Aston Martin Racing are due to fire up their 2011 LMP1 engine next week ahead of the first test of the LMP1 car. The all new petrol engine will be tested on the bench prior to the initial run of the 2011 racer schedualed for the end of January.

The car is then expected to be at the Sebring Test (Feb 9 -10) before making its race debut at the first round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in Sebring (March 19th)

You still have a chance to make history by naming the new Aston Martin Racing Le Mans car. To enter and for full terms and conditions click HERE

The Aston Martin V12 engine sits not just at the heart of the One-77, DBS, DB9, Rapide and V12 Vantage but also the 2010 DBR1-2 Le Mans race car.

The V12 Vantage was launched to critical acclaim in 2009, and in 2010, it arrived in the US. It is the ultimate performance interpretation of the Vantage range featuring a 6.0 litre V12 engine producing 510 bhp (380 kW / 517 PS) and 570 Nm (420 lb.ft) and has been dynamically honed to deliver an unparalleled driving experience.

The V12 engined DBR1-2 is an Aston Martin LMP1 race car which competed throughout 2009 and 2010. It won the Le Mans Series in 2009 and achieved three podiums in 2010.

It is this revered engine that sits at the heart of these evocative driving machines.

This unique footage captures these two iconic road and race cars in action for the first time in an unconventional road setting.

We are pleased to announce that a new team plans to be on the grid for the 2011 British GT Championship series that is supported by British F3 and British Formula Ford Championships, WSM Racing is the brainchild of Steve Palmer-Leigh a UK based business man.

Palmer-Leigh, a lifelong motorsports fan, is aiming to build a long term and successful motorsports team focused initially in the UK and the British GT Championship, spearheading this plan is a two car team of Aston Martin DBRS9 cars, Steve Palmer-Leigh intends that the team will hit the circuits in 2011 ready to compete for podium places and is building a team of acknowledged professionals to achieve this goal.

Lead Driver for this new team will be Dan Eagling, returning to the tracks with a full season of racing at the top level in the UK. Dan said “I am looking forward to a return with a plan for a full season, budgets have been tight over the past years so this opportunity is brilliant, being asked to lead a British GT3 team that has the backing of a UK business man is a race drivers dream”.

The team will run the 2010 specification Aston Martin DBRS9 from their new premises located in Weston-Super-Mare, they will take delivery of two cars in early January, by which time the organisation will be fully staffed.

Steve Palmer-Leigh said that he plans for team to be given the best chance of succeeding and achieving a high profile as quickly as possible, the reason for this entry into motorsport is to promote my own businesses alongside local businesses.

www.wsmracing.co.uk

The Aston Martin GT4 Challenge will return in 2011, with an increased number of races and an expanded grid. The one-make race series which is fundamentally based around the V8 Vantage road car provides the first step on the GT ladder.

Following the success of the inaugural series in 2010, Aston Martin Racing has increased the number of races to nine, including two rounds in mainland Europe at Spa Francorchamps and Dijon, as well as introducing two longer, three hour races. The grid size is expected to grow to 20 cars, as more teams join the series in its second season.

The 2010 GT4 Challenge was won by the father and son partnership of Chris and Ant Scragg, who won every round of the six-race series. For 2011, Ant Scragg and fellow GT4 Challenge competitor, James Appleby, will step up to the European GT4 Cup where they will compete in a new 2011 Vantage GT4, running as the Generation AMR team.

The GT4 Challenge is open to Aston Martin Vantage N24 and GT4 cars, including the new enhanced Vantage GT4 for 2011. To ensure competitive racing, there will be mandatory pit stops and teams can have one, two or three drivers. Interest in the 2011 challenge is strong with six teams already signed-up.

“This year showed what demand there was from Aston Martin owners for their own one-make series and it is because of their positive feedback and their suggestions that we are expanding the series next year and including longer races,” said Aston Martin Chairman, David Richards. “I was fortunate to have competed at the Silverstone round this year and I fully intend to get behind the wheel again in 2011; this time in the new Vantage GT4.”

Despite adding three more races to the calendar, the entry fee for the season remains the same as in 2010 at £12,950 per car. The package also includes: Aston Martin Racing overalls; hospitality; on-event technical support; and a fitness appraisal with Aston Martin Racing Driver Performance.

Provisional 2011 calendar:

30 April Silverstone (90 min)
14 May Snetterton (180 min)
25 June Donington Park (180 min)
26 June Donington Park (90 min)
8-9 July Spa Francorchamps (2 x 60 min)
6 August Oulton Park (90 min)
27 August Brands Hatch (90 min)
10-11 September Dijon Prenois (80 min)

Aston Martin will be entering a new LMP1 car into the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2011 with a view to challenging for outright victory. As with all Aston Martins, the marque will be searching for an emotive name* that truly captures the personality behind this year's entry.

Aston Martin is giving all enthusiasts the unique opportunity to be part of the company's history, as well as the chance to win a range of Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing Merchandise by suggesting a name for this race car.

To enter and for full terms and conditions click HERE

Aston Martin has clinched the 2010 SRO Trophy for manufacturers after a thrilling close to the FIA GT1 World Championship season in South America.

The final race weekend of the GT1 season at San Luis in Argentina was dominated by official Aston Martin Racing Partner, Team Hexis AMR . The no. 9 DBR9 of Fred Makowiecki and Yann Clairay took victory in both the qualifying race and the championship race, backed up by the second Team Hexis car of Clivio Piccione and Jonathan Hirschi which took 4th and 3rd place in the two one-hour races. The combined efforts of the ambitious young French team earned them the highest ever points score in the championship, leapfrogging them into second place in the World Championship for teams.

Aston Martin’s other official GT1 team, Young Driver AMR, went into the weekend with an outside chance of both the teams’ title and the drivers’ title for the no. 7 pairing of Darren Turner and Tomas Enge. All was looking good when the team’s no. 8 car, piloted by Stefan Mücke and Jose Maria Lopez, claimed pole position for the qualifying race. However, Mücke was eliminated after contact with another car on lap one, meaning the pair could only manage 5th place in the following championship race despite their best efforts. Turner and Enge also tried valiantly, but were hindered by 40kgs of success ballast from their 1st and 2nd place results at the previous round in Brazil and were unable to secure the points necessary to claim the title.

George Howard-Chappell, Technical Director of Aston Martin Racing said: “It is an excellent way for Team Hexis AMR to finish off the season with such a dominant performance, and they thoroughly deserve their second place in the Teams’ Championship. My sincerest congratulations go to all the team.

“The same must go to Young Driver AMR who experienced a lot of bad luck this year but still managed to achieve three race wins with Darren and Tomas achieving fourth in the overall drivers’ Championship.
“To have two top class teams representing Aston Martin has paid off richly in the form of the Manufacturers’ Trophy. It is great to see Aston Martin leading the way, and a fitting recognition for the DBR9 which has been winning races and titles since its race debut at Sebring in 2005.”

The Aston Martin DBR9 scored five race wins in 2010 in the FIA GT1 Series and has been victorious in races all over the world since its introduction in 2005. In 2007 and 2008, the race car which is based closely on the marque’s road going DB9 sports GT car, saw off stiff competition to win the GT1 class in the Le Mans 24 Hours race.
Aston Martin remains the only manufacturer to offer road car derived racing cars for every GT class, with fully engineered and tested race prepared models in LMP1, GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4.

Young Driver Aston Martin Racing had one of the quickest cars at the two final races of the GT1 World Championship at the Portrero de los Funes track in Argentina. Stefan Mücke (GER) and the former Formula 1-testdriver José María López (ARE) dominated the qualifying session in their Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9 and took the Pole-Position. But in the Qualifying Race, the penultimate race of the season, Mücke had to retire after a collision that followed a rather controversial start of the race. A strong chase in Championship Race gave Mücke and López a fifth place finish. Darren Turner and Tomas Enge, who travelled as title contenders to Argentina, had bad luck in the two last races of the season. The British/Czech driver pairing in the second Young Driver-Aston Martin suffered with a high success ballast due to their success in the last races and finished in 10th and in 15th position.

The start of the Qualifying Race at the scenic track went a bit chaotic. Before the lights went green, the second placed car overtook polesetter Mücke and was even ahead of the German before the starting line. In the first corner, the leader braked very early. Mücke had nowhere to go and crashed into the back of the leader, which caused damaged to the front end of the Aston Martin and forced Mücke to retire. “From our point of view, the second placed car on the grid made a jump start”, explained Young Driver team principal Hardy Fischer. “We expressed this to the race director, but he had a different point of view.” Darren Turner and Tomas Enge lost their mathematical title chances in the Qualifying Race, but showed a good performance and battled from 17. place on the grid to 10th place, securing a promising starting position for the Championship Race.

In the Championship Race, Mücke and López once again proved that they belonged to the quickest driver parings at the final round of the season. After the early retirement in the Qualifying Race, López had to start from the back of the grid and immediately chased trough the field. Until the mandatory driver change halfway trough the race, he was already within the top-10. Mücke then contuined the strong chase in the latter part of the race and secured a top-five finish, when he overtook the fifth place car on the very last lap. “We really made the best out of our starting position”, Stefan Mücke said after the race. “Without the collision in the Qualifying Race, a podium finish would have been possible today.”

Darren Turner and Tomas Enge hoped for some more Championship points in the last race of the season and wanted to defend the runner up spot in the championship, but experienced a hard last race and finished 15th. “My start into the Championship Race was certainly not the best I had this season“, said Darren Turner after the race. “I was o.k. at the start, but after the start, I went on the curbs in the first corner and lost a few places. Then we struggled with the high penalty weight which we had to carry around after our success in recent races. The pit stop was o.k., but in second part of the race, Tomas suffered with engine problems and wasn’t able to attack. It was a rather frustrating weekend for us.“

Young Driver Aston Martin Racing finished fourth in team standings in the inaugural season of the GT1 World Championship. Darren Turner and Tomas Enge finished fourth in driver’s standings.

“We certainly had one of the quickest cars out there this weekend, but also had one of our toughest weekends in the Championship so far“, resumed team principal Hardy Fischer. „Joy and thoroughness were never closer this season than in Argentina. But on the other hand, Aston Martin won the Manufacturers title of the Championship. We contributed a major part to this success, and that is something we can be proud of. Our congratulations go to the Vitaphone-team and it’s drivers Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini, who won the title.“

Young Driver Aston Martin Racing was supported at the final two rounds of the GT1 World Championship in Brazil and Argentina by Union Engineering (www.union.dk) and Zegg Watches & Jewellery (www.zegg.ch)


Driver’s Championship GT1:

1. Bartels/Bertolini 138 pts
2. Thomas Mutsch 119
3. Frederic Makowiecki 105
4. Turner/Enge 104

Team Championship GT1:
1. Vitaphone 195 pts
2. Hexis 177
3. Reiter 155
4. Young Driver AMR 147
5. Matech 135

Young Driver AMR starts into the penultimate race of the GT1-World Championship in Argentina from the Pole-Position. Stefan Mücke (GER) and first time co-driver José María López (ARE) dominated the Qualifying session in their Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9 and will start from Pole into Sunday’s Qualifying Race. World Championship contenders Darren Turner (CZE) and Tomas Enge (CZE) had bad luck in qualifying and will start from 17th position in the Qualifying Race.

The former Formula 1-testdriver and local boy José María López and Stefan Mücke dominated the thee-parted qualifying session at the picturesque track at San Luis. López drove the first session, and when the session ended after 20 minutes, the Argentinean was quickest in his very first qualifying session for Young Driver. Mücke then drove Q2 and also toped the timing sheets after the session with his Aston Martin DBR9. In the final Q3, it was on López again, and on his home track, he made a clean sweep and took the Pole Position. The Pole Position gives Young Driver AMR a perfect starting position in the battle of the team championship, were Young Driver AMR is currently second with only the Argentinean round to go.

For the championship contenders Darren Turner and Tomas Enge, things at San Luis are quite challenging. Turner, who is along team mate Tomas Enge the only driver who can still challenge the current championship leaders, finished in 17th position in the Q1 and briefly missed the next Q2 round. In tomorrow’s 60-minute qualifying race, Turner/Enge have to battle now for good starting position for the champion race, the final round of the inaugural season of the GT1 World Championship.

Young Driver AMR will be supported at the final two rounds of the GT1 World Championship in Brazil and Argentina by Union Engineering (www.union.dk) and Zegg Watches & Jewellery (www.zegg.ch).

Driver quotes after Qualifying:

Stefan Mücke (#8 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9): „It’s great to have José María in the team. He knows the track perfect and gave us all a lot of tips. We learned a lot from his laps in the free practise and could use this knowledge for Qualifying. I drove only a few laps in free practise and pre-qualifying, my fastest lap in Q2 was actually only my fifth timed lap this weekend. Before we came to San Luis, we didn’t knew exactly what to expect, but we are a little bit surprised that everything went so well. The team prepared a perfect car and did a very good job, today our set-up was just perfect. Until now, it could not be better.“

José María López (#8 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin DBR9): „It’s fantastic to be on the Pole Position at my home track. The car was just great, it’s really nice to drive and I didn’t have any problems to adapt to it. Also Stefan did a great job today.“

Darren Turner (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): „My fastest lap was o.k., it didn’t felt too bad. But it wasn’t fast enough. The 40kg success ballast, which we have to carry around here after the victory and the second place last weekend at Argentina certainly didn’t help us here. We also only used one set of tires, while most of our competitors used two sets in Q1.

Tomas Enge (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): „The day didn’t start too bad, it went well in free practise and in pre qualifying. But we really had bad luck in qualifying. I’m afraid we underestimated the success ballast of 40kg a little bit on this track. The race will be hard, as we have to start from 17th position. Overtaking is not easy, as there is only one racing line and apart this line, the track is very dirty. But anything can happen during the race and we will certainly give our best to come as near to the Top-10 in the qualifying race as possible.”

Hexis Aston Martin arrive in San Luis for the final race of the season with the aim of securing a top three position in the teams’ championship.

The French outfit scored 16 points last time out at Interlagos with Clivio Piccione and Jonathan Hirschi bringing the No.10 car home in third and fourth in the two races.

Although Frederic Makowiecki and Yann Clairay failed to pick up points in the sister Aston Martin in Brazil, Hexis still remain in contention for a strong championship finish. The team currently sits fifth in the standings, behind Young Driver and Sumo Power, but is only 13 points behind second placed team Reiter Lamborghini.

With a total of 57 points up for grabs in the final race the top six teams have it all to play for in this weekend’s finale in Argentina.

Meanwhile, Makowiecki is the team’s highest scoring driver in eighth position with 72 points, and Piccione on 47, Hirschi on 43 and Clairay with 32.

Hexis Team bosses Philippe Dumas and Clement Mateu say the team is fully focused on achieving the best possible result at San Luis.

“What we have to keep in mind above all else is that after nine meetings we're in the running for second place in the world championship in only our first year, and yet we're one of the least experienced teams in the whole field,” said team manager Dumas.

“Whatever happens in Argentina, our season's been a success and I'm counting on our drivers and every team member to give 200% until the chequered flag falls in San Luis.

“Finishing in the top three would be a marvellous Christmas present, another line on our results sheet and extra motivation for the future.”

Mateu, development manager, added: "This new world championship has helped us discover other civilizations, which is very enriching even if our logistics manager Gautier Mezan has been burning the midnight oil to get everything organized," he said.

"From a sporting point of view we had an excellent weekend (in Sao Paulo). Our two cars are both getting quicker and closer to each other in terms of sheer performance. There was an almost palpable tension between our drivers because of their rivalry and their desire to do a good job.

"We could have done even better with either the blue or the red car, but we should be happy with the overall result. Thanks to the 19 points scored we're on target to achieve our aims.

"Our two direct rivals, Young Driver AMR and Sumo Power also had a good weekend in Brazil, but everything's still possible in Argentina with 12 professional teams ready to go head-to-head.

"We've shown that we deserve our place at the front as we're battling with semi-works outfits in a marvellous championship. It sometimes looks easy from the outside, but appearances can be deceptive as in this milieu nobody leaves anything to chance."

Young Driver AMR will start the final race of the inaugural season of the GT1-World Championship this weekend in Argentina with a chance to win the drivers world championship title. For the last race at the stunning track of Portrero de los Funes in the Argentinean province of San Luis, the team has secured the services of local driver José María “Pechito” López (27). He is set to reinforce the Young Driver AMR team and will share the #8 Aston Martin DBR9 with Stefan Mücke (GER).

“We fight for the World Championship in Argentina. Darren and Tomas are the only two drivers, who can challenge the championship leaders and we also aim for the second place in the team championship“, Young Driver AMR principal Hardy Fischer explains. “The track is new to most of the teams and drivers, so we decided to take advantage of having one local driver with track knowledge in the team. José María will replace Christoffer Nygaard in the number eight car in Argentina. It was a tough decision to change the drivers for the last round, but with this championship being so tight and having so limited practise time, we think it will be an advantage for our entire team to have someone with a good track knowledge on board. José María knows the track from the FIA GT Championship in 2008 and on the personal side, he worked with our engineer Johannes Gruber in the past.”

José María López (born 26. April 1983 in Rio Percero/Argentina) raced in the Formula 3000 and GP2 series from 2004 to 2006. In 2007, he went back to his native country to race in the highly popular national TC2000 touring car championship. López won the championship two times, in 2008 und 2009. In 2008 he also competed in the FIA GT Championship and in the American Le Mans Series with Ferrari.

Before the last races held this Sunday, the two “Young Drivers“ Darren Turner (GBR) and Tomas Enge (CZE), are second in driver points standings, 28 points behind the championship leader. Turner/Enge are the only two drivers, who can still challenge the championship leaders for the world championship honours.

“The two races in Argentina will not be very easy, as we expect it to be very hot there“, Hardy Fischer says. „But we remain optimistic and will give out best. Darren and Tomas have a tough job to do, but you never know what will happen. In the team championship, our goal now is to finish our first season in GT1-racing in the runner up spot.“

At the final round of the GT1 World Championship in Argentina,
Young Driver AMR will be supported by both Union Engineering (www.union.dk) and Zegg Watches & Jewellery (www.zegg.ch).