Another packed weekend of Aston Martin Racing customer team activity
Thursday, September 06, 2018
This weekend will certainly pack a punch for most GT motorsport enthusiast with more than a handful of events due to take place with the presence of umpteen Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing cars competing between them
Starting at Donington - this weekend sees the penultimate round of the GT Cup Championship with a mighty five AMR cars from both season regulars, returning favourites and welcome guests.
Whitebridge AMR's Chris Murphy and Adam Hatfield presently lay in second place in the overall Championship table just two points behind the current leaders. They return with their #72 AMR V8 Vantage GT4 leaves them looking to secure their GTH Class as well as taking the lead overall before the championship concludes at Silverstone next month. They also bring a second GT4 for James Murphy.
Nigel Hudson returns with his JMH prepared V12 Vantage GT3 having taken something of a break from the championship earlier in the year with the news that 2018 will now not be his last season in motor racing, promising something 'interesting' for next year!.
Also returning to the Championship is Andrew Howard and his Beechdean AMR team with a V12 Vantage GT3 for himself and a V8 Vantage GT4 for TV personality and team favourite Paul Hollywood. This will be Paul's second outing with that team car having also participated at the Aston Martin Racing Festival at Le Mans back in June.
Moving south to Snetterton sees the fifth round of their seven round season with EDF Motorsport again preparing the AMR Vantage GT4 entry for Aussie Mal Sandford and Ben Seyfried. Again, they too also enjoyed the rigours of the AMR Festival but unfortunately incurred significant damage to their car when they returned to the Britcar Championship's round at Oulton Park just a few weeks later. We believe that Snetterton is their first event since then?
Blancpain GT full season entry, R-Motorsport dip their foot into the next round of the 24H Series season in Barcelona this weekend with a 24 hour entry for one of their V12 Vantage GT3's with co team principal Andreas Baenziger being joined with familiar team faces of Peter Leemhuis, Markus Lungstrass and Jake Dennis.
None of these drivers are strangers to endurance racing with many learning their trade with the team in the VLN series, Bathurst 12hr, etc but not (we believe) in this series and not on the Hankook control tyre. The team did test at Barcelona on Hankooks a few weeks ago alongside their other Blancpain GT3.
Back to the east of Spain, Matt George has lived the 'high life' today with testing at Donington Park with his Invictus Games Racing crew before private jetting off to Many-Cours with his Generation AMR co driver James Holder for their second entry into the FFSA GT4 Championship with their Vantage GT4.
Around the world to the Shanghai International Circuit sees China Equity AMR return from their summer break for the next round of the China GT Championship with one of their cars just two points behind in the highly competitive GT4 Championship.
Britain's Jack Mitchell again shares the #618 AMR car with Ryan Liu as they chase down the championship leading McLaren 570S with team mates David Pun and Bill O'Brian again sharing the teams golden #619 car.
Florida based team, Automatic Racing make the long trip across the USA to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the next round of the Continental Tyre Sports Car Championship. Only weeks ago did driver Craig Lyons destroy one of their V8 Vantage GT4's in a horrifying barrel role plus a substantial contact from another car at Road America. Fortunately, Lyons emerged from the wreck unaided and relatively unscathed which was unlike his car!
Finally but by no means least, we see the Goodwood Revival meeting again take place at the historic circuit with cars and drivers too various to mention on their own. We know that AMR factory drivers Darren Turner and recent birthday boy Jonny Adam will be in their midst as well as cars such as the DB2 and DB4GT on the entry list from event regulars such as 22GT Racing.
Several of the above events will feature a live stream as well as tickets being available on the gate (NOT at Goodwood) for the others.
Photo credits - 22GT / China GT / FFSA / Steve Jackman / EDF Motorsport / British GT / BES