Following victory in Round 2 of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge at Snetterton at the end of May, Nicholas Mee Racing travelled to Donington Park at the weekend as series leader for rounds 3 and 4. However, with Saturday’s 3hr race curtailed and an electronic gremlin hampering progress in Sunday’s extended race, NMR’s highly competitive pace wasn’t accurately reflected in the result.

Saturday morning’s qualifying was held in light drizzle, and, driving well within his limits, Dan de Zille set a lap time that would place NMR third on the grid. Although both de Zille and Team Manager Giles Dawson felt that a better time was within reach, with tricky conditions a safety-first strategy prevailed and the team settled for 3rd.

Saturday’s race started in the dry with NMR’s regular driver Karsten le Blanc at the wheel of the team’s V8 Vantage GT4. Le Blanc made a good start, but drove with caution early on to preserve the Dunlop tyres and in the process lost a place to a hard-charging Michael Mallock who was making his AM Challenge début alongside his father, Ray Mallock – a name well known in Aston Martin circles due to his involvement in the company’s mid 1980s Group C endurance racing efforts.

Le Blanc then had a good battle with Mike Brown in the MB Racing car, and, after passing Brown for 4th place, le Blanc was then able to reduce his lap times to at least those of the three leading cars who by now had tyres that were starting to ‘go off’.

Unfortunately, after 40 minutes and with de Zille ready to take over and hunt down the leading cars, Mario Cordini’s car had a heavy accident which brought out the safety car and then the red flag due to substantial damage to the safety barriers. With insufficient time to repair the barriers that day a restart wasn’t possible and so, with less than 75% of race distance completed, the race was declared null and void.

Sunday’s race length was subsequently extended from its original 90mins to 120mins with grid positions again taken from Saturday’s qualifying session.

Rejoining NMR for his first race of the 2011 season, Christiaen van Lanschot started from 3rd on the grid and, after a fantastic 40min stint, he pitted while still in 3rd to hand over to Karsten le Blanc.

Le Blanc also enjoyed a good, solid stint before handing over to de Zille who immediately set about reeling in the Generation AMR car of Mark Poole and Richard Abra. Regularly lapping about 2secs faster than the leading car, de Zille’s progress was halted by an electrical issue (most likely an ECU error reading) which caused him to coast to a standstill by the side of the circuit and complete a reset procedure. Team Manager Dawson reckoned this cost the team some 54secs which dropped NMR down to 4th position.

Undeterred by this setback, de Zille set off in hot pursuit of Bonner and Black’s Vantage Racing car in 3rd place but the chequered flag came out before catching it and so NMR finished in 4th, just 8secs behind Vantage Racing and a mere 48secs adrift of the Stratton Motor Co car of Hall, Chittenden and Kemp which snatched victory from Generation AMR moments before the end of the race.

Giles Dawson and the team are now investigating the fault that lost time and preparing for rounds 5 and 6 at the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit on 9-10th July.

The 40 minute session was very wet, with all cars starting off tentatively. James Appleby set the early pace in the Generation AMR number 8 car followed closely by Desmond Smail in the 4.3-engined Mardis Gras car. After twenty minutes the session was still led by the number 8 car now with Ant Scragg behind the wheel second was Michael Mallock in the RS Williams number 32 machine and third was Mario Cordoni in the Riviera Swiss number 10 car. There were some very close battles all through the field as all drivers started to gain confidence in very wet conditions. The last ten minutes of the session proved to be very exciting with the track drying slightly and all drivers now focused on putting together their fastest laps possible, Alan Bonner in the Vantage Racing number 24 car held the provisional pole position with Stuart Hall in the Stratton Motorsport number 91 entry second, third was Richard Abra now driving the number 8 car. With five minutes to go Stuart Hall put in a flyer to take provisional pole but on the very next lap Dan de Zille in the Nicholas Mee number 12 machine put in an even better time to move Stuart to second, third was now Alan Bonner and Richard Abra fourth. Michael Mallock was also putting in some very competitive times as well so there was a five-way battle for pole. The quickest times were still to come with Stuart Hall setting a 1:23.252 on his very last lap to take the provisional pole that was until Richard Abra put in an amazing lap of 1:22.857 to take the pole position for the third time this season.

Qualifying Result:

1. 8 Richard Abra/James Appleby/Ant Scragg- Generation AMR – 1:22.857
2. 91 Chris Kemp/Stuart Hall/Tiffany Chittenden - Stratton Motorsport –1:23.252
3. 12 Karsten le Blanc/Dan de Zille - Nick Mee Racing – :23.645
4. 32 Michael Mallock/Ray Mallock – RS Williams –1:23.967
5. 24 Tom Black/Alan Bonner - Vantage racing –1:24.006
6. 22 Pierre Mantello/Olivier Bouche/Denis Tribel – Stratton Motorsport – 1:25.183
7. 38 Steven Byrne/Phiroze Bilimoria – MCD Racing – 1:25.310
8. 10 Mario Cordoni/Roberto Rayneri – Aston Riviera – 1:25.978
9. 7 Mike Brown/Dave West - MB Racing –1:26.106
10. 80 George Miller/Les Goble – Tiger Coffee Aston –1:26.317
11. 5 Desmond Smail/Julian Reddyhough - Mardi Gras – 1:27.867
12. 47 Stuart Patterson/Paul Bartley/Mark Walker - Stratton Motorsport –1:32.033

Round 3 Donington Park National Saturday 25th June

Race Report

This was to be a three-hour race with three mandatory pit stops for all teams. Ant Scragg in the Generation AMR number 8 entry led the field round on the green flag, he got a good start in the dry conditions to lead the pack into turn one but was later passed by Alan Bonner in car 24 and by Michael Mallock in the RS Williams number 32 car, Michael then went on to pass Alan into the chicane to lead at the end of the first lap. Michael now with clear air in front of him started to put in some very quick lap times to increase his lead to over 7 seconds by the end of lap 8.

Ant Scragg then started to show his real pace by passing Alan Bonner through Hollywood on lap 9 and setting the fastest lap of the race on the very same lap, he then set about catching Michael and on lap 11 managed to pass him into the chicane. Ant then continued to set some very quick lap times and managed to draw out a good lead, Michael was now in second with Alan Bonner third, fourth was the Nicholas Mee number 12 entry of Karsten Le Blanc at the wheel. Chris Kemp, in the Stratton Motorsport number 91 entry, was the first to pit, this car was carrying a driver handicap penalty as Chris was sharing with Stuart Hall, who is classified as an FIA gold driver, the penalty set was for 56 seconds of additional pit stop time over and above the three 2 minute mandatory stops that all the other teams faced. This 56-second penalty was spread across the three stops meaning the 91 car had to take three stops of 2 minutes 18 seconds. Chris handed over driver duties to Tiffany Chittenden and the car took on fuel and four new tyres. Next to pit was the Vantage Racing entry with Tom Black taking over driving duties from Alan Bonner. All the key contenders then started to pit including cars 8, 12 and 22.

Then news came through that car 10 the Swiss Riviera machine driven by Mario Cordoni had run wide at the Kraner curves and ended up in the gravel trap sideways at the old hairpin, this had sent the car into a roll. The car ended up going through both the tyre barriers and the concrete safety barriers bringing out the safety car. The last remaining cars who hadn’t pitted then decided to make their pit stops one of which was the then leader Michael Mallock in the number 32 machine, this car also carrying a driver handicap penalty for Michael being an FIA silver driver. The safety car managed to gather the field together but within that first safety car lap the decision had been made to red flag the race, there had been too much damage done to the safety barriers. The Pit lane was then closed, with several cars still waiting to finish their pit stops. The rest of the field was brought round to the starting grid to await a decision from the clerk of the course. The decision was made by the clerk and the stewards and the race had to be stopped permanently, this was due to the extent of the damage to the barriers and the time it was going to take to repair them. As only 54 of the 180 minutes had been completed the race was declared null and void.

Race Result Round 3

NULL AND VOID

The decision had also been made by the clerk of the course to extend the 90 minute race the following morning to a 120 minute race to try and recover some of the lost race time from round 3. There would be no qualifying session for round four and the grid for the race would be taken from the qualifying session from round 3.

Round 4 Donington Park National Sunday 26th June

Race Report

With the grid already set from the previous days events there were a few driver changes to mention;

Car 7 Mike Brown/Dave West were joined by Paul Cripps
Car 8 Richard Abra was joined by Mark Poole
Car 10 was unable to make the race due to the damage sustained from the day before.
Car 12 Karsten Le Blanc/Dan de Zille were joined by Christiaen van Lanschot
Car 32 Michael Mallock/Ray Mallock couldn’t do the race due to Rays other work commitments with the World Touring Car series.
Car 38 Steven Byrne/Phiroze Bilimoria were joined by Spencer Marsh
Car 47 Paul Bartley was not able to do the race so left the driving duties to Mark Walker/Stuart Patterson.
Car 56 was a new car to the race and would start at the back of the grid; the two drivers were Richard Taffinder/Tim Eakin.

There was a ten minute warm up session to get everybody set for the two hour race. Richard Abra in car number 8 led the field round for the green flag lap, in the hot sunny conditions, with Tiffany Chittenden along side on the front row in car number 91. A very clean start was made by all with car 8 taking the lead; car 91 was second, third was the Nicholas Mee number12 entry with Christiaen van Lanschot at the wheel, fourth was Tom Black in the number 24 Vantage Racing machine and fifth was the Tiger Coffee entry of Les Goble. On lap 8 Les was fighting his way through the field and managed to find away passed Tom Black to take fourth position. By lap 9 Richard Abra had managed to gain a 13 second lead over Tiffany Chittenden that was until lap 10 where Richard ran wide on the exit of Coppice reducing his lead to just over 2 seconds. Tiffany then really started to push putting in some fantastic laps to put Richard under some real pressure. On lap 14 Les Goble continued his progress taking third position from Christiaen van Lanschot. Richard Abra again started to find some more pace and began to pull away from Tiffany in car 91. On lap 15 car number 38 the MCD Racing entry of Steven Byrne ran wide at Coppice and ended up in the gravel, Steven managed to get the car back to the pits to try and assess the damage and remove all of the gravel, the team managed to repair the car and got it back in the race.

On lap 19 car 56 the 888 racing entry, with Tim Eakin at the wheel, pitted for the first of the two mandatory stops he then handed over to Richard Taffinder. On Lap 23 the EQ8 racing entry number 47 car pitted with a misfire, but the Stratton Motorsport team who run the car manage to fix the problem and get the car back in the race.

Next to pit was the Mardis Gras number 5 entry of Desmond Smail swapping driving duties to Julian Reddyhough and taking on fuel and four new tyres. The first round of pit stops were now in well under way with cars 24, the leader car 8 and car 12 all pitting for driver changes, tyres and fresh tyres. Car 91 also pitted at this time but they had a driver handicap of 15 seconds per stop being added to the two minutes mandatory time. Once everybody had taken the first round of pit stops it was Richard Abra in car number 8 now leading, second was now car 91 driven by Chris Kemp, third was car 7 the MB racing entry driven by Mike Brown, fourth was car 80 with George Miller now driving and fifth was car 12 now being driven by Karsten Le Blanc.

For the second round of pit stops it was the Vantage racing entry, car number 24 of Tom Black, who was the first to stop, Tom passing the driving duties on to Alan Bonner. Next to stop was the Generation AMR crew with Richard Abra swapping driving duties to Mark Poole. Car 91 the Stratton Motorsport entry pitted on the same lap to take their second 15 second driver handicap penalty as well as the two minute mandatory stop, Chris Kemp now handing over to Stuart Hall. Two laps later car 12 then pitted with Karsten Le Blanc handing over driving duties to Dan de Zille. After all the pit stops had been completed it was Mark Poole in car 8 leading followed by Dan de Zille closing him down at about 2.5 seconds per lap, third was Alan Bonner who was being caught by Stuart Hall in car 91 at about a second per lap. We were all set for a fantastically close finish to this thrilling race. On lap 70 Car 12 suddenly lost pace with Dan de Zille complaining of loss of power the team later explaining that there was some sort of fuel starvation issue, this now meant that Mark Poole in car 8 was still leading with Alan Bonner in second catching Mark at about 1 second a lap, third was now the charging Stuart Hall in car 91 who was himself catching Alan at about 1.5 seconds per lap, there was only about 20 minutes of the race left and there was going to be a three way fight for the race win. By lap 76 Stuart had managed to catch Alan Bonner and then got a run on him coming out of Redgate corner, this meant he was along side and passed going down through Hollywood. Stuart now set about catching Mark Poole whose lead was now down to about 35 seconds there was only about 15 laps left to be completed and with Stuart catching Mark at about 3 seconds per lap this was going to be extremely close.

The tension started to grow particularly for the team managers of both cars, by lap 84 Stuart had managed to reduce the gap to around 10 seconds, Mark was driving brilliantly putting in some very consistent times, then with only five minutes of the race remaining Stuart managed to catch and pass Mark for the lead. Mark had fought very hard and had managed to keep enough of a gap to Alan Bonner to secure second place for the Generation AMR number 8 car. Stuart had put together a near perfect stint to claim a brilliant victory and the first for the Stratton Motorsport number 91 car in the Aston Martin Challenge of Great Britain. Third was the Vantage racing number 24 car of Alan Bonner who again had showed some very strong pace all through the race.

Race Result

1. 91 Chris Kemp/Stuart Hall/Tiffany Chittenden - Stratton Motorsport –91 Laps
2. 8 Mark Poole/Richard Abra - Generation AMR –91 Laps
3. 24 Tom Black/Alan Bonner - Vantage racing –91 Laps
4. 12 Karsten le Blanc/Dan De Zille - Nick Mee Racing –91 Laps
5. 80George Miller/Les Goble – Tiger Coffee Aston – 88 Laps
6. 22 Pierre Mantello/Olivier Bouche/Denis Tribel – Stratton Motorsport – 87 Laps
7. 47 Stuart Patterson/Mark Walker - Stratton Motorsport –84 Laps
8. 5 Desmond Smail/Julian Reddyhough - Mardi Gras – 84 Laps
9. 56 Richard Taffinder/Tim Eakin– 888 Racing – 84 Laps

DNF

10. 7 Mike Brown/Paul Cripps/Dave West - MB Racing – 54 Laps
11. 38 Steven Byrne/Phiroze Bilimoria/Spencer Marsh – 41 Laps

2009 GTopen (GTS) champions Villios Racing have two of their Aston Martins up for sale including the race winning Vantage chassis #007 . Both are upgraded to 2010 spec and ready to race. for more information please contact Villois directly at info@villois.com / www.villois.com


Vantage GT2 Chassis# 007 (Price: € 330.000,00)
Make: Aston Martin Racing (Prodrive)
Year: 2010
Evolution step: 2010 upgrade
Racing history: International GT Open 2010
Accident: none
2011 service plan: done
Car is ready to race
Spare parts kit available



DBRS9 GT3 chassis #16 (Price: € 170.000,00)
Make: Aston Martin Racing (Prodrive)
Year: 2007
Evolution step: 2010 upgrade
Racing history: International GT Open 2007-2008-2009-2010
Accident: none
2011 service plan: done
Car is ready to race
Spare parts kit available

The GT1-World Championship starts into the second half of the season with this weekend’s sixth round at Navarra in Spain. At the track located in the north of Spain between Logrono and Pamplona, Young Driver AMR will once again fight for the podium with it’s two Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Alex Müller (GER)/Tomas Enge (CZE) and Stefan Mücke (GER)/Darren Turner (GBR).

The premiere race of the GT1 World Championship at Navarra last season has already been a success for Young Driver AMR. Starting from last row into the Championship Race after an issue in the Qualifying Race, Darren Turner and Tomas Enge fought up to fourth place and only briefly missed the podium. “We had a good pace at Navarra last year”, Young Driver AMR team principal Hardy Fischer recalls. “This year we have to take the little bit different performance of the cars into account and also the warmer ambient temperatures. But I’m still cautiously optimistic. After the last round our mechanics made a big effort and rebuilt the No. 8 car. I hope we can score good points with both cars and move further up in the team championship.”

The first part of the season brought much joy for the Young Driver AMR team. In four of the five races, Young Driver AMR finished on the podium and also claimed the victory in the Qualifying Race of the most recent round in England. For the second part of the season, Young Driver AMR is well positioned in the team- and the driver championship. Young Driver AMR is third in team points, only three points behind the second placed team. Stefan Mücke/Darren Turner and Alex Müller/Tomas Enge are currently fifth and sixth in the drivers ranking, only 14, respectively 17 points behind the leader.

Driver quotes before the race:

Alex Müller (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “Navarra is a nice new track. After we won the Qualifying Race at Silverstone and finished second in the Championship Race, I travel quite optimistic to Spain. Of course, after our recent success we have to carry some success ballast, but we will cope with that. Last year we saw that the track wasn’t too bad for the Aston Martin, but this year we have also to consider the temperatures, which will come into play. One year ago, the Navarra round was in autumn. This year we will be faced with much warmer temperatures in the heat of the summer. It would be great, if we will be able to score another podium at Navarra. But a fourth or fifth place would also be a ideal result, as we can reduce the success weight for the following rounds and further fill up our point score.“

Tomáš Enge (#7 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “We had quite a good race at Navarra last year. But this season it’s very difficult to predict, as the date of the race moved from October to July. It’s very hot down there and it will certainly be the same for the race. So we are not really sure if we will have the same performance with the car then last year, considering the very high ambient temperatures. After our success in the last round, we also have success ballast in the car. I hope that we will avoid any troubles during the race and score some good points.”

Stefan Mücke (#8 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): “I don’t know Navarra quite well. Last year we had an issue during free practise and couldn’t start into the race. So I’m lacking a bit experience on that track. Our team principal Hardy Fischer gave us the opportunity last year to race a GT3-car at that track, but you can only hardly compare that to a GT1-machine. So I guess I will need some laps in the free practise to come up to speed. At Navarra, it will certainly be very difficult, but last year’s race of our sister-car showed that’s it’s possible for us to score a good result there. At the last race in England, we had some very bad luck, but this means also that we don’t have any success ballast in the car. Navarra is a very technical track. It’s narrow and twisty with many first and second gear corners. It’s very important for a good lap time to drive very clean there.”

Darren Turner (#8 Young Driver-Aston Martin DBR9): „We had a very tough weekend at Silverstone with the No. 8 car and have to leave that behind. Luckily our sister car had a good weekend there and scored a podium finished, which helped Young Driver AMR in the team championship. We are now looking forward to Navarra. Last year, we didn’t had a too bad race there. During the Championship Race, we went from last to fourth, which was a pretty good result. Navarra is the start into the second half of the season and our main objective is not to loose too much ground on the championship leaders. I hope for a clean race, then we will have a fair chance to collect a good amount of points. Last year we saw at Navarra that the track layout favours a little bit the rear-engined cars. But this season our Aston Martin DBR9 proved to be an allround car, which is fast on any kind of tracks. So we should be reasonable competitive in Spain.“

Young Driver AMR
Image: Markus Berns

* Two new Aston Martin V12 Zagato concept cars complete Nürburgring 24 hour test to maintain the company’s 100% finish record at the race, joined by fellow factory-entered V8 Vantage N24
* Two V12 Zagatos concept cars cover more than 230 laps between them; over 3,700 miles in the toughest 24 hour test on what best simulates the extremities of public roads
* Parallel 24-hour challenge in Nevada, USA sees standard production four-door Aston Martin Rapide amass 1,300 miles, raising money for charity

Aston Martin’s three factory-backed entries in the 39th ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hour race – including two new V12 Zagato concept cars – have overcome a series of challenges to all successfully complete the ultimate endurance test in Germany, observed by some 200,000 spectators.

As the chequered flag fell at 16.00 CET this afternoon, Aston Martin’s number 5 V12 Zagato took 5th place in the SP8 class with sister car, the number 3 V12 Zagato finishing 6th. In the SP10 class, a factory-backed V8 Vantage N24 raced to 5th place, but the final positions do not tell the full story of the typically incident-packed Nürburgring 24 Hour.

Aston Martin’s twin V12 Zagato entry marked the next step of an ambitious project which began when the car was premiered at the Concorso D’Eleganza at Villa D’Este in May this year, winning the Design award for Concepts and Prototypes. The show car was then transformed into the number 3 race car, nicknamed ‘Zag’ (red livery) while in parallel, a sister car – number 5, nicknamed ‘Zig’ (green livery) was built.

The intention to enter the new V12 Zagatos in this year’s race offered an extension of the company’s philosophy of signing-off new products by entering a car which is as close to the road car as possible and publically subjecting it to the toughest 24 hour test, by entering a car in prototype form.

Speaking after crossing the finish line in the red V12 Zagato, Aston Martin CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez said: “All our cars finished today, and two out of the three customer teams also crossed the line. This includes two brand new cars which we launched only four weeks ago.

“With a little more luck we could have finished higher up the order, but finishing first wasn’t the goal, we aimed to have the cars running at the end – I am really pleased with the team who did such a great job keeping the cars running throughout.”

Of Aston Martin’s customer team entries, Team Pflanz managed a 7th place finish in SP10 GT4 while Bratke Motorsport finished 7th in SP8. Special thought is reserved for Mathol Racing who endured an agonising finish to the 24 hours having dominated SP10 GT4 remaining in first place for the vast majority of the race only to be forced to retire with little over one hour remaining.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said: “We came here with two concept cars and the aim of finishing the 24 hours as the ultimate test for the V12 Zagato and we’ve achieved that.

“I’m immensely proud of the team – as ever they have represented Aston Martin in the right way; staying calm under pressure, acting professionally and quickly solving problems when they arose.”

In parallel with events in Germany, Aston Martin’s Americas team joined forces with Road & Track magazine to run a standard road specification Rapide at Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch in Nevada.

Despite extreme temperatures in the Nevada desert, the four-door Rapide has covered over 1,300 miles in the 24 hours endurance run, demonstrating the durability of the standard production sports car while raising money for charity. The drive, held concurrently with Aston Martin’s participation at the Nürburgring, saw a total of nine drivers from Aston Martin and Road & Track magazine complete nearly 500 laps.

Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s trio of factory-backed entries have emerged from a challenging night to return to smooth running in the Nürburgring 24 hour race as proceedings enter the final hours.

After accumulating almost 300 laps of the 26km circuit between them, Aston Martin’s V12 Zagato entries are 5th (‘Zag’) and 7th (‘Zig’) in the SP8 class while the V8 Vantage N24 occupies 6th place in SP10, but all three cars have suffered bouts of misfortune through the night and early morning.

After challenging for a class lead and a top 20 overall position, #5 V12 Zagato (green livery) was struck by a car exiting the pit lane in the early hours. Resulting damage was more extensive than first thought and necessitated a series of pit stops to make a succession of repairs as the ferocity of the earlier incident became clear. Meanwhile the sister #3 V12 Zagato (red livery) needed a gearbox change which the team fitted in record time.

A further bout of bad luck then struck the V8 Vantage N24 which was involved in an accident on the circuit. A calmly executed track-side repair to a steering arm saw the car return to action earlier this morning.

Meanwhile Aston Martin privateer entries continue to make solid progress with Mathol Racing’s V8 Vantage a particular highlight, leading SP10 GT4. Team Pflanz are currently 9th in the same class. Joining the Aston Martin factory entries in SP8, Bratke Motorsport’s Vantage GT4 lies 6th.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King commented on the issues with ‘Zig’: “It clearly demonstrates how one small issue beyond our control at half past two in the morning, when we were hit by another car, has caused a cascade of problems that has meant we have been regularly in and out of the pits.

“It resulted in a damaged steering arm, sheered engine mounts and most recently a cracked power steering fluid reservoir. All-in-all it is frustrating to say the least. However, as was our objective the car is still running, with all our other entrants, and it is a tribute to the technicians who have kept it going, working on a roasting hot car, and coming up with clever solutions quickly.”

Aston Martin

After another competitor made contact with the number 5 V12 Zagato (‘Zig’) during the night, the team worked feverishly to fix a broken steering arm. Once the arm was repaired Peter Cate returned to the track, but it soon became evident that damage from the earlier contact was more deep rooted. The lateral impact caused the engine mounts to snap requiring the difficult job of replacing the bolts without the removal of the engine. The car returned to the circuit at 08.00 with reports of the car running perfectly again and is sitting 7th in class.

The Aston Martin pit crew changed the gearbox in the number 3 Zagato (‘Zag’) in record time allowing Horst von Saurma to return to the circuit at 06.50. Zag is running 6th in class.

Shortly after Zag left to join the pack, Jürgen Stumpf reported an accident over the radio while driving the V8 Vantage GT4. The car sustained damage to the steering and the crew are trying to execute a fix track-side so that it can return to the pits.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said: “It is staggering how quickly the crew managed to solve the issues experienced in the early hours of the morning. We have had to endure some bad luck during the night, but we are running well now, with both cars aiming to make up some lost time.”

Progressing consistently without incident, the number 62 car of Mathol Racing resides out in front of the SP10 class with Team Pflanz in 9th. Team Bratke continue in 5th in SP8.

In the tandem 24 hour attempt in Nevada, where the Americas Aston Martin team are running a production standard Rapide simultaneously with the Nürburgring 24 hours, the car has now completed over 920 miles on the race track.

Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s V12 Zagatos and V8 Vantages continued into the darkness. After spending the majority of night 1st in class, ‘Zig’, the number 5 V12 Zagato was hit by another competitor causing damage to the front steering arm. Zig was brought into the garage where the team repaire

d the arm quickly and calmly within 40 minutes. It promptly returned to the track after receiving new tyres and a full tank of fuel. Peter Cate continued his stint, but had to return owing to a suspected gearbox sensor problem. The number 5 car should return to the track soon.

The number 3 V12 Zagato ‘Zag’ moved up from 5th to 4th position during the night at the hands of Matthew Marsh, Wolfgang Schuhbauer and Horst von Saurma. At around 4am a gearbox issue was reported and the car was brought into the garage to be checked over. The unit is being replaced.

The number 6 V8 Vantage GT4 piloted by Shinichi Katsura, Rob Thomson, Jurgen Stumf and Darren Turner has been running perfectly needing only brake pads, tyres and fuel to get past the half-way point. Turner returned to the car at 04.30 to start his third stint.

Throughout the entire 12 hours, customer team Mathol Racing has remained 1st in the SP10 class for GT4 cars while Team Pflanz continue in 9th position. Team Bratke are 7th in the SP 8 class.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport said: “We have had a trouble free race until now, but some gearbox issues are hampering our progress. The team are putting in a mighty effort to get the Zagatos back out on track.”

I’m thoroughly pleased with our customer teams’ progress and our own Vantage GT4 is performing immaculately.”

Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s trio of entries in the 39th running of the ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hour race continue to progress to plan as darkness engulfs the Eifel region. V12 Zagato #5 (green) has taken 1st place in SP8 – an impressive 21st overall in a 200-plus field - with V12 Zagato #3 (red) in 4th, while V8 Vantage N24 #6 holds 3rd in SP10GT4.

Aston Martin’s privateer entries are also running smoothly; Mathol Racing occupy 1st and Team Pflanz 8th in SP10 with Team Bratke 6th in SP8.

As Saturday drew to a close, driving duties returned to those who piloted the opening stints across Aston Martin’s three Nürburgring entries. Richard Meaden took over from Chris Porritt in V12 Zagato #5 (‘Zig’), Wolfgang Schuhbauer replaced Matthew Marsh in V12 Zagato #3 (‘Zag’) and Darren Turner returned to the cockpit of V8 Vantage N24 #6.

Chris Porritt, who finished his second stint of the race in V12 Zagato #5 shortly before midnight said: “It’s odd to think that when I get back into the car it will still be dark! This is a magical place to be at night – campfires and fireworks are all around the track now and in darkness is easier to see where you are going; it focuses your vision.

“During the night it is as important as ever that we conserve fuel so I tend to brake a little earlier into the corners and managed to get nine laps from a tank.”

Darren Turner who had just climbed out of V8 Vantage (‘Smurf’), having completed his second stint said: “It took me a little while to get used to the dark as I only had a couple of night laps during qualifying. It is quite a hard place to find your reference points in the dark here, but I was getting quicker.

“There were a lot of accidents that needed negotiating during my stint – it’s quite eventful out there, but I’m really enjoying my first Nürburgring 24 hour experience; the car has been perfect.”

In sweltering heat in Nevada at the Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch a production standard four-door Aston Martin Rapide continues to accumulate laps in a 24-hour test run in conjunction with Road & Track magazine. The car – also raising money for charities providing aid to victims of the recent earthquakes in Japan – is approaching the 200-lap mark.

Nürburgring positions at nine hours:

#3 V12 Zagato (red) SP8 4th
#5 V12 Zagato (green) SP8 1st
#6 V8 Vantage N24 SP10 GT 3rd
#62 V8 Vantage GT4 SP10 GT 1st
#75 V8 Vantage N24 SP10 GT 8th
#85 V8 Vantage GT4 SP8 6th

All factory and customer Aston Martins continue to tackle the challenging Nordschleife as night settles over the Eifel. Negotiating the ever-changing race conditions around the 16 mile circuit, the number 5 V12 Zagato (green) has moved up to 2nd in class following steady stints by all drivers. Oliver Mathai handed over to Peter Cate, both of whom completed a single stint each.

The number 3 V12 Zagato (red) is running 5th in class having completed 34 laps. Aston Martin CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez took over from journalist Horst von Saurma having completed a trouble-free stint. In the SP10 GT4 class, the number 6 V8 Vantage hovered between 2nd and 3rd in class with consistent laps at the hands of Jurgen Stumpf and Rob Thomson who is completing a double stint in 3rd position.

Mathol Racing who finished 5th in class in last year’s 24 hour race, has been running 1st for the past two hours. Team Pflanz climbed the rankings to 8th in the SP10 class while Team Bratke continue in 7th in the SP8 class.

All factory Aston Martins have moved into the top 60 with the green Zagato running 26th overall from a starting grid of 202 competitors.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said: “It is early days in the context of the 24 hours but our race strategy is so far going to plan. We hope to continue on this consistent form and stay out of trouble.

“The team did a fantastic job at the beginning of the race when the whole field had to pit to change from wet to slick tyres. We managed to get all three cars through quickly and efficiently.”

In the UK, round three of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge of Great Britain took place at Donington. Official partner team Generation AMR qualified on pole for the 90 minute V8 Vantage GT4 one-make endurance race. The race which started at 16:50 GMT ran for 55 minutes before the number 10 Vantage left the track colliding with the concrete barrier. Driver Mario Cordoni was unhurt, but the race had to be abandoned due to barrier repair. Tomorrow’s third round which starts at 10.20 GMT will be extended to two hours as a result.

On the other side of the Atlantic in Nevada where a standard production Rapide is completing a 24 hour endurance run at the Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch, Road & Track magazine continue after six hours having completed more than 130 laps in 33 degree C heat.

Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s three factory-backed entries have safely negotiated the opening stages of the Nürburgring 24 hour race as some 200 plus cars jostled for position from the rolling start at 4pm (CET). These cars are joined by three further Aston Martin privateer entries who are running strongly after the opening stages.

The number 5 V12 Zagato (green) is currently 5th in the SP8 class with sister car, the number 3 V12 Zagato (red) in 7th while an impressive treble stint from Darren Turner, making his Nürburgring 24 hour debut, saw V8 Vantage number 6 move from an initial grid placing of 4th to 1st in the SP10 class as Turner pitted to hand over driving duties to Jurgen Stumpf and the pit stop saw the car move to 2nd place.

Privateer teams Mathol Racing and Team Pflanz are running 3rd and 9th respectively in the SP10 class, driving V8 Vantage GT4s while Team Bratke hold 10th in SP8 in their V8 Vantage.

As the unpredictable Eiffel weather saw rain spells throughout the morning the Aston Martin team opted to start on wet tyres – a decision that has to be made around two hours before the start of the race in order to join the extensive Nürburgring starting grid. As rain subsided and the track dried, all three cars soon switched to slick tyres in very busy pit lane as other teams followed suit.

Chris Porritt, who started the race in Aston Martin’s green V12 Zagato and finished his first stint after around 90 minutes said: “It is good to get the first stint under my belt and after the initial adrenaline rush I can relax for a while now.

“There was a dry line around the track pretty much on the first lap so we switched to slicks as soon as we could. As we’re effectively running a road car here we have the advantage of DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) which is really useful when you have short spells of rain – you just push the button to engage it and saves changing tyres.”

Richard Meaden has now taken over from Porritt in the number 5 V12 Zagato while Horst von Saurma takes the wheel of the number 3 car after Wolfgang Schuhbauer completed the opening stint.

Meanwhile in Nevada, the US Aston Martin team is running a standard production Rapide in tandem with the Nürburgring 24 Hour race at the Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch with Road & Track magazine. The car is raising money for charity while being subjected to an endurance test in 38 degree heat and has completed 67 laps and 181 miles so far. Road & Track Editor, Matt De Lorenzo is currently lapping the 2.7 mile circuit.



Nürburgring positions at three hours (No./Car/Class/Class Position):

#3 V12 Zagato (red) SP8 7th
#5 V12 Zagato (green) SP8 5th
#6 V8 Vantage N24 SP10 GT
2nd #62 V8 Vantage GT4 SP10 GT
3rd #75 V8 Vantage N24 SP10 GT
9th #85 V8 Vantage GT4 SP8 10th

Aston Martin

This week Aston Martin is putting the final touches to its race preparations in readiness for the toughest 24 hour race of them all – the annual ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hours on 25 and 26 June where a brace of new Aston Martin V12 Zagatos will compete.

This weekend marks the next step of an ambitious project which began when the V12 Zagato was unveiled at the Concorso D’Eleganza at Villa D’Este in May this year, winning the Design award for Concepts and Prototypes. The show car was then transformed into the number 3 race car, nicknamed ‘Zag’ (red) and will be piloted in the 24 hour race by Aston Martin CEO, Dr. Ulrich Bez, the company’s Nürburgring Test Centre Director, Wolfgang Schuhbauer and automotive journalists Horst von Saurma and Matthew Marsh.

In addition, a green V12 Zagato (nicknamed ‘Zig’) - car number 5 for the race - was prepared by the small team based at Aston Martin’s global headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire. Zig will be driven by One-77 Chief Engineer Chris Porritt, experienced sports car driver Oliver Mathai, automotive journalist Richard Meaden and experienced amateur racer Peter Cate.

Joining the Zagatos will be a V8 Vantage GT4 affectionately nicknamed ‘Smurf’ (now orange but formally blue) which will be driven by Aston Martin Racing works driver, Darren Turner, journalist and experienced 24 hour driver, Shinichi Katsura, Australian racer Rob Thomson and seasoned Nürburgring pilot Jurgen Stumpf.

Three further customer team V8 Vantages will be competing over the weekend bringing the Aston Martin presence in the race up to six cars with Mathol Racing (#62), Bratke Motorsport Team – AVIA (#85) and Team Pflanz (#75) driving Vantage GT4s in the SP10 class.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said: “Our entries this year extend our Nürburgring racing philosophy. For five years now we have signed-off our new products by entering a car which is as close to the road car as possible and subjecting it to the toughest 24 hour test on what best simulates the extremities of public roads. This year we go a step further by testing a car at prototype stage.”

“As ever, the race will present an enormous challenge in a vast and increasingly competitive field which will be fraught with all the unpredictable elements associated with racing at the Nürburgring. However, we are excited by the potential we have seen from the V12 Zagato in the testing we’ve completed and that gives us great hope for the task ahead. We look forward to a safe, successful and enjoyable race for our teams and customers.”

Aston Martin’s presence at the Nürburgring marks the sixth successive time factory engineers complete a product sign-off test in what has been dubbed ‘the toughest 24 hour race’ under public scrutiny. Since 2006, the marque has used the race to prove the reliability and durability of its new models – first for V8 Vantage itself, then the new SportshiftTM transmission in 2007, the 4.7 litre engine V8 Vantage in 2008, the V12 Vantage in 2009, the four-door Rapide in 2010, and now, rather more ambitiously, for the first major test of a new concept car – the Aston Martin V12 Zagato.

In addition to this year’s race, Aston Martin’s American team has joined forces with Road & Track magazine to run a standard road specification Rapide at Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch in the USA for the same 24 hours as the European team at the Nürburgring. The endurance test echoes last year’s Nordschleife attempt where a near standard four-door Rapide with a production six-speed automatic transmission successfully completed the 24 hour race, finishing third in class.

At the Nürburgring the roofs of both V12 Zagatos will be sporting a ‘Heart for Japan’ dedication as part of Aston Martin’s support for the Tsunami victims of Japan. In May, Dr. Bez auctioned his company Rapide raising £100,000. During the build up to this year's 24 hours Dr. Bez will hand the cheque to Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda and their Donation Fund for Employees in the Affected Disaster Area charity.

The 39th ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hour race starts at 4pm CET on Saturday 25 June – live updates are available by following @astonmartin on Twitter and live commentary will be broadcast via Radio Le Mans (www.radiolemans.com)

The Aston Martin Rapide will take to the track for a 24 hours endurance run to be held at Spring Mountain Motor Sports Ranch, Nevada, starting on June 25th. Drivers from Aston Martin and Road & Track Magazine will run the Rapide road car simultaneously with Aston Martin’s participation in the Nürburgring 24-hour race in Europe, demonstrating the durability of Aston Martin’s four door sports coupe as well as raising money for charity.

Aston Martin has a long tradition of motorsport success and this year’s Nürburgring 24-hour will see a number of Aston Martins, including a brace of the company’s new V12 Zagatos and customer teams, competing in the endurance race. Aston Martin engineers have harnessed motorsport learning and incorporated race car derived technology to build some of the world’s finest sports cars for the road.

The Rapide combines sports car performance and Aston Martin craftsmanship with the everyday practicality of four doors. At the core of the Rapide lies a hand-built 6.0 litre V12 engine giving a power output of 470bhp and the standard feature Touchtronic automatic gearbox allows the driver to shift gear automatically or manually, allowing for a more refined or engaging driver experience as desired.

Designed at Aston Martin’s award winning headquarters in Gaydon, England, the beautiful Rapide is both luxurious yet functional. Four “swan wing” doors provide access to cosseting sports seats both front and rear bestowing occupants with ample accommodation and a 317 litre luggage compartment affords space for belongings, creating a truly versatile Aston Martin sports car.

Julian Jenkins, Aston Martin the Americas, said: “Since its launch, the Rapide has been popular with customers looking for an exclusive sports car with a combination of exhilarating performance, handcrafted style, and added four-door practicality. As well as raising money for Heart for Japan, this 24-hour initiative will give us an opportunity to showcase the endurance capabilities of the Rapide which in turn demonstrates its everyday usability and durability.”

Matt Delorenzo, editor-in-chief of Road & Track magazine, added “We’re truly excited to participate in this challenge. Since the Rapide made its racing debut at last year’s 24-hour race at the Nurburgring, we wondered how a street version would compare if driven continuously for a day over a closed circuit. Seeing how close we can get to the race distance covered last year will be an excellent measure of the car’s real-world performance.”

More information on the “24 Hours of Rapide” can be found at www.astonmartin.com/24hrsofrapide as well as at www.roadandtrack.com.

And Barwell run Secure Racing makes a successful British GT debut at Brands Hatch.


Barwell Motorsport was in action in both Belgium and England last weekend, as we contested the latest events of the Belcar Endurance and British GT Championships. The Belcar series was making its first visit of the season to Spa, and the competition got even hotter with the addition to the entry of many top factory-supported teams from the cream of the major international GT3 racing series. The Petronas-Barwell Racing Aston DBRS9 suffered near disaster early on in the frenetic wet/dry 3-hour race, when a rival car ran over the team’s pit lane equipment during a pit stop. Although this caused a major delay for us, drivers Jeffrey Van Hooydonk and Tim Verbergt staged a great recovery to climb back up from 27th to finish 8th overall and third out of the regular Belcar runners. To prove the competitiveness of Belcar, the race was won by the championship-leading Porsche of Goossens/Soulet. With this result, Van Hooydonk and Verbergt have moved up to second place in the Belcar points behind the Goossens/Soulet combination.

Meanwhile at Brands Hatch we were embarking on our first British GT race of the year, with the GT4 Class Aston Martin Vantage being run under the Secure Racing with Barwell Motorsport banner. Having only completed a shakedown run at Silverstone prior to the weekend, this was very much a learning event for both the team and drivers Peter Erceg and Chris Holmes. The car ran like clockwork all weekend, and we got faster and faster the more miles that we racked up. This year’s GT4 class is hugely competitive, and thus we were delighted to claim a solid fifth place on both the car and drivers’ debut in British GT. We also had our regular involvement with the GT3 class at Brands, with Barwell boss Mark Lemmer performing chief engineering and car set-up duties on the Beechdean Aston Martin DBRS9. This set a superb fourth fastest qualifying time of 1m 27.1s – the fastest ever DBRS9 Avon-tyred time around Brands by a fair margin. Unfortunately Andrew Howard had a spin on the opening lap of the race which put the car down the order, and it then suffered a puncture later on in the race. Jonny Adam was absolutely flying during his race stint, however, and set the second fastest GT3 race lap.

The Belcar entry for Spa was a match for any other international GT race this year, with the winners of the last rounds of both of Europe’s two premier GT series, the FIA GT3 European Championship (Faster Racing BMW Z4 GT3) and the Blancpain Endurance Series (Vita4one Ferrari 458 Italia) joining the fray, as well as other top squads from Mercedes and Lamborghini. This meant that most of the major GT manufacturers were represented at Spa by factory supported teams! In terms of numbers, the interlopers helped the grid to swell to an impressive 29 cars across the three classes.

The condensed two day schedule also meant that there was very little time to work on the set up of the car, and we weren’t satisfied that we had got a really good handling balance on the Aston Martin Brussels-backed DBRS9 by the end of the one hour practice session. With dry weather forecast for the official qualifying session, we sent Jeffrey out to get a reasonable time in the bag during the early stages on the first set of new tyres. Tim then took over but struggled
to get a clear lap in during his run. Our plan was then for Jeffrey to have another crack of the whip at a qualifying lap with new slicks, but the rain came and scuppered our chances. We were thus left with no chance to improve on Jeff’s first ‘banker’ time and 11th position, and were frustrated as we felt that a lap time in the low 2m 21s bracket (which would have put us seventh) was achievable. With the extremely high quality of the field the top six cars were all in the 2m20s bracket, an absolutely stunning overall pace. Even though they are using the harder compound Michelin tyre, these top six Belcar GT3 cars would have all qualified ahead of the GT2 Professional class pole position Ferrari in the recent Spa round of the Le Mans Series!

Race day morning brought with it that traditional Spa feature of black clouds and more rain. The rain had eased up an hour before the race start, but still the majority of the cars started on wet weather tyres, and the forecast was for more rain. One significant bucker of this trend was the Prospeed Porsche of Goossens, however, who made what turned out to be an inspired (and brave) decision to start on slicks. Only four laps into the 3-hour encounter it was already clear that slicks was the way to go, and thus the pit lane was full of cars (including ours) coming in to change to dry tyres.

The race-leading Mercedes of Anthony Kumpen was in the pit box immediately before ours, and as he left his spot he misjudged how close he was to our fuel rig boom and the attached air line for the wheel change gun that was about to be used on our car. Kumpen ran straight over the gun and scooped it up onto the front of the Merc, which then pulled the whole fuel rig over to 45 degrees as he drove off down the pit road! Fortunately the gun snapped off the end of the line before the fuel rig toppled over and created what would have been an extremely dangerous and damaging situation. As it was the loose air line whipped back and smashed a hole clean through the front left side fender of the Aston. The shocked Barwell pit crew quickly regrouped, fitted a replacement air line and gun, then repositioned the car and fuel rig, assessed the damage and completed the tyre change. Unfortunately because of all this we had lost over a complete lap to the main pack, and Jeffrey rejoined way back in 27th place.

Hence we began what was to be an absolutely stunning recovery job and damage limitation exercise. Jeffrey got his head down and got stuck into his stint, which remained dry until very shortly before he was due to stop on the hour mark. Just prior to this there was more drama in the vicinity of our pit lane area, as a Lamborghini was coming down the pit lane on fire and then parked up only 10 metres away from our pit box, having left a trail of burning fuel all the way back to its fuel rig! Fortunately the marshals did a great job and got the fire out and the car cleared quickly before Jeffrey came back in, having moved the car up to 15th place by this point. At the second stop we fuelled the car for an hour and, with the rain settling in, sent Tim back out on a set of wet tyres for his stint.

Tim did a great job during his hour stint in the wet, although he reported that the car was struggling a little bit with high rear tyre pressures. Just as the race went into its final hour, Tim had got us into 12th place before he returned to the pits for our final stop. We fitted a fresh set of rear wets, which now had their pressures optimised after Tim’s feedback. Jeff was then absolutely flying as he continued to move the Petronas-Barwell Aston up the order. He reeled in and passed the rival GPR Aston Martin DBRS9 before claiming 10th place from the Corvette of Bouvy/Coens as the race entered its last 30 minutes. He then had a 50-second deficit to the
Vanthoor/Wauters Mercedes, but was able to make huge gains every lap as he was consistently one of the fastest cars on the track at this stage. Incredibly he hunted down and passed the Merc for ninth place, which then became eighth position as the sister Mercedes of Kumpen/Wauters ran out of fuel in the closing stages (justice served for it spoiling our race!).

At Brands Hatch the weekend was certainly a lot calmer and less action-packed in the British GT encounter, but the pace in GT4 has also significantly moved forward from where it was last year. The regular British GT runners have already done two race events and plenty of testing, so we were certainly starting on the back foot with our new Dtex-backed Aston Martin. Both Peter and Chris are new to British GT racing and moreover Chris was having his first race in a GT car of any kind, having come from a background of racing single-seater formula cars. Without the benefit of any proper testing, we were also learning about the new spec Avon tyres, and during official qualifying we didn’t get the most out of the new slicks as they require much longer runs than before to get to their optimum temperature.


Peter thus started from sixth place but had the absolute nightmare of circuit conditions to contend with at the start of the two-hour encounter – a track with a dry racing line but damp off the line. With the line dry the only tyre choice was to use slicks, but if you strayed off the racing line onto the damp surface then you instantly had absolutely zero grip...! Many cars found this out to their detriment during the opening laps, as they slid off the line and straight off the track! Peter kept the Aston ‘on the island’ however, although the Lotus Evora of Nordstrom/Clarke slipped through on the opening lap to demote him to seventh spot. The Kiwi then settled himself into the race and started to learn how to get the best out of the Vantage’s traction control system. This became especially useful towards the end of his hour stint, when a quick rain shower sprinkled the track with water but didn’t come down heavy enough to warrant a change to wet tyres. Under these highly treacherous conditions Peter was absolutely flying and matching the times of the GT4 class leaders. Shortly after the halfway mark he brought the car into the pits in sixth place to hand over to Chris, having gained a place back when the Ladas/Mallock KTM XBow hit problems.




The Barwell crew topped up the car with fuel, changed all four tyres for a fresh set of slicks and sent Chris on his way. He rejoined the race with the track surface still extremely greasy, and wisely didn’t push too hard until he had got sufficient heat into the fresh tyres. Once the Avons were up to temperature he really started to get into his stride, and as the circuit dried out Chris just got quicker and quicker. Soon he was matching, and then comfortably exceeding, his qualifying pace, and the Barwell Vantage was not only reeling in the factory Lotus of Glew/Jackson in fifth place but also setting faster lap times than the class leading Ginetta of McDonald/Denis! In the closing stages of the race the pressure that Chris was putting the Glew/Jackson car under clearly had an affect on the Lotus, leading to it crashing out of the race with less than 10 minutes to go. Chris and Peter thus claimed an excellent fifth place finish in the first event for Secure Racing with Barwell Motorsport.

Barwell Motorsport

Images British GT & Belcar

After a very promising first round at Silverstone which saw Richard Abra and Mark Poole win on their debut in the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge with Generation AMR. Richard was disappointed to finish 4th at Snetterton after putting the car on pole by over a second and coming tantalisingly close to a second win.

“Snetterton didn’t go to plan from the start to be honest, starting from pole we dropped down to 6th when Mark spun on oil left by the Aston Martin Lagonda entered car after it made an ambitious move on another car only a few minutes into a 3 hour race which left it with a damaged sump and trailing oil on the track!”

“From there Mark was stuck behind the safety car for the rest of his stint. I then got in the car and caught the back of the pack before the safety car came in and set about making some places up until coming up behind a very defensive Alan Bonner, for me this really lost us the race, I spent far too long trying to get past, we were a lot quicker but to be fair to Alan he defended very well until his tyres went off. I got past eventually after he out braked himself going into turn one, I then went on to gain a 40 second lead! At this point I was feeling very comfortable and thought we had a strong chance of getting a good result"

Richard pitted from the lead on lap 42 handing the car over to Mark who kept the Generation AMR Vantage in the lead for the rest of his stint. On Lap 46 the safety car was brought back after a number of cars went off on the oil left by George Miller’s Tiger Coffee Aston subsequently reducing the teams hard earned lead to zero.

“The team made the call to pull Mark in early and gave me fresh tyres, but the safety car came in just after I left the pits so I couldn’t catch the back of the pack. 20 minutes before the end of my stint I was P2 chasing the NMR car, we were trading similar times until my tyres came back to me and we started to reel them in by over a second a lap! Just as we were on the same straight I got the call from the team that I had to make an unscheduled pit stop as Mark hadn’t been in the car long enough, I was devastated, I was so focused on P1 I was certain I could pass him”

After the pit stop mark rejoined in 3rd but dropped to 4th as it started to rain in the closing minutes of the race.

“NMR had a great race and Giles called it brilliantly on the pit wall so well done to them. Obviously we were hugely disappointed that a simple mistake costs us the win but we could have been disqualified had we not pitted.”

“After a very difficult and frustrating race at Snetterton the whole team is raring to go, I can’t wait to get back in the car; I think we have a good chance even though the entry list is starting to get more and more competition with a few very experienced drivers and even some gold level pro drivers, I’m on a mission to get back on that top step of the podium at Donington next weekend.”

Image: Xynamic

There were more than twelve hours of great racing, a GTE-Am class lead and no mechanical issues with the Aston Martin Vantage, but the dream of a successful finish in the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Gulf Aston Martin team ended early and in a dramatic fashion.

An accident at the Porsche Curves at just after 0330 hrs, while British driver Mike Wainwright was at the wheel for the second hour of his night time double stint, resulted in the retirement of the No. 60 entry. Wainwright was taken to the local Le Mans hospital for full medical checks and has been diagnosed with a broken rib. He will be returning home later today.

With engine-related issues having prevented the Gulf Aston Martin Middle East team from taking the start of both the previous rounds of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the team was delighted with opening hours of the French classic. Not only did Fabien Giroix race the Gulf Oil International-liveried GT car very competitively for over 2.5 hours against the other nine entries in the GTE-Am class, he also led the class and – backed up very competently by Mike Wainwright in his first two-hour stint – was rarely out of contention in the first quarter of the race.

New and aggressive rumble strips, designed to keep cars off the kerbs at Tertre Rouge, the Dunlop curves and Ford Chicanes, claimed the No. 60 as a victim (one of many) while taking avoiding action of another car, but unfortunately this meant that the front splitter was damaged. Roald Goethe was forced to bring the Aston Martin in for a long stop as the carbon fibre part had to be replaced. The team lost its position of dominance but was running consistently as hour thirteen ticked over and cooler, more uncertain track conditions greeted the drivers.

The Aston Martin Vantage was officially retired at 0400 hrs, but the dream of co-owners of the Dubai-based team - Frederic Fatien, Roald Goethe, Jean-Pierre Valentini and Mike Wainwright - is surely one to be fulfilled at a later stage.

Gulf AMR Middle East

The Kronos Racing/MarcVDS Aston Martin DBR1-2 this afternoon fulfilled its pre-race ambition of getting to the end of the 79th Le Mans 24 Hours.

The #22 LMP1 machine powered by the Aston Martin production-based V12 engine, shared by all-Belgian crew Vanina Ickx, Maxime Martin and Bas Leinders, enjoyed an almost trouble-free run and completed 328 laps on its way to seventh place overall and second in the unofficial petrol-powered class.

It marked the 52nd time that an Aston Martin has finished the gruelling race since the British marque first appeared at La Sarthe in 1928.

A wheel-problem for Ickx, in the opening hour was swiftly rectified, but that was the extent of the team’s worries during the round-the-clock French enduro classic.

Kronos/MarcVDS Team Principal, Marc van Dalen said: "What can I say? It's a dream come true. Three months ago we were not sure if we were going to be here and now look! It was a big human effort from the team. We got to know each other quickly and we built something special."

Vanina Ickx: "I am so proud of the team right now. They have put in so much effort, working together and not sleeping for days and days. It all paid off and it was a great 'victory' for everyone."

George Howard-Chappell, Team Principal, Aston Martin Racing said: “I would like to congratulate the Kronos Racing/MarcVDS team for their valiant effort in the build-up andover the past 24 hours. They have achieved their overall objective in a calm professional way flying the flag for Aston Martin customer teams. I am sure they will celebrate well tonight!”

Aston Martin Racing’s remaining customer teams continued successfully through the night at La Sarthe.

After a safety-car period of two hours and 20 minutes due to an incident with a front runner, the Gulf AMR Middle East was running well in the GTE-Am class.

Driven by Fabien Giroix, Mike Wainwright and Roald Goethe, the car unfortunately retired from the 79th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 0400 hours following an accident at the Porsche Curves.

The V8-powered car had been running faultlessly but sustained too much damage to continue.

After 19 hours of problem-fee running, the Kronos Racing/MarcVDS Aston Martin V12-powered DBR1-2 is running in 8th place.

Kronos Racing/MarcVDS Team Principal Marc van Dalen said: "We are very happy with our progress - we have had no problems at all. Everything has been perfect. I am trying to slow our drivers down because we cannot catch the car in front. We had a pre-race plan to get to the finish and we need to stick to that plan."

Aston Martin Racing

Official Aston Martin Racing partner team, Jota Sport AMR, has battled through a testing first five hours at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours after minor contact cost their #79 Vantage GTE Pro contender time in the pits.

Before the minor setback, Sam Hancock had shown strong pace during his opening double stint which was interrupted by a 70-minute Safety Car period while repairs were carried out to a section of damaged Armco barrier.

Simon Dolan, making his first appearance at Le Mans, has continued to improve on the progress already demonstrated throughout this week, showing maturity and lapping consistently during his double stint.

Chris Buncombe has now climbed aboard for his double stint, his first appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours in three years. The British squad then plan switching to triple stinting all three drivers.

Sam Hancock: “The car was running well but felt a bit twitchy on full fuel tanks, which is to be expected. That first stint was a bit difficult with so many competitive cars in this class, especially as we’re not trying to get sucked into a battle at this stage. Instead, we’re playing the long game, looking after the car and maintaining good fuel consumption. With so long spent behind the Safety Car it was also imperative to maintain concentration. I was glad when the race went green again!”

Simon Dolan: “Wow! What a great experience. That was my first double stint at Le Mans and I enjoyed every moment. Our priority right now is to keep the car in one piece, save fuel and maintain a steady pace. We’ve already seen the sort of accident that can befall even the most experienced drivers here.”

Jota Sport AMR

The Gulf AMR Middle East Aston Martin Vantage of Fabien Giroix, Mike Wainwright and Roald Goethe remains in touch with the lead of the GTE-Am class and has headed the time sheets on several occasions in the first quarter of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Fabien Giroix led the charge from the start and moved from 6th to 4th place on the first lap. He completed a superb triple stint – which included a long period under the Safety Car while repairs were being made to barriers after a huge accident which befell Allan McNish. The whole team was relieved to see the Scot walk away from the destroyed Audi and wishes Allan well.

By the time the Frenchman pitted the Aston Martin at 1838 hrs to hand over to Mike Wainwright, he had built up a lead of one minute over his nearest rival. The English driver, who is making his debut at Le Mans, drove a double stint and posted some very competitive times but, despite being congratulated by his team mates, was shaking his head as he exited the car.

“I think I made too many mistakes,” he said ruefully. “I really enjoyed it and my times were not bad until the tyres were starting to go off but I’m still struggling with a few areas of the track, especially Tertre Rouge where I had a spin. I lost us too much time because of those mistakes.”

Roald Goethe has now made his entry to the race, and the team is currently 6th in class.

Gulf AMR Middle East

The Aston Martin Racing crew worked hard to get the 007 AMR-One, shared by Darren Turner (GB), Stefan Mücke (D) and Christian Klien (AUT), back into the race after its earlier water-pump pulley drivetrain problem. With the pulley replaced, Stefan was sent out to start his first stint in the race. Unfortunately, he returned to the pits after one lap – damage sustained in the earlier incident proving to be terminal. The car was then officially withdrawn.

Aston Martin Racing’s customer teams have become the main focus of attention in the race. The Kronos Racing/MarcVDS LMP1 Aston Martin DBR1-2 is continuing to work its way back up the order after a wheel problem earlier in the race. All three Belgian drivers – Vanina Ickx, Maxime Martin and Bas Leinders – have had a turn at the wheel, with lady racer Vanina back in the car and running in 12th place overall.

In GTE-Pro, Jota Sport was running well with its V8 Vantage, shared by Brits Sam Hancock, Chris Buncombe and Simon Dolan. Sadly, an engine failure during the seventh hour of the race put paid to its ambitions to challenge for class honours this year.

The GTE-Am class V8 Vantage of Gulf AMR Middle East spent much of the fifth and sixth hour of the race in the lead of the class, before dropping back during the pitstop and driver-change cycles. It remains in a competitive position as darkness began to fall on the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Team Principal, George Howard-Chappell said: “I am really disappointed for the team and the fans of the Aston Martin brand as they came here to see a good race and we didn’t provide one.

“A lot of people have been working very, very hard to create a good show, but it would have been easy, with the problems we have had developing the car, to quit and not turn up, but we decided to give it our best shot.

“Indications from the Thursday practice showed we could have done reasonably well. We tried to do better than that and in trying to solve a small problem we created a bigger one. But that is motor racing and we’ll carry on.

Live race coverage can be found at www.astonmartinracing.com with additional behind-the-scenes updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AMR_Official. Eurosport will be broadcasting live throughout the week, while coverage with Radio Le Mans can be found at www.radiolemans.com

Aston Martin Racing

The #22 Lola-Aston Martin that Vanina Ickx, Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin will be racing this weekend at Le Mans is a pretty special car. Despite being experienced racing drivers, it’s not everyday the Marc VDS drivers get behind the wheel of an LMP1 car. We will be taking a closer look at the car and what it’s like to take place behind the wheel.

Seventeen LMP1 cars will be participating during the 2011 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only one of them will be having a screaming V12 however, and that’s the #22 car of team Kronos/Marc VDS/Orbello. This machine is the result of a cooperation between Lola and Aston Martin with the former supplying the B09/60-chassis and the latter the engine and bodywork. It’s 6-litre engine produces over 600 brake horsepower and at Le Mans, is able to get from zero to a hundred kilometers an hour in 2.8 seconds. It is possible to do it in less time with shorter gear ratios, however for this circuit longer ones are required.

Getting into the car then, the driver has to get onto the sidepods first since they are quite big and just leaping in is impossible. The cockpit itself is made up out of carbon fibre and has the racing seat and steering wheel located slightly to the right side of the cabin leaving room on the left side for the control-panel, air-vents and water bottle. On the control panel you find things such as the power-switch, start-button, headlights switch, HFS-switch (Heated Front Screen), rain lights-switch, wiper-switch, side-mirrors-switch and AC-button (Air-Conditioning) which are self-explanatory. However, there are also some controls which can’t be found in a road car and these are explained below.



GB, ALT, WP O/R (GearBox, Alternator, Water Pump OverRide):When a sensor has detected a problem causing the system to go into safety mode, the driver can override this, canceling the mode, just to get back to the pits.

PAS (Power Assisted Steering): Adjusts the level of power assistance to the steering. The higher the number, the easier the wheel turns.

IND (Indicators): Activates the car’s indicators.

E (Extinguisher):Deploys foam extinguishers in the car and engine in case of a fire.

Dash bright:Makes the lights on the displays of the steering wheel dimmer or brighter.

At the driver’s feet, similar to a normal road car, three pedals are localized: clutch, brake and accelerator. He only uses the clutch for taking off. The rest of the gear changing is done operating the gear paddles located on the left and right side of the steering wheel. Shifting up, the driver isn’t required to lift off the throttle since their is an engine cut allowing the gear to disengage and reengage the next gear. The steering wheel the drivers operate, is used for far more than turning alone. The information and buttons that are found on it, are explained below.



Clockwise:

Displays on top of screen:Shows the information chosen by the driver. This can be the cooling temperature, lap times, split times, engine map, traction control and so on. Which gear the car is in, is permanently shown in the top display.

Page-button:Enables the driver to scroll through the different pages to choose the info shown on the displays.

Fuel-button:Resets the fuel meter. The driver presses this button when the car is refueled. Consequently he/she knows how much of the fuel is burned at all times.

Pit-button:Activates the pit limiter, making sure the car doesn’t exceed 60 km/h in the pit lane.

ECU up/down-button: See ECU-button.

Alarm-button:Stops an alarm from going off. When there possibly is a problem in the car, the driver is notified by an alarm. When reassured by the data-engineers in the pits that it’s not critical, he/she can cancel the alarm and continue, if it is, the car will have to pit.

Flash-button:Enables the driver to flash his lights, most commonly used for alerting slower drivers up the road ahead.

Radio-button:Opens the radio channel, enabling the driver to talk to the pits.

Neutral-button:Puts the car in neutral, so the driver doesn’t have to keep the clutch compressed while idling in the pits.

ECU-button:selects the parameter on a display that the driver wants to change, like traction control for example. If the driver wants to increase assistance, he increases the number by pushing the ECU up-button.

Explaining what sitting in the car in the pit box is like, is one thing. What this extraordinary car feels like when driving it on the track is another and can only be explained by one of the drivers. “There’s no comparison between the LMP1 and say, our Ford GT1 car” says best rookie driver in qualifying Maxime Martin. “The LMP1 is better in every way: it accelerates better, brakes better and turns in better. It’s easier to drive for multiple reasons. Chief amongst them are the aerodynamics which play a much larger role than in GT1. I’m very thankful to have the chance to drive this car, it’s the fastest car I’ve ever driven and I hope I will be able to do it over in the future.”

Kronos/MarcVDS

La Sarthe, 11 June 2011. Aston Martin Racing continues its AMR-One development programme at the annual Le Mans endurance epic today. Cars 007 and 009 started the race on healthy form following an encouraging Thursday practice session running faultlessly throughout. However within the first hour, a failure of the water-pump drive led the 007 car to lock-up and spin. During the same lap, 009, at the hands of Adrian Fernandez (MEX) experienced an identical problem and was unable to return to the pits. It subsequently retired.

Darren Turner (GB) managed to return 007 to the garage and the team is feverishly working to replace the pulley in a bid to return the car to the race.

Team Principal George Howard-Chappell said: “Obviously we are bitterly disappointed that 009 has retired so early. We found some cracks in an aluminium pulley, and elected to substitute the part with a steel replacement. This has caused a problem elsewhere in the driveline and we will now run 007 again with the aluminium part.”

Aston Martin Racing’s customer teams have settled into the opening three hours of the 24-hour race. Kronos Racing/MarcVDS, which runs the all-Belgian-crewed Aston Martin DBR1-2, lies in 26th place after a problem with one of the wheels during Belgian lady racer Vanina Ickx’s opening stint. With the problem soon rectified, Ickx handed over to Maxime Martin, who will attempt to bring the car back up the order. Third driver Bas Leinders will take his first stint of the race later on.

In the GTE-Pro class, in which Jota Sport flies the Aston Martin Racing flag with its V8 Vantage, the battle is as intense as ever. Sam Hancock is currently at the wheel of the number 79 machine and the car lies 10th in class.

Gulf AMR Middle East, which also runs the V8 Vantage, has started the GTE-Am class race very competitively, holding second place. Experienced Frenchman Fabien Giroix is just under 20 seconds off the lead.

Live race coverage can be found at www.astonmartinracing.com with additional behind-the-scenes updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AMR_Official. Eurosport will be broadcasting live throughout the week, while coverage with Radio Le Mans can be found at www.radiolemans.com

Aston Martin Racing

Aston Martin today concluded preparations ahead of the forthcoming Nürburgring 24-hour race after two examples of the company’s new V12 Zagato endurance race car concept completed the 51st ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen VLN5 four-hour race on the famous German circuit.

Competing in the SP8 category, Aston Martin’s brace of V12 Zagatos; near production standard cars with only essential safety and aerodynamic modifications required for racing, took 2nd and 3rd place in class, equating to 15th and 39th overall in field of some 150 largely specialist cars.

The two new V12 Zagatos – affectionately nicknamed ‘Zig’ (green car) and ‘Zag’ (red car) by the team - were in action in competitive race conditions together here for the first time having been unveiled just weeks ago at the Villa D’Este Concours in Italy. Using this race as a final test session for the 24-hour race in a fortnight, both V12 Zagatos enjoyed a trouble-free run against the typically incident-fraught backdrop of a race at the Nürburgring.



Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr Ulrich Bez joined the company’s Nürburgring Test Centre Director, Wolfgang Schuhbauer and experienced amateur racer Peter Cate in ‘Zag’ – the same car which took the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for Concept Cars and Prototypes at its first public appearance at the Villa D’Este Concours last month. Sister car, ‘Zig’ was driven by One-77 Chief Engineer Chris Porritt, experienced sports car driver Oliver Mathai and automotive journalist Richard Meaden.

Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King said: “Today was of course very much about preparation and simply bringing both cars home safely, honing our setup and letting the drivers become more familiarised with what is still a very young car.

“That said we are very encouraged by the potential that we’ve started to see today in the V12 Zagato, taking our best yet VLN race result in the process. While there is still much work to do, that gives us great hope for what will be another hugely tough and competitive 24-hour race in two weeks from now.”

Introduced as a modern interpretation of the famous Aston Martin and Zagato collaboration in the 50th anniversary year of the iconic DB4GT Zagato, the V12 Zagato revives a collaboration which has produced some of the most beautiful and sought-after cars in the world. The partnership takes inspiration from the past to create a modern interpretation based on Aston Martin’s ultimate performance interpretation of the Vantage range: the V12 Vantage.

The 2011 Nürburgring 24-hour race takes place between 25th-26th June where Aston Martin’s new V12 Zagatos will be joined by a factory-entered V8 Vantage and three customer teams; Mathol Racing, Bratke and Team Werner.

Aston Martin