Seven Aston Martin Vantage GT4 crews also kick off their SRO America campaigns this weekend

Seven Aston Martin Vantage GT4 crews also kick off their SRO America campaigns this weekend

 


With the GT3 only series within the SRO America trilogy of series then comes both the mixed class grids of the GT America Series as well as the those within the GT4 America Series as both also kick off their 2025 campaigns this weekend at Sonoma.

The seventeen cars entered within the mixed GT3(SRO3) and GT4 class of the GT America Series this year sees one returnee and one all new entry as many of those Aston Martin Racing powered team and driver names of previous years have now onto racing pastures news.


The sole AMR returnee is that of Tim Savage who this time around swaps his AMR Vantage GT3 for his AMR Vantage GT4 have struggled to get to grips with his GT3 over last season before resorting to his GT4 at the final round last year.


He will be joined by the all new 2025 entry from the Van Der Steur Racing team and their young gun Max Hewitt who this year steps up from karts to GT4 – not for the first time this year of course, after Hewitt competed within the early GT4 Winter Series back in Europe with the Racing Spirit of Leman team and their Vantage GT4 Evo.


These two will compete within an expected total grid of seventeen cars, ten of those being GT4’s.

Then within the more popular GT4 America Series, we should have five AMR Vantage GT4 crews competing amongst a restored grid size of thirty-one entries, albeit subdivided into their respective Am, Silver and Pro-Am classes.


The #26 Heart of Racing entry for Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir need no introduction having competed within the series last year (in all three classes we recall) but this year their return with a Vantage GT4 Evo within the silver class for sure.

Archangel Motorsport are also a familiar name to us, but Todd Coleman has now long gone to GT3 based racing, but the team return with a new driver pairing of Adrian Comstock and Thomas Merrill within their #15 Pro-Am entry. The Skip Barber Racing School also dipped in and out of both SRO and IMSA GT4 racing last year and their return with brothers Alex and Micael Garcia within their #07 Am class entry.


The final two entries are from the new AMR convertee team JMF Motorsport who will field a pair of silver class entries for both Jesse Webb ad Jonathon Neudorf within the #3 car and Braydon Arthur and Mike David Ortmann (yes, that one from Germany) within their #4 car.

The number could have been higher as we are aware of at least the Triple 2 Motorsport team changing their minds upon both platform and series despite earlier announcements.


The bronze ranked GT America Series will race two forty-minute sprint races whilst the GT4 America Series will run two hour long, pit stop punctuated races over the weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

Tuesday, March 25, 2025 | Read more...
SRO America kicks off its 2025 campaign in Sonoma this weekend

SRO America kicks off its 2025 campaign in Sonoma this weekend

 


SRO America kicks off its 2025 campaign with its usual trilogy of GT based series around the undulating circuit of Sonoma Raceway in California this weekend with over sixty-seven cars due to over within the GT World Challenge America, GT4 America and GT America Series.

Amongst that healthy entry will again be a mix of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 machinery but not necessarily in the format that we will have become to seeing over previous seasons.


Within the headlining GT World Challenge Series, we have two such examples as both the Heart of Racing and Racers Edge AMR teams step up to this series for their first full season commitment together as former GT America GT4 champion Jason Bell pairs up with long standing driver coach Michael Cooper within their familiar liveried Vantage GT3 Evo. Last season Bell was getting to grips with his new Vantage GT3 within the GT3 class of the GT America Series with the help of the Flying Lizard Motorsport team.

The second car is also another step up the SRO America racing ladder for the Heart of Racings Gray Newell who this time pairs up with AMR factory driver Darren Turner for the young American’s first domestic full season GT3 campaign. Not his first GT3 race by a long way after he and fellow HoRT drivers secured P2 overall in last weekends 24H Series twelve hour in Mugello, Italy.


This Friday will see the grid hitting the 2.5 mile circuit for the first time in Free Practice before individual Qualifying sessions Saturday morning before the first of two ninety minute, pit stop punctuated races later on Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 | Read more...
Seven Aston Martins at the Iberian Supercars Official test at the weekend

Seven Aston Martins at the Iberian Supercars Official test at the weekend

 


Amongst another healthy bunch of thirty-one total runners, it was again those from within the Racar Motorsport and Araujo Competicao who provided most of these but new AMR convertee teams in NGT Motorsport and Gianfranco Motorsport teams were also in attendance.

Whilst the day did start with rough weather conditions at the Portuguese circuit, the sun did eventually shine down on the grid, which is not confirmed at the point in time beyond that of the two Araujo Competicao and Gianfranco Motorsport crews already confirmed by the teams.


Photo and videos of the day did show up some returning faces as well as fresh youngsters moving up into GT’s for the first time and still a wide split between those using the latest Evo version and those still utilising the 17A edition.


The first round of the season will be from Portimao in two weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Monday, March 24, 2025 | Read more...
Disappointing 24H Series Aston Martin Racing debut for the E2P racing team at Mugello

Disappointing 24H Series Aston Martin Racing debut for the E2P racing team at Mugello

 


It was an early disappointing end to the opening round of the 24H Series European Series from Mugello for the E2P Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo crew after an uncharacteristic engine issue sidelined the team within the opening half to that race.

Having swapped from the Porsche to the Aston Martin chassis at the end of last season, the team had embarked upon a serious programme of pre-season testing with their new car and crew (with the additional racing input from AMR factory driver David Pittard) placing the #90 entry on a positive footing as the European series ventured to Italy for its opening twelve-hour round.


During both Free Practice and Qualifying, the Italian circuit was as beautiful as ever under the springtime sunshine but all of that had disappeared ahead of Saturday’s opening seven-hour stint to the twelve-hour race.

Starting P11 overall and competing within the GT3 Am class, the Pablo Burguera, Antonio Sainero and Oliver Campos driven car got off to a steady but sure start in the rain running as high as P5 overall in the opening ninety minutes or so.


Just behind the end of the opening three hours however, coming out of another Code 60 intervention, the #90 car of Burguera spun off but managed to stay on the tarmac. Returning to the correct direction meant the Spaniard had to go across the sodden grass infield and clearly the V8 engine wasn’t happy with its over revving to get back on track and the #90 car soon entered pit lane with a fire spitting engine out of the exhaust.

That was kind of where their opening race fell foul as the crew kept reporting power loss issues each time the car returned to the track and already by then, many laps down before the car was eventually withdrawn with before the end of the opening race session on Saturday.


The next round of the series will be from Spa Francorchamps at the end of April.

Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Monday, March 24, 2025 | Read more...
Early success for Prosport Racing at end of NLS1

Early success for Prosport Racing at end of NLS1

 


The Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie also started off this weekend from almost where it left off last season with another busy and action-packed round at the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit.

This time a four-hour affair for the ADAC Westfalenfahrt NLS1race, one hundred and eighteen cars and crews participated over the whole multitude of GT to tin top classes available with three more notable Aston Martin Racing powered entries amongst them.


The #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR Vantage GT3 (SP9 Pro-Am) crew of Henry Walkenhorst and Christian Krognes lead the way as far as AMR participation was concerned being the head of the team and the latest AMR factory rostered driver to be confirmed this year.

The two Vantage GT4 entries from the locally based Prosport Racing team however, brought longevity and consistency within both the team and series as Guido and Maxime Dumarey swapped out their old Vantage GT3 entry of last season for the enhanced #140 Vantage GT8R entry within the SP8T whilst the team’s #175 Vantage GT4 (SP10) entry for Jannik Himmels, Jorg Viebahn and Michel Albers was a new mix for this season.


With the race eventually starting off under cloudy, fresh but otherwise non-weather affected circuit after a slight delay, all the Aston Martin powered entries survived the opening laps to consolidate their class positions by the time even the sun had come out.

After the expected number of local yellow flag interventions, the #36 Walkenhorst came through to take the flag P13 overall but that was later annulled after the car was later found to be in contravention to a technical infringement.


There was, however, better news from within the GT4 classes as both Prosport Racing entries not only finished but claimed a class podium finish – P3 for the SP8T #140 car and P2 for the SP10 #175 entry.

The second round of the season will be at the end of the April with another four-hour race.

Photo credits – Teams / Eric Metzner / Nurburgring Photos
Sunday, March 23, 2025 | Read more...
A multi-tonal D'Station AMR completes opening round of their Super Taikyu Series return

A multi-tonal D'Station AMR completes opening round of their Super Taikyu Series return

 


The opening round of the Super Taikyu Series became something of a multi-tonal event for the D’Station Racing team after an earlier incident changed their intended colour scheme.

Returning to the second tier of domestic GT racing in Japan with one of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo’s, the #777 Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and (substitute driver) Yuta Kamimura had intended to start the year with an all-new red livery however, an incident during Qualifying saw the need for need panels which were of the more familiar green colour scheme.


That incident saw the A+B drivers within the car (Hoshino and Fujii) unable to complete the required session.

With the team having to spend much of the time after qualifying conducting the necessary repairs, the #777 was at least able to take part within the four-hour season opener from Motegi where they eventually claimed P3 within the ST-X class – albeit four laps down to their peers.


The next round of the series will be from Suzuka at the end of the April.

We think that this ad-hoc livery design is somewhat pleasing to the eye!!

Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Sunday, March 23, 2025 | Read more...
Driver pairing change at Feathers MS ahead of their GT Cup opener next weekend

Driver pairing change at Feathers MS ahead of their GT Cup opener next weekend


Just a week ahead of their opening round to the season, the Feathers Motorsport team have just confirmed a slight change in their driver line up for their return to the GT Cup Championship.

Originally releasing that both James Guess and Tom Canning would reunite behind the wheel of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 after their year’s sabbatical, last night’s news say that Guess would now be stepping ahead as he looks towards further new racing challenges this season, allowing sixteen year Base Performance Simulators Academy driver Archie Clark his racing opportunity.

“I am so excited to be making my GT Cup debut with FMS. I’m very grateful to the team for the opportunity and to James for stepping aside and allowing me to race the Aston Martin. FMS partner Base Performance Simulators has supported my career for a long time and it’s great to be able to have a chance to repay its faith in me, hopefully with some more podiums and wins, in 2025!”

The season kicks off at Donnington Park next weekend.

Source material – Feathers MS
Saturday, March 22, 2025 | Read more...
When red is the new green for the D'Station Racing AMR team

When red is the new green for the D'Station Racing AMR team

 


Red is the new green for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team as they embark upon their opening race weekend of the new season with a change in livery colour to mark their return to the Japanese Super Taikyu Series.

Having already completed the official test weekend at the circuit back in early March, the D’Station Racing team are back at Motegi for the season’s opening four-hour race with one of the new AMR Vantage GT3 Evo’s.


Sporting a very familiar driver line up of both team owner Satoshi Hoshino and team manager Tomonobu Fujii, the pair with this time be joined by third driver Yuta Kamimura for their five strong ST-X class battle as the team step back to the more domestic home roots having competed upon the word stage for the last few years in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Another sixty strong mixed class grid will be at the circuit this weekend however, the fastest and the slowest cars classes will be split again into two individual races – on the grounds of safety if nothing else.


The team do run with a second car within the ST-1 class but their previous AMR Vantage GT8R machine has now been replaced by a Porsche 992 platform to again battle with the all dominant KTM X-Bow from the KS frontier team.

Photo credits – Team / social media
Thursday, March 20, 2025 | Read more...
Opening race of the 2025 NLS Series this weekend

Opening race of the 2025 NLS Series this weekend


One hundred and eighteen cars will grace the grid for this weekend’s opening round of the 2025 Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie with three Aston Martin Racing powered teams complimenting that entry between the GT3 and GT4 classes.

Within the temporary absence of an AMR Vantage GT3 from the locally based Prosport Racing team, the Walkenhorst Motorsport team lead the way with a new Vantage GT3 Evo Pro-Am entry for both team boss Henry Walkenhorst and AMR’s latest factory roster driver and long term team driver Christian Krognes aboard the #36 car.

Despite not having their older Vantage GT3 within the series until its third round, the Christophe Esser lead team will, like previous announcements have already said, two Vantage GT4 entries within both the SP10 class for its #175 GT4 entry for Jorge Viebahn and Yannik Himmels with Michel Albers as well as their #140 Vantage GT8R entry for Guido and Maxime Dumarey (and not Alex Hommerson as previously advised).

This weekend’s opener around the infamous Green Hell Nordschleife will be a four-hour affair IF weather conditions around the circuit allow it of course!

Photo credits – Teams / social media

Wednesday, March 19, 2025 | Read more...
More AMR powered news from today!

More AMR powered news from today!

 


Seems like daily Aston Martin Racing powered related news at the moment more team news emanating from around the world again today.

Starting with something that’s completely new for 2025 sees the SRO run their opening race weekend of their four round GT Cup Series as a support race for the F1 Grand Prix’s visit to Shanghai in China this weekend.

Their entry list was published earlier today which has obviously attracted huge interest from within the Chinese GT4 market with a thirty-three-car entry – including the one new AMR Vantage GT4 Evo that we know to be within the country.

With first images of the car coming out at the turn of the year, today’s news confirms that Siyuan Chen will be racing the #10 Level Motorsport entry for what will be two thirty minute plus one lap races on Saturday and Sunday.

We haven’t seen interest like this before since the heady days of the China GT Series when the BSEM AMR team ran at the front of the field with Ross Gunn and Jack Mitchell ran alongside team boss Stanley Yang.


Back into Europe and the Mirage Racing team will indeed by having double dealings back in the GT4 European Series as drivers Stanislav Safronov and Alexandr Vaintrub do back this and the FFSA GT4 series again this season.

They will join the sister car of Ruben Del Sarte and Roberto Faria who have already been confirmed.



The Comtoyou Racing team have also filled in the blanks today of their full GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup squad that will join Jessica Hawkins aboard the #270 AMR Vantage GT3 Evo.

Alexandre Leroy steps up from the GT European Series whilst Antoine Potty steps up from the GT4 European Series and into a GT3 for the first time within the Endurance Cup rounds that starts at Paul Ricard, France in just four weeks’ time.


Meanwhile and back over at Sebring in Florida, the Heart of Racing team are still hard at it after Saturday’s twelve-hour second round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship. In between the global debut of their new FIA WEC Hypercar and this second IMSA round with their new GTP variant, the had said that they would be undertaking a 24-hour test at the circuit in order to further understand their new platform as the WEC heads to Italy next month and the IMSA Series to Long beach for their next respective rounds.

Sebring saw the Valkyrie made some serious performance enhancements with drivers Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas behind the wheel with Tom Gamble possibly on hand at this test as well.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 | Read more...
AMR powered team news from the last few days

AMR powered team news from the last few days

 


The European based racing series are slowly waking up from their post season slumber with several teams/series kicking off their 2025 campaigns.

One such series is the Creventic 24H Series who start off their quintet of European based events with their first round of that series this weekend from Mugello in Italy and its mere twelve-hour campaign.


Within that multi-classed event, there will be one new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo convertee amongst the thirty-five-car entry with the Spanish based E2P Racing team entering their #90 car for drivers Pablo Burguera, Antonio Sainero and Oliver Campos. Having been usual Porsche customers, the team has already been busy out testing their new car ahead of another full season entry within the series. That does include a slight driver change to the line up previous announced by the team earlier in the year.

Although not with an Aston Martin again, the Heart of Racing trio of drivers Ian James, Gary Newell and Hannah Grisham will also be on duty this weekend within their SPS Performance prepared Mercedes Benz AMG GT3 as the latter two look forward to their GT World Challenge America and GT4 America commitments which start the weekend after at Sonoma.


A new AMR powered entry was confirmed over the weekend for the Iberian Supercars Series as the Gianfranco Motorsport team confirmed a three-car entry into the forthcoming season – two Toyota’s and one 17A specification Vantage GT4 for a driver crew still to be confirmed.

The multi-tonal green Dumarey livery that last year adorned the Prosport Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 will now be displayed across the team’s Vantage GT8R for its forthcoming NLS series commitments this season with drivers Guido Dumarey and Alex Hommerson.


That team were also out testing at Spa Francorchamps with one of their older Vantage GT4’s, again one car of this type also entered within the NLS series for drivers Jorge Viebahn and Yannik Himmels although we don’t know who was aboard the car today.


Their near namesakes within the Prosport Competition team based within the USA also put out a social media post today confirming that Tim Savage will again be with them within the GT America Series – but this time he stays within his Vantage GT4 that he had to resort back to at the end of last season having dented his Vantage GT3 platform in testing. It was said even then how much more confident he was within the GT4 car compared to his step up into GT3 last season.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
Monday, March 17, 2025 | Read more...
A great IMSA day at the office for the Heart of Racing team from Sebring

A great IMSA day at the office for the Heart of Racing team from Sebring


The Heart of Racing team will be on something like cloud nine at the moment having not just secured another podium finish for their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD last night but also secured the best performance and result so far for their all-new Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP.

Competing at the second round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, their two entries and that of the Van Der Steur AMR team helped showcase the best that endurance racing has to offer these days amongst a fifty-six muti-classed entry around one of the most challenging circuits in the world.


That euphoria was however, not continued across the trio of Aston Martin powered teams as the #19 Van Der Steur GTD entry of Rory Van Der Steur, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Andrew McIntosh sadly lost out with continuing their great IMSA GTD debut from Daytona with four hours still remaining.

That team lost ground from the start after stopping on track during one of the earlier Free Practice sessions saw them as the cause of the red flag which negated their fastest lap in Qualifying to see them start way down in P16 in class. With McIntosh taking the start for the opening few stints, the #19 AMR Vantage GTD was then apparently subject for a few energy management issues which saw Hasse-Clot later pinged for a Drive through Penalty as a result, eventually forcing the car behind the wall for further inspection.


Despite their best of efforts and with Van Der Steur taking the car back out again (albeit many laps down by now), the car was eventually retired.

On the plus side however, the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD of Zacharie Robichon, Casper Stevenson and Tom Gamble has no such issues as they managed their run through both the pack from their P6 in class starting position, avoiding all the early FCY intervention for (usually) prototypes ending up in the wall/tyre barrier to remain within the top half dozen as day turned to night and the final dash to the flag.


It was the teams FIA World Endurance Championship Valkyrie Hypercar driver Tom Gamble who this time had the final stint, and on fresh rubber claimed that final step of the GTD podium to complement perfectly the results of the team at the opening round of the season at the Rolex 24 from Daytona.

If that wasn’t good enough, this even also saw the American debut of the Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP car after drivers Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas had already helped perform the cars global debut at the FIA WEC opener in Qatar just a few weeks earlier.


Still at the relative lower end of their learning curve with that car, earlier track sessions saw continued adjustments being made that took literal seconds off the minimum track time to be more than comparable to their more establish peers during Qualifying. That on track performance continued in race trim throughout the race as the Valkyrie was never the slowest GTP car on track, even within the opening laps, as Gunn took the charge for the first time in IMSA.

As with any race, you have to be in it to win it and by avoiding incidents and accidents around them, the trio of drivers were able to keep the #23 car on the lead lap for much of the race – typically cycling around the P10 position in class.


At the end of the twelve hours, the #23 Valkyrie had finished its hardest test to date nineth in class and just two laps off the leaders. Whilst some of that would have been race trim performance, part of it at least was down to a drive through penalty for the crew for exceeding its power delivery parameters but otherwise it was a job well done. This new additional data will now obviously back track into the teams two FIA WEC contenders ahead of their next round in Italy.

The next IMSA race for the Valkyrie GTP will be a whole new experience again as that will be around the streets of Long Beach, California in about four weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Sunday, March 16, 2025 | Read more...
Podium again for the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD at the 12Hours of Sebring

Podium again for the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD at the 12Hours of Sebring

 


The Aston Martin Vantage recorded its fourth GT podium finish in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring following a brilliant fightback by The Heart of Racing in the final hours of one of global motorsport’s most gruelling events.

Third place in the GTD class for 2021 IMSA GTD title winner and 2023 European Le Mans Series GTE champion Zacharie Robichon, Aston Martin THOR team WEC Valkyrie driver Tom Gamble and FIA WEC LMGT3 podium finisher Casper Stevenson – marked the second podium finish in a row for the team. The trio also finished third in the season opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, sharing the car on that occasion with Aston Martin works driver Mattia Drudi.


Robichon, who qualified sixth in class, quickly put the car among the leaders and established THOR firmly in second place in the early hours of the race. A problem with a sensor meant Gamble was then forced to make an extra stop during his first stint, dropping the trio out of sequence with the field.

But THOR worked its way back into contention, running either in the lead of the class or 10th depending on which side of the fuel strategy they were on. A full-course yellow in the eighth hour brought the trio back on sequence and into contention, but then Stevenson had an unfortunate spin just before sundown at Turn 17. With no damage to the Vantage, the Englishman recovered well, handing the car over to Gamble in the lead of the class.


Gamble then returned to the race for the final stints in seventh and began a stellar drive back to the front. Assisted by a late full course yellow in the last 30 minutes of the race, the Briton was embroiled in a massive eight-car scrap for the class victory. With less than 10 minutes remaining, two rivals in front ran into issues, allowing Gamble to take the chequered flag in third place.

“The guys in the #27 Vantage did an awesome job,” said THOR team principal Ian James, “The crew executed marvellously throughout the whole race. We had some challenges to overcome, but the sign of a good team is when you are down, you keep bouncing back and we did. We’ve secured our second podium in a row and we’re right there in the championship hunt.”

The result marked the third time THOR had recorded a podium finish at Sebring. James, De Angelis and Darren Turner finished second in GTD in 2020, while in 2021 James and De Angelis shared second place with Gunn.


The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship takes place at Long Beach on 11-12 April.

Source material – Aston Martin HoRT
Sunday, March 16, 2025 | Read more...