst race two on Sunday was a one-hundred-minute affair.

 

Competing around the full Grand Prix circuit the # 95 crew came home on Saturday with a P17 overall / P3 in class result – bettering it in race two with a P13 overall P3 result whilst the debuting #27 Full Send Racing crew came home P4 and P5 in class respectively across the two races with their older 17A variant of the Vantage GT4 platform.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

After those six hours that were the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship’s visit to Road America at the weekend, we certainly needed time to digest exactly what did happen out on track, but whatever it was, it did leave one Aston Martin Racing powered crew with a well-earned podium finish.

Despite the mixed track conditions through Free Practice and into Qualifying didn’t seem to hamper the two AMR Vantage GTD entries from the Heart of Racing and Car Blanche teams as Zacharie Robichon secured a P3 start in that class for his #27 car, but only just ahead of Valentin Hasse-Clot and his #068 entry before a penalty for a car ahead moved them both one car forward. Further forward, Ross Gunn had again qualified the HoRT Aston Martin Valkyrie in eighth ahead of the Sunday afternoon start.

 

Cooler but importantly dry were the track conditions as the new for 2026 six-hour race got underway but with over fifty multi-classed cars upon track, it wasn’t too long before the first casualty came to bear when another GTD was ‘encouraged’ into the wall after contact from a passing GTP and into immediate retirement.

The inevitable start-stop cycle of Full Course Yellow into restart before diving sooner or later into another quickly blighted what should have been a cleaner race than what it had been until that point. By the end of the first hour, Robichon was still at the head at the GTD class whilst Hasse-Clot had already swapped out for Marius Fossard to take his first stint whilst hanging onto fourth. The #23 Valkyrie of Gunn was also hanging on in there around seventh to eighth in GTP.

 

At the two-hour mark both Heart of Racing entries had a driver change as Roman De Angelis took over the #23 Valkyrie with Eduardo Barrichello assuming control of the #27 Vantage after which, both cars slotted back into their previous racing position as two further single car incidents on track slowed things down again to aid their recovery.

The #068 Car Blanche AMR then put Trenton Estep behind the wheel and whilst that combination did slide down the GTD order somewhat, a differing pit and fuel strategy would again see their factory driver (VHC) behind the wheel again very soon whilst the Brazilian, continued to cement the hard early graft of his Canadian team-mate within the #27 car up front.

 

Going into the final seventy minutes or so of the race, the third drivers were mainly aboard as Tom Gamble was tasked with taking the #27 car to the flag with Hasse-Clot getting back into the #068 with as much fuel as his car could carry. Whilst the faster GTP prototypes were mainly squabbling amongst themselves both with contact and technical issues, that saw the #23 Valkyrie slowly lift itself up the order and into the top six for the first time in the race.

A further single car off track set up for a final twenty-five-minute dash to the flag with podium potential looking very plausible for all three Aston Martins. Hasse-Clot had managed to get his car past that of Gamble during the #27 car’s final stop to be running in third whilst the #23 was now up to fifth as the final FCY situation caused by one GTP going off alone before another GTP/GTP contact again set off the chat about driving standards changed everything yet again.

 

Those two incidents had lifted the #23 into P2 overall, with the #068 still in third but with the #27 down in fifth and with only two laps remaining, the hopes of any restart to racing looked slim.

Despite finishing second on track, there would be no trip to the podium for either Gunn or De Angelis as a late Drive Through Penalty (converted post-race into a time Penalty) saw the #23 car drop down the order as incident responsibility was cast their way.

 

Whilst the #068 crew did make it to the GTD podium with their P3 finish in class, the #23 Valkyrie still notched up another best at the circuit by beating their last years result by one but for the #27 car, Road America would become another case of what might have been. Despite leading the class for much of the race, a post-race time penalty of their own saw them tumble to P15 in class.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

There was a debut podium finish in class for the American pairing who took over the Mirage Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 within the FFSA GT4 Series penultimate round of the season from Magny-Cours.

Racing the car previously completed with by both Daid Levy and Jodie Sloss (as they move across the Mirage team garage to their new Porsche entry), that left the renumbered #7 car entry assigned to both Grant West and Alex Bachoura.

 

Previously scheduled to race the Aston Martin at Spa, West and Bachoura (two previous Mazda MX5 racers) had to wait until this weekend before making that dream come true.

Race one on Sunday had seen the #7 car fail to finish but at the end of the second hour long race, the pairing had managed to secure a P3 finish within their Am class.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

The two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s competing within this weekend’s seventh round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie also endured something of a hard time during Saturday’s six-hour race that left both crews leave empty handed.

The #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport crew of Christian Krognes and Dennis Fetzer had secured a P6 start to the race at the end of the earlier qualifying session but had sustained damage whilst the #37 Prosport Racing AMR of Maxime/Guido Dumarey alongside that of Marek Bochmann were still a respectable P16 on the grid with their older iteration of Vantage GT3.

 

During the early stages of the race, the #35 car suffered from that earlier damage that could not be repaired before the race which then need attention after the start. That sidelined the car for nearly half of the race and by the time the car returned to the track – they would only complete 27 of the race winners 41 completed laps not to be classified within the results.

The #37 car fared better as they would ultimately finish P5 within their Am class and just two laps off the race winning pace.

Photo credits – Teams / social media