After today’s four qualifying sessions, the grids for tomorrows two one-hour sprint races of the British GT Championship’s visit to Snetterton are now all locked in.

After what must have been the hottest conditions that the championship has tested in yesterday, track and trackside conditions were significantly cooler today with that persistent low cloud cover although humidity remained high.

 

As opposed to our earlier preview post, the only change of detail within the five Aston Martin Racing powered entries was within the #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport Vantage GT4 entry. Usually with both John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson behind the wheel until now, sources within the team did tell us that the reason was otherwise “unavoidable and late in the day”, hence the late call up to racing duty for the teams resident driver coach and AMR factory driver, Jonny Adam.

Otherwise, it was a much-needed return to the racetrack for the twenty-four GT3 and GT4 powered crews after something near an eight week break since their last round of the season from Spa Francorchamps with only a single day test at the Norfolk circuit last week in-between.

 

During earlier Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying, none of the AMR crews were quick to show their hand as the #21 MK Racing GT4 of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins going P2 in class in the morning but with the #7 Beechdean GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn being slapped upon the writs by the stewards by having their lap times deleted under Reg. 26.20 (We don’t know either).

Pre-Qualifying was next up just ahead of lunch were again, all five Astons featured lower down but this time with the #21 and #97 GBR Stratton cars getting lap times deleted for track limits. Then came individual qualifying with each driver per car setting a time for their respective starting position per race tomorrow.

 

Howard got the ball rolling within his GT3 Am group of cars and whilst he would get himself up to P5 in class, he would have to settle for a P9 starting position in race one – P6 in class. Gunn would be next, after an enforced delay for necessary barrier repairs after the #78 Lamborghini went off late in the session before. He definitely pulled out all the stops to claim himself a pole position start in tomorrow’s second race.

GT4 next and that heralded the likes of Hartshorne (#97), Hawkins (#21), Daniel Lavery (#27 Grange Racing) and James Townsend (#40 Townsend Racing) to the track to put in their best efforts within the Pro-Am class for all except the #21 car who run within silver.

Lavery came out best with a class pole position in Pro-Am, fourth in the trail of GT4 cars on the grid with the #21 car next P7 overall (P5 in class) within then the #40 car P8 overall/P3 in class and P11 overall/P6 in class respectively.

Their Pro’s were out next for their race two starting positions and it would be Will Orton who would come home best within the #21 car with his P4 overall/P2 in class result with then a battle between the AMR factory drivers next but with Adam pipping Darren Turner and his #27 car with a P6 overall/P4 in class over that of Turner within is #27 car and his P7 overall /P5 in class. Joe Wheeler concluded the quartet of AMR cars with his P11 overall/P6 in class result.

 

Two one-hour races now to look forward to tomorrow – the first starting at 11:35 and the second at 16:00hrs local.

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey

It’s a mixed story coming out of the Nurburgring today so far as both the DTM Series and ADAC GT4 Germany compete there for their sixth and fourth rounds (respectively) to their seasons with three Aston Martin Racing powered crews competing within one or the other.

The headlining DTM Series ran qualifying and race one of their weekend programme with Nicki Thiim looking to recover his championship lead from Marco Engel whilst Nicolas Baert still looked for his performance window within the series.

 

Despite Thiim finally losing his double race winning success ballast, expectations were surely higher that what his P11 starting position actually delivered with Baert coming home P19 out of the starting grid of twenty-one cars.

Despite an otherwise clean start to this fifty-five-minute race, progress for the two Comtoyou Racing AMR Vantage GT3 cars was otherwise slow as getting into the top ten (mainly through attrition up ahead), Thiim would eventually come home P11 with Baert the last of the runners again in P12.

For Thiim, that is only a five points drop to Engel who also endured something of a challenging round whilst Baert’s crew again earned their place at the top with the fastest stop for a second consecutive race.

In the ADAC GT4 Germany Series meanwhile, the #4 Cosy Racing with ESM AMR Vantage GT4 of Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok ran what could only be described as a demonstration race to secure another overall win within the series.

 

With Springob having qualified the car again upon pole, even an early safety car intervention for a car stranded within the gravel could not affect his patience in first retaining his race lead through the opening sequence of corners before extending that lead into the pit stop window.

Gogollok then picked up the mantel as he saw his race lead near double mainly thanks to those cars in second and third squabbling so much for track position that the black Vantage GT4 literally cruised off into the sunset. Whilst all the racing excitement was between those immediately behind, as they both saw each other off the track many times before coming back together to continue the action, Gogollok just have to keep the car between the white lines to secure the win.

 

For race two tomorrow, Gogollok will this time be starting the car – from pole position again. Let’s just hope that there is no mid event BoP change coming their way!!

Photo credits – ADAC / DTM / social media

 

 

 

The Michelin Pilot Challenge Series visit to the Virginia International raceway next weekend will see a change within the Aston Martin Racing powered team numbers as the CSM team swap over to the AMR Vantage GT4 platform for the remainder of the season.

That takes the AMR powered entry into this eight-round event to a healthy six car field although one of the full season entries does now feature a driver confirmation following on from an accident last time out at Road America.

 

That unfortunate news relates to Athan Sterling after his sizeable impact with the concrete wall towards the end of that two-hour race at Road America, something that brought about another Safety Car intervention and then subsequent red flag as corner workers and medical staff attended to the needs of the driver.

After the event, the team confirmed his initial admission into the local hospital for checks before later confirming his release without giving any further detail. We can only assume that his absence next week is still a consequence of that incident.

 

The good news is that from the Czabok-Simpson Motorsport team as they upgrade their car of Ismaeel Ellahi from the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge to that of the Michelin Pilot Challenge alongside new co-driver Aryton Houk within their #3 car with their pairing of Morgan Burkhard and Gordon Scully swapping over from their Porsche 718 GT4 RS to the Vantage GT4 – each for the remainder of the 2026 season.

That leaves the remaining three full season entries from the Heart of Racing, Circle H Racing and Car Blanche teams as certainly the latter crew continue to chase down that coveted championship crown.

 

The #26 Heart of Racing crew of Hannah’s Grisham and Greenemeir will be looking to extend their somewhat extra-ordinary run of three pole positions BUT will be desperate to avoid all of the rotten luck that has come their way within those three races where unnecessary contact from others has seen them repeatedly spun out of decent running positions, but at least their championship hopes are not over yet.

Then there is the #14 Circle H Racing crew of David Hampton and Thomas Merrill who have seen a decent start to the season somewhat flatline in the middle to see their racing efforts over the last few races go into reverse with third party contact and accidents of their own.

 

Finally, it’s the #66 Car Blanche entry of Trenton Estep and Allen Patten who presently lay sixth overall in the Championship, just 190 points behind the leading crew with this and two further rounds of the season to go. With consistency the name of the game within any series, the crews lowly points finish at Mid-Ohio in early June may prove to be their Achilles heal with those around them averaging a higher points haul than themselves. 

 

All being well next weekend, it should be back to a full three Aston Martin Racing powered contingent for the fourth round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series from the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

As surmised with our previous European Le Mans Series preview also at the circuit next weekend, the only change affecting these three AMR Vantage GT3 entries will be within the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman team as Valentin Hasse-Clot will be stateside and racing within the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

 

That means that his fellow ELMS co-driver, Marius Fossard will indeed be taking his countryman’s place within the #10 car which he will now share alongside GT3 Championship leading Am driver Philipp Sager. After winning the class this years extended Road to Le Mans race back in June, the Sager/Hasse-Clot combination now lead the ten strong by twenty-seven points going into this round, but any points scored in Belgium by the #10 car will obviously now be at the detriment of Hasse-Clot.

 

They in turn will again be joined by the #11 Code Racing Development AMR of Sebastian Moreno but with a co-driver yet to be confirmed after two have already completed racing duties with the French outfit so far – an outfit that has shown real pace in qualifying but have so far been unable to secure the points finish at the end. Their P5 finish at Le Mans in June has been their best result to date despite taking two pole positions at both Barcelona and Paul Ricard earlier in the year.

We also welcome back the #91 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of Claude Bovet and Tom Canning after Bovet found himself unable through apparent injury to participate at Le Mans which in turn saw both Giacomo Petrobelli and Romain Leroux take their places in the event. History shows that this year’s Road to Le Mans race was not a happy event for the team with both cars retiring after just a handful of laps for the opening driver.

 

The team and usual crew have, however, been testing at Spa Francorchamps over recent days in preparation to this race next weekend but it appears we may also be enjoying yet another livery design for that car too!!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

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