First intimated last year, Optimum Motorsport have today finally confirmed the driver line up that will compete aboard the teams second brand new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 in the forthcoming British GT Championship.

Joining the team's young guns of Connor O'Brien and Jack Butel previous announced by the team some weeks ago will be the more experienced GT racing line up of Mike Robinson and Patrik Matthiesen.


Having first started in the British GT Championship back in 2015, Robinson has won the overall GT4 Championship once and finished runner up once with the Optimum team and their then Ginetta G55 entry before moving away to the McLaren 570S car of Balfe Motorsport last year where he and co driver Graham Johnson again finished in the runners up position.

Danish driver Matthiesen has one year of British GT GT4 experience under his belt from last year where he achieved one race win and a fourth place overall finish in the Championship with his HHC prepared Ginetta G55 as well as success in the 24H Series by Creventic.


Both drivers will add a large degree of knowledge and experience to the team as they embark on their first season running multiple cars again in the Championship.

With the new V8 Vantage GT4 cars now being released to national and European customers it won't be long before we start seeing these guys on track testing.

Driver photo credit - Jacob Ebrey

With another day of the week having a 'Y" in it today then it must be another 'AMR kind of a day' to be announcing some more amazing news in the world of #TeamAMR - and these certainly weren't withholding any intention to be considered as championship contenders.

Swiss based R-Motorsport are presently testing at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France both today and tomorrow and they chose today as the day to highlight their own return to the Blancpain GT Series for the 2019 season (after the already astonishing news from Garage 59 yesterday) with up to three new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's running in both Blancpain GT and at the Spa 24.


With the subtle changes of campaign titles within the Blancpain GT Series for 2019, R-Motorpsort today announced some name changes and re-organisation of their own within their driver line ups but still retained the additional of two factory AMR drivers in the process. Todays announcement included:-


Two full Pro cars in the Endurance Cup - each with an AMR Pro driver.

In the #62 car, last years drivers Maxime Martin and Mathieu Vaxivierre  return to the car to be partnered this year by the teams 2019 Bathurst 12Hr debutant Matt Parry, whilst the #76 car will feature the returning Jake Dennis and Marvin Kirchhofer (stars of this years Bathurst 12hr in the teams older generation V12 Vantage) but this year joined by AMR factory driver and Formula E racer Alex Lynn.

Cars bearing the same numbers (numbers that represent the birth years of the teams two owners - Florian Kamelger and Andreas Baenziger) will also be entered into the renamed Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe - formally the Sprint Cup with a mix of drivers per car involving the likes of Ricky Collard (who raced with the team at the Gulf 12Hr last last year, Hugo de Sadeleer (who has only just been announced to be racing with PROsport Performance in the ADAC GT Masters), new Finnish driver Aaro Vainio with Kirchhofer being used to fill in the spaces as required.


Then comes the teams three car entry for the Spa 24hr where Collard, De Sadeleer and the teams new DTM racer Ferdinand Habsburg will compete together with the two Pro cars listed above.


So with these three R-Motorsport cars, the two Garage 59 cars confirmed yesterday and with one more blue/white and gold car still to be confirmed - the Blancpain GT Series is looking pretty exciting as far as AMR runners is concerned.

Can motor racing get any more exciting??

Photo credits - R-Motorsport

In a week where several team announcements are due, todays news certainly got matters off to a flying start with both new team PROsport Performance confirming their second Vantage GT3 driver line up for the ADAC GT Masters series and the earlier surprise announcement from Garage 59.

One person's loss is another persons gain as the say and that is certainly so with the long standing McLaren GT team Garage 59 confirming today that they will be swapping over from the McLaren to the new 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 for a two car programme in Blancpain GT and single car entry into the Intercontinental GT Challenge for 2019.

That decision must have been influenced by the teams recent judgements against them in the British Courts but who's complaining - certainly not the President of Aston Martin Racing David King who added that "Garage 59 has chosen to race with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in 2019 is a strong endorsement of the potential of our new car and of Aston Martin Racing’s ability to deliver competitive customer-focussed machinery. We’re very pleased with this latest addition to our partner team roster and we can now look ahead to the year in the full knowledge that we have a compelling presence in several significant and important GT series around the world.”

It will certainly be great to catch the first images of these guys testing their new cars down at Paul Ricard this week with drivers such as AML's High Performance Test and Development driver Chris Goodwin, AMR factory driver Jonny Adam and former McLaren Academy driver Andrew Watson amongst possible several more?

They (Garage 59) will not be the only ones testing new generation AMR Vantage GT3's down in southern France as at least two other teams (who have yet to confirm their specific re-participation in the series) conduct their first full family test in the new car.
Then there was later today, the confirmation from the German based PROsport Performance team of the identity to their driver line up in their second AMR Vantage GT3 for their national ADAC GT Masters Series.

Joining the previously announced line up of AMR factory driver Maxime Martin and former champion Daniel Kielwitz will be the accomplished young Swiss LMP2 driver Hugo De Sadeleer alongside another young star from the French and Belgium Porsche Carrera Cup Championships Valentin Hasse-Clot.

That news gives the team two distinct line ups - one with a wealth of experience and the other with youth and vigour which will feed well across both cars in the garage.


Finally but no means least today, we saw first images of the new D'Station Racing Vantage GT3 conducting their first shakedown tests with their new car that they will be entering into the Japanese GT300 side of the Super GT Series with drivers Tomonobu Fujii and JP De Oliviero.

Todays test was at the Fuji International Speedway circuit and was purely a familiarisation and system check and confirmation rather than anything more which will surely follow fairly soon.

Quite a frantic day really and its only still Monday - but there is still more to come - several more to come infact!!

Photo credits - AMR / D'Station Racing / PROsport Performance

With just eights to go before the start of the ADAC GT Masters Championship, German based PROsport Performance have today confirmed the driver line for their second new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 following the earlier announcement of Maxime Martin and Daniel Keilwitz.

Hugo De Sadeleer and Valentin Hasse-Clot will step over and across from their previous LMP2 and Porsche racing programmes to help take on the headline German GT Championship with one of the latest AMR Partner teams.

"I'm really excited to be able to race my first GT3 season with PROsport Performance and Aston Martin in 2019. This is a new challenge that I'm really looking forward to. GT3 cars are different from the prototypes I drove in the European Le Mans Series, but I know I can rely on my past experience", says Hugo de Sadeleer, adding: "It's great that Valentin will be my teammate. We've known each other since we drove in Formula Renault 2.0, and I've seen him succeed in GTs ever since. I cannot wait to race in Oschersleben in a few weeks with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3." "The best GT3 drivers are racing in the ADAC GT Masters and I want to compete with them. The competition is tough, but that will only improve me. The choice for Aston Martin was logical. They do not have to prove anything in GT sports, they have proven the performance of their racing cars on several occasions. I expect an exciting season, but together with Hugo de Sadeleer - we have known each other since the time in Formula Renault - we will do our utmost to establish ourselves among the best", says Valentin Hasse-Clot. "After a one-year study in Berlin, I'm looking forward to drive for the German team PROsport Performance. It will be a very interesting collaboration." The ADAC GT Masters kicks off at Oschersleben over the 27/28th of April We still await for news of the teams ADAC GT4 entries with the smaller Vantage GT4 Source material - Prosport

The Garage 59 outfit will return to the Blancpain GT Series this term with a fresh look, having made the change to Aston Martin machinery for the 2019 season.

The British squad joined the series in 2016 and made an instant impact, winning both the Endurance Cup teams’ and drivers’ titles with its McLaren 650S GT3.

It has continued to run the same car since, but will now move to the Aston camp to field a brace of the iconic marque’s new Vantage GT3s.

Despite the change of machinery Garage 59’s on-track programme will remain unaltered from 2018, with the team set to enter one car in the Pro category and a second in the Am ranks for the full Endurance Cup schedule. The British squad also plans to contest selected rounds of the Intercontinental GT Challenge later in the year, beginning at the Total 24 Hours of Spa (25-28 July).

No drivers have yet been announced for the programme, though Chris Goodwin, Andrew Watson and Jonny Adam will test the car this week at Circuit Paul Ricard. Adam is an Aston Martin factory driver while Watson and new team co-owner Goodwin drove for the squad last term in the Pro and Am Cup classes respectively.

Speaking about the switch to a new manufacturer, team principal Andrew Kirkaldy commented: “The Vantage GT3 looks great. It’s a very high-end GT car based on a strong foundation car so we have high hopes for the season ahead. We’re looking forward to working with Aston Martin Racing, along with new sponsors who will be revealed in the future.

“It has been an interesting and enjoyable process to re-brand the team. All you can see at the moment is the new logo but we’ll soon be ready to show you our new racing livery, which we are working on now.”

In addition to Kirkaldy and Goodwin, the team’s ownership structure now includes Alexander West. The Swedish racer drove alongside Goodwin and Chris Harris during the 2018 campaign, scoring a brace of Am Cup victories along the way. His competitive plans for 2019 are yet to be revealed.


Source Material - Blancpain GT

February 2019 will go down in the annuals of Aston Martin Racing as the time when saw the factory's Partner teams finally transfer from the racing service of its normally aspirated V12 and V8 Vantage GT3's and GT4's over to the new 2019 specification, turbo charged V8 chariots of both classes.

Seeing out the services of the final V12 GT3 competing at the high international level were TF Sport who again hosted the private driver coaching services of Red River Sport at the final round of the 2018/19 Asian Le Mans Series at Sepang in Malaysia this weekend.


With just two drivers available again this weekend, it was left to Bronze driver Ivor Dunbar and his professional driver coach Johnny Mowlem to compete in the searing temperature of the Far East, a pair who overcame early adversity at the meeting to finish a proud P4 at the conclusion of todays four hour race in the GT Class having suffered an unusual component failure within the V12 block to need an engine change prior to qualifying yesterday and then a two minute time penalty in the race today to boot.

Success can be measured in many ways and does not always necessitated the standing upon any step of the podium to show it, and this is very much the case with these Red River Sport guys who, as two Gents and Pro' mixed it with the 'big boys' (factory drivers in newer GT3 machinery) on alien circuits to expand their race knowledge and take another step forward towards their ultimate dream.


That saw the final run out (as far as we presently know) of any Partner team's V12 Vantage GT3 that they may still presently have at an international, multi- class level. Whilst this was all going on - over in Europe saw the first significant run outs of several teams new V8 Vantage GT3 as well as other drivers getting back into the new V8 Vantage GT4 for the first time since their three lap 'appreciation test' at Oulton Park last year.

Starting at Snetterton last week, TF Sport gave their first GT3 chassis another three day run out (having first ran it at the Gulf 12Hr with the Oman Racing crew) with Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson behind the wheel as well as receiving delivery of their second GT3 chassis that Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim shall share in the British GT. Joining them for the first time on track were the four new GT4 racers that the team have taken on board this year in the British GT Championship.


Although it had been first intended to compete this test with their own new Vantage GT4 equipment, the best that the team could do was to borrow the factory's test and development car again so that drivers Josh Price, Rory Collingbourne and Patrick Kibble could at least get some serious mileage in each aboard the car. Tom Canning was also in attendance but of course he raced the GT4 at the Gulf 12Hr event.


It was also noted that Andrew Howard tested his own new Vantage GT3 at Silverstone as well, a car that he has already raced with in Abu Dhabi.

Then this weekend we saw Optimum Motorsport take their brand new V8 Vantage GT3 down to Paul Ricard in southern France for the first of two winter tests that drivers Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis will participate in in advance of their upcoming International GT Open season.


The weekend was finally rounded off with the confirmation from Academy Motorsport that they are about to receive the first example of the new V8 Vanatge GT4 that the Prodrive plant have released to a European based team (chassis #001 infact) so as long as the factory can keep turning out high quality examples of these new cars, all Partner teams should have all their orders with them in time for pre-season testing over the coming weeks.


Next week, we understand will also be peppered with other #TeamAMR announcements both at home and abroad!

Photo credits - Optimum / TF Sport / Academy

The final round of the 2018/19 Asian Le and Series and the final race of the venerable Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 in a headline international series takes place tomorrow (Sunday) at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia and its been something of a difficult 'chore' for the #5 crew.

With Surrey based TF Sport having to spread their resources this week what with this final round over in the Far East as well as the start to the teams British and European testing season with their new 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3's and GT4's over in the UK and southern France, it has been left to just Ivor Dunbar and Johnny Mowlem of the Red River Sport team to bid this car an appropriate farewell in tomorrows race.



Friday starting quite well for the duo (with third driver Bonamy Grimes missing the event due to prior family commitments back home) with the #5 crew finishing the Private Test mid table amongst the five runners in the GT Class.

With only 68 practice laps under their belts from the Private Test and FP1 under their belts, their V12 engine suffered from a broken valve which necessitated the crew to change the engine before Qualifying and forcing them to miss FP2. Where their is a will - there's a way and the crew fitted a new engine in time for Dunbar to take his place in Qualifying.


Competing against two works Ferrari GTE drivers in James Calado and Alesandro Pier Guidi as well as two freshly revised Audi R8 Evo's of the Tianshi Team in their class, the teams amateur driver was always going to finish 'second' best but salt was later rubbed into the wounds when all seven laps of Dunbar's Qualifying session were later scrubbed for an as yet unknown reason. It wouldn't have made any difference to the result of the days proceedings but things like put unnecessary pressures on any Bronze driver.

Sunday' four hour race starts at 12noon local time (GMT +8hrs) and can be watched live via the series website.

Good luck to the guys tomorrow!

Photo credits - TF Sport / A Marriott / Andrew Lofthouse

Great to see the first examples of the new 2019 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's start rolling out of the Banbury facility to its European customers today.

With over forty orders for the GT4 and over twenty five of the GT3 versions to fulfil, it will still be many weeks before all their customers receive their allotted order in time for some deserved pre season testing. Some teams around the world have however already confirmed that they will not be receiving their orders until part way into the season but early signs show that these cars are definitely worth waiting for.


With the first example of the GT4 already having raced at the Daytona 24 with Automatic Racing last month the car above will be making its way to Worcester and Academy Motorsport so that they can finally prepare for their British GT an GT4 European Series campaigns.

Photo credit - Academy

With the new 2019 China GT Championship season just around the corner, we find that its all change within the Championship as the primary Aston Martin Racing team enters into its third year of racing within the GT4 class

New Year - new cars - new drivers - new team name and indeed new racing rules are just some of the changes that we can expect to see as the 2019 season looks to kick off at the Asia GT Festival from the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in little under three weeks time.


Firstly, China Equity AMR have changed their team name over the winter to become Asia Sonic Racing to reflect that of the teams primary backers title in Beijing Sonic Events Management that has appeared on the teams title banner from the start. Then, it has been confirmed that the team will be running two 2019 specification cars at the opening event of the season in Malaysia (as long as they arrive from the factory in time) - the first time the Championship has ran outside of mainland China.

Next up come the drivers - only two have been confirmed publicly so far and thats Yves Volte - the young German racer who now resides in China and who raced with the team so competitively at the final to races last year in Shanghai. He - as only announced today will share his car with returning team driver David Pun - but not for Malaysia as prior engagements will keep Pun away.


A replacement for Pun at the Asia GT Festival together with the driver line up for the second car remained unconfirmed although sources from the AMR suggest that all other drivers recruited into the team for the 2019 season will be regionally based pay drivers so unfortunately we will not be seeing the likes of reigning China GT GT4 Champion Jack Mitchell nor AMR factory driver Ross Gunn make a return to the Championship.

Next up we see a new name come forward to compete with an AMR platform for the first time and that will be in the form of King Dcar Racing - a previous GT3 championship winning team who will enter the Festival with a mix of Mercedes AMG GT3's and AMR Vantage GT4's (we believe these cars to be the older 2016 specification) amongst their four confirmed entries.


In terms of rule changes, now both Pro and Am drivers will be required to each set a time in Qualifying - times that will be used to determine their grid starting positions and the driver who starts race 2 must be different to that who starts race 1. That sequence must also be determined in advance to the event by the team. Remaining changes evolve around points awarded as well as the introduction of a new Manufacturers Championship.

The Asia GT Festival starts the season over the weekend of the 16/17th March with five further double header race weekends between then and mid October with a further invitational race possible around the street circuit of Wuhan in November.

Photo credits - Asia Sonic Racing

It looks like this unseasonable weather has brought race cars out in force today as all scramble to get in sufficient track times before their respective seasons start in just a couple of months time.

At Snetterton (where we decided to base ourselves for this mornings track sessions) we had an example of Aston Martin Racings latest V8 Vantage GT3 and GT4 to enjoy from the TF Sport team. The white GT3 car was the one of their own, the one that they had competed at the Gulf 12Hrs with having only just received it back from Oman after its extensive PR tour for their driver Ahmad Al Harthy. The GT4 was however the dark blue test and development car from the Prodrive factory as the team still awaited delivery of their two Vantage GT4's.


Indeed, this test and others taking place at Silverstone, suffered the same 'victim of their own success' fate as other AMR GT4 runners either had to either miss the track availability or make do with another type of chassis as the first UK customer GT4 has still yet to leave the factory.  We understood from team boss Tom Ferrier, that he expected delivery of the teams second GT3 (Mark Farmers car) during this week although he offered no firm dates for the GT4's.


Whilst we picked up from social media that all the AMR factory drivers were busy with team building activities at the factory complex in Banbury ahead of the resumption of World Endurance Championship duties next month at Sebring, TF Sport GT3 testing duties were left to fellow team WEC driver Charlie Eastwood to perform today although we understand that Jonny Adam will take over from tomorrow when he is joined by new race partner Graham Davidson. In the available GT4 car, three out of the teams four new GT4 runners were present with Patrick Kibble and Josh Price having what can only be described as their first significant track running abroad their chosen platform that they will compete in the British GT Championship in for the first time in April.


Tom Canning was also present but wasn't seen in the car but of course he already has significant track time aboard the AMR GT4 having competed in it at the Gulf 12hrs late last year. With the team being at the Norfolk circuit for the next three days, we expect the driver cycle to alternate accordingly. Only  Rory Collingbourne was left 'unaccounted' for today!

With early testing being what it is, there was nothing much to report other than nervous looking young faces taking taking control of Aston Martin Racing's latest GT4 creation in cyclic fashion - the same could be said for others at the circuit testing other platforms for other race series today.


As we have said, it later transpired that both Beechdean and Optimum were at Silverstone today with Andrew Howard aboard and alone in his Vantage GT3 whilst Connor O'Brien had to make do with a Ginetta GT4 with no other 2019 specification Vantage GT4 being available and after a previous attempt for him to run the Vantage GT4 earlier this month at Snetterton fell through at the last moment.


Still early days yet with plenty of test mileage yet to come for all British GT contenders in whatever platform/team they are running with. Once TF Sport complete this three dat test then they will be off aboard for more testing for another series!!

The final round of the 2018/19 Asian Le Mans Series takes place this weekend from the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, with Red River Sport by TF Sport seeing out their finale in the series in also the final race of the teams outgoing Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 as a factory supported platform.

Starting the series how they started it in Shanghai at the end of November last year, Red River Sport will be racing with just two drivers again in Malaysia. For that opening round, Bronze ranked driver Ivor Dunbar was forced to miss what became a very surprising yet thoroughly deserved P3 finish for the remaining drivers of Bonamy Grimes and Johnny Mowlem due to unforeseen matters back home. This time it will be Grimes who misses the final round also due to prior commitments back home.


Never being a team even attempting to confirm that they were Championship contenders in their GT Class, it has all been about developing the learning curve for the two gentleman drivers as they aspire to progress from national club racing through to competing at Le Mans 24Hr in the GTE class.

Shanghai, they read their hearts out to only narrowly miss out on a higher step to the podium by virtue of competing against teams with full factory GTE drivers within them. Next time out in Fuji was the first time that they had operated as a trio before technical issues aboard their TF Sport prepared car lead to a high velocity exit for Mowlem at the last round in Buriam, Thailand thanks to power steering issues and then catastrophic brake failure as the car entered into the heaviest braking section of the circuit. Only via the skill and experience of Mowlem was the car spared significant damage through contact with the barriers.


Mathematically the Championship is already beyond their means but a mid class finishing position in Malaysia could see them splitting their Tianshi Racing Team opponents should either of them face difficulties during the race.


Either way, we can assume that the Asian Le Mans Series has been a thoroughly worthwhile project for mentor/student racing squad which is Red River Sport which will be continued with back in the UK and Europe over the forthcoming 2019 season. Whilst we do not envisage seeing these guys in any other Aston Martin overt the summer months we cannot discount that they will be back for more of the same over the winter in Asia.

Photo credits - Andrew Lofthouse

After months of patient anticipation, Wakefield based Optimum Motorsport have today finally confirmed that the team will be retuning to the International GT Open Series with both Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis behind the wheel of the team's recently acquired Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3.

Having previously raced in the series last year with the team's Audi R8 LMS in the Pro-Am Class, the Bronze and Silver rated driver pairing tested the new 2019 specification Vantage GT3 at Snetterton back in October where they are able to get in just a handful of laps each before the rains came. That presumably was still enough for them to commit to the car for their 2019 campaign.




Their own new AMR Vantage GT3 has only recently been delivered to the team and was taken for a shakedown test by Aston Martin Racing factory driver Jonny Adam out on Anglesey only last week.

Debuting in the GT Open Championship last year, Wilkinson and Ellis still managed two class wins aboard the older generation Audi (that Flick Haigh ran in the Michelin Le Mans Cup the year before) and rounded off the 2018 season on a high with a P2 class finish despite Wilkinson being under the weather at the final round in Barcelona - just a couple of days after testing the new Vantage!


A seven round 2019 lays ahead of the team, starting at Paul Ricard at the end of April, with a round at Silverstone in early September before concluding at Monza in mid October but before they the duo are expected to participate in the Championships two round Winter Test calendar.

Photo credits - GT Open / Pembrey Circuit