With some of the factory team already having been working down at the Circuit de La Sarthe for nearly a week now setting up the camp that will become their effective home for the next two weeks, we take a look forward to this weekends preliminary events at Le Mans as everybody readies themselves for the Le Mans 24 Hour Official Test this Sunday.

Nearly fourteen months since first racing with its brand new V8 Vantage GTE at Spa Francorchamps within the GTE Pro Class, Aston Martin Racing and all who support them have come on leaps and bounds throughout this transitional season of the World Endurance Championship to arrive back in France as previous pole setters and now class race winners in time for the final round of this extended 2018-19 season.


Over in the GTE Am Class, Le Mans 2019 will be the final time that we will see the venerable normally aspirated WEC Championship winning Vantage GTE come to the end of its factory supported, top flight motorsport racing life as the new 2019 - turbo charged specification of racer becomes available to the Am Class runners for next season that starts again in September.

Arriving with the same driver line up as Aston Martin Racing and Partner team TF Sport did at the start of this super-season, at least all drivers are 'qualified' to compete so Sundays test day can allow them all to concentrate on house keeping and other set up requirements.

Like most teams, there will be no expectation that any car will be setting any personal best times around the 8.5mile purpose built cum street circuit to the south of Le Mans town as the risk of damage remains just as great as it does in the race. Indeed, Aston Martin Racing found that out to their cost only last year when Marco Sorensen's #95 car made heavy contact with the armco barrier at Indianapolis following reported side to side contact with an LMP2 car. Fortunately not injured, that accident all but destroyed that chassis and forced the team to build a new one totally from component parts back at the Prodrive factory in the week between Test Day and scrutineering. That endeavour won them great accolade and admiration within the paddock and fan base as a truly sterling effort of hard work and determination.


With Saturday being filled with official Championship business including grid and car photographs, all track action of the Test Day is limited to just two sessions either side of lunch on Sunday leaving all sixty two listed competitors for this years LM 24 to just eight hours of available track time ahead of the first Free Practice session on the Wednesday afternoon/evening ahead of the race weekend itself.

All six AMR factory drivers are due to attend the test including for the first time this season, AMR reserve driver Ross Gunn who has been listed as assisting within both the #95 and #97 cars as drivers Maxime Martin, Alex Lynn and Jonny Adam will all have had overnight flights into Le Mans having raced late into Saturday night down at Paul Ricard where they were competing with their respective AMR Partner teams in the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup 6 hour/1000km event. Drivers Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Darren Turner make up the driving contingent for the #95 GTE Pro car.

At the Test Day, all GTE Pro cars are mandated to have fitted and run the FIA WEC's new fuel meters that were recommended but remained optional last time out at Spa Francorchamps at the start of the month.


In GTE Am, Aston Martin Racing continue to support the #98 car entry of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda - the latter a young man who will obviously be competing with a great deal of emotion having lost his father and motor racing legend and multiple F1 World Champion Nicki Lauda just two weeks ago. We can rightly expect some significant homage to the great man aboard many of the race cars and from the FIA WEC over the race weekend itself.

That leaves TF Sports #90 car of Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Euan Hankey. Whilst the #98 car has a mathematical chance of challenging for the GTE Am season honours, it is the #90 car that has the most realistic chances between them with just 26 points behind and 38 points being on offer so Le Mans 2019 could very much be a winner takes all event in that class.


As usual, the Test Day will have no live stream or timing (not that lap times will necessarily be of any relevance as previously explained of course).

Photo credits - AMR / Andrew Lofthouse

Today sees 160 cars confirmed for this years ADAC Total 24H race from the Nordschleife in just over three weeks time, this year featuring four examples of the new 2109 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 as well as the venerable and former class winning Aston Martin Vantage GT8.

The two AMR Vantage GT4's being entered and supported by the local AMR Performance Centre in the SP8T class includes those who undertook the events Qualifying Race at the circuit two weeks ago and again includes double driving duties for AMR factory driver Darren Turner aboard both of them.

The other two AMR Vantage GT4 cars are being entered by the PROsport Performance AMR Partner team and will compete within the SP10 class, a move that Aston Martin have often utilised in to avoid the factory competing directly against its customer cars.


Despite previous communications, it sadly appears that AMR factory reserve driver Ross Gunn will now not be involved with either of the two factory supported GT4's with his place now being taken by Turner as he will switch between cars just like he did at the Qualifying Race. The GT8 and the two PROsport Performance entered cars will be strictly customer based but the names with the GT8 car being very familiar to those who follow the VLN Series.

Driver line up are confirmed as being

#35 Aston Martin Vantage GT8 SP8 Class
Marco Muller
Tony Richards
David Thilenius
Heinz Jurgen Kroner

#36 AMR Performance Centre Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP8T Class
Darren Turner
Chris Goodwin
Chris Harris
Christian Gebhardt

#37 AMR Performance Centre Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP8T Class
Darren Turner
Jamie Chadwick
Peter Cate
Alex Brundle

#68 PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP10 Class 
Christoph Breuer
Kay van Berlo
Alexander Mies
Mike David Ortmann


#76 PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP10 Class
Jorg Viebahn
Nicolaj Moller-Madson
Jonas Lappeleinen




The race takes place over the weekend of 22-23rd June - the weekend after Le Mans 24.


Photo credits - AMR / GT4 European Series

Having temporally parted company as a supporting act for the Blancpain GT Series at their respective second rounds of the season earlier this month, the GT4 European Series again rejoins the headline Blancpain acts at Paul Ricard this weekend for races five and six of the season.

With the seven - now all new 2019 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's now competing at Paul Ricard, the last round at Brands Hatch will be very difficult for the four AMR teams to replicate with Brands Hatch and Paul Ricard being polar opposites in track types and characteristics now possible favouring the faster McLaren 570's.


Brands Hatch saw PROsport Performance and Academy Motorsport finally open their GT4 European Series podium accounts with Pro Am drivers Tom Wood and Fiona James taking successive P3 finishes over the weekend in their #61 car with Akhil Rabindra and Florian Thoma finally making the flag in race 1 to secure a P2 finish for those guys. In the AM class, the Street Art Racing Car of Clement Seyler and Pascal Bachmann continued to lift the silverware albeit with a reduced field to the other classes and post race penalties and there were notable finishes from the other Street Art Racing and PROsport cars.

For the #62 Academy car of Will Moore and Matt Cowley, track limits in race 1 and accident damage in race 2 blighted their home event into something to forget despite their obvious speed together.


Forty two GT4 cars will grace the grid in southern France for each of the two - one hour races spread across both Saturday and Sunday. The Am class for Paul Ricard more than doubles to seven cars so that will determine just how good class front runners Seyler and Bachmann are in their Street Art Racing Vantage.

'Coming in from the cold' will be the #44 Generation AMR SuperRacing crew of Matt George and James Holder who will finally stop competing solo in the INV class by reason of their out of homologation 2016 specification AMR Vantage GT4 to race one of their two brand new 2019 specification cars that they finally took delivery off after the Brands Hatch weekend.


Track action for these guys begins on Friday morning with the first of two Free Practice sessions before Qualifying and race on each of Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits - GT4 European Series / Generation AMR

After the successes of the Pro-Am and Am class entries from both Oman Racing and Garage 59 at the previous two rounds of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup, those crews will be looking to continue that path of success whilst the three remaining Pro class Aston Martin entries will be looking to finally establish a foot hold within that class as the Blancpain GT Series ventures back over to Paul Ricard for the extended 1000km event this weekend.

Swiss based R-Motorpsort certainly had the most mis-fortune last time out at Silverstone earlier this month with their #76 car first being hit with a bout of unexpected sickness just after Qualifying leaving Marvin Kirchhofer unable to race before a double stinting Maxime Martin had his race to the flag aboard the #76 car curtailed by a piece of track debris setting off the cars internal fire extinguisher. Till then a decent (possible podium) finish looked highly likely after a text book run from Jake Dennis and another scintillating hour behind the wheel from Nicki Thiim.


Also referring to the #76 car, the continued driving duties from Thiim have now sadly come to an end as Aston Martin Racing factory team mate Alex Lynn now becomes free from his prior Formula E commitments to make his series debut at Paul Ricard where he will join co-drivers Dennis and Kirchhofer. The sister #62 car remains unchanged with Martin, Matt Parry and Mathieu Vaxivierre all behind the wheel.

That was certainly all very unfortunate for them but very luckily for Come Ledogar, a high speed impact on the opening lap at Silverstone thankfully resulted in no serious harm to the Frenchman despite significant - immediate race ending damage to the front of his #59 Garage 59 AMR Vantage GT3 leaving his co-drivers Andrew Watson and Jonny Adam with no home race opportunities. That car has now been repaired and has had a shakedown before being transported down along with it sister #188 Am class car that won its drivers Alex West, Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin their second consecutive P3 finish of the season so far.


Finally but certainly by no means least is the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport entry of Ahmad Al Harthy, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood. Also having enjoyed two podium finishes so far in the Series, having stepped up from P3 to P2 after a post race penalty was applied to the Ram racing Mercedes AMG in the Pro Am class at Silverstone, this has certainly wetting their appetite for more success in this Saturdays six hour marathon.

“We have had the pace to win races this year and we head to Paul Ricard as we have to both Monza and Silverstone with the same mindset. We were unfortunate at Monza with the punctures and showed our pace again at Silverstone. This is a very tough event - anything can happen in a six hour race, but as ever the aim is to stay in the championship hunt with another podium position” said TF Sport Principle Tom Ferrier.

A super busy weekend of racing activity comes our way this weekend with both the extended six hour round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup Series from the Paul Ricard circuit on Saturday running back to back with the start of the FIA WEC Le Mans 24 Hour Official Test Day on Sunday.


For many drivers within the Aston Martin Racing fold, that means another frantic overnight dash across France to be at Le Mans in time for the start of morning test around the Circuit de La Sarthe the next day.


With the provisional entry lists for both events still showing the driver line ups of  Garage 59, R-Motorsport and Oman Racing with TF Sport cars being made up of 33% of drivers who will also be required to be at Le Mans for the test either by the factory squad or TF Sport, there will be many hands consistently clock watching going into Saturday evening hoping that nothing delays their flight back north.




We recall that TF Sport's British GT racing driver Mark Farmer has regularly provided the preferred mode of transport for many of these drivers in between circuits over recent years! The cars particularly affected will be the #97 factory GTE Pro and the TF Sport GTE Am car.


On top of all this we also have the third round of the GT4 European Series and the seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4's entered into that double header weekend.


Photo credits - 24H Le Mans / Garage 59

Whilst the new iteration of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 is quickly making its mark in the world racing arena, the car that it replaced - the wonderfully sounding V12 Vantage GT3 was out again in two European series this weekend with one dominating its class.

The German based DMV GTC Series were again on their annual pilgrimage to the Red Bull Ring in Austria this weekend with a singe AMR V12 Vantage GT3 entry again from Timo Scheiber and his Schaler Motorsport.


Featuring two - thirty minute races as well as a 60 minute race over the two days, Scheibner and his #13 car dominated the Class 2 proceedings by taking a trio of Class wins by finishing P7, P5 and P7 respectively in each of the three races.


Meanwhile, over at the Salzburgring in Austria owner of both of these two V12 Vantages (Alexander Lienau) was also out again in his ex. Miedecke Motorsport car in the Histo Cup Series. Having last ran in the car in the Aston Martin Masters Endurance Legends at Monza earlier this month where he was able to get some assistance from the Beechdean AMR team parked next door in the paddock (they were racing in the Michelin Le Mans Cup race), this weekend proved to be another learning curve for the retired Austrian as at first fuel pressure issues and then a trip into the gravel on the last lap of race 1 summed up his Saturday.

Then for Sundays events things went a lot better with a P6 Qualifying position amongst the 15 car field to ultimately finish P5 but not too far off the final step of the podium.


A great weekend of racing and we bet that these cars must have sounded marvellous with their V12 screams reverberating off the local mountain sides.

Photo credits - DMV GTC / Histo Cup

Whilst Optimum Motorsport made some pretty significant steps forwards with their new Pro class podium finish at the second round of their International GT Open Series endeavours at the weekend, for two other Aston Martin Racing Partner teams, this weekends results continued their distinctly split path of results that they have enjoyed so far this season.

Starting in Europe - Friday and Saturday saw the third round of Creventic's 24H Series and the 12Hours of Brno take place from the small but technically challenging circuit in the Czech Republic. Back supporting the series again but first time visitors to Brno with their new 2019 AMR Vantage GT4 was the German based PROsport Performance team (again racing under their PROpeak Performance banner) and their trio of drivers - Rodrique Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Rabindra.


Having already enjoyed a brace of podium finishes in the Series including a GT4 class win last time out at Spa, the team were certainly hoping of maintaining that momentum gained within their this and their other GT4 programmes this season to help offset the frustration that must be building from their (to date) unsuccessful ventures into the ADAC GT Masters Series with their other AMR Vantage GT3's.

This time competing within a slightly larger GT4 field of six cars, the #1 car Qualified P3 for the start of the race which would begin soon afterwards on Friday afternoon before concluding later of Saturday. By the end of the opening three hour part of the race the #1 car was laying in P4 in class but already a couple of laps down to the lead car.

The next nine hours of racing would see the car compete with both of the M4 BMW's for the second two steps of the podium what with the #224 KTM X-bow being dominant from the start of the meeting with their more Brno experienced driver base. At the end of the nine hour stint of Saturday the #1 car would again be podium bound with a P3 finish at their first visit to the track.


Congratulations to them.


Then over in Japan there was the third round of their national Super GT weekend where another of this years Aston Martin Racing convertees, D'Station Racing AMR were competing in the GT300 class with a new AMR V8 Vantage GT3.

Also competing with a similar GT3 chassis in the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series, the team have already enjoyed several podium finishes (including race wins) in that series but had been distinctly unlucky so far in the coveted GT300 series after significant damage was sustained in the wet that was the opening round at Okayama before technical issues blighted round two at Fuji.


Looking to make amends for the poor start to the season, drivers JP Oliveira and Tomonobu Fujii had been working hard in between events to move their svelte liveried #7 car forward. Also enjoying a dry race weekend for the first time this season the #7 car finished P18 during Free Practice (just 1.235 seconds off the lead pace) before having their Qualifying affected by a red flag to finish P19 for the start of Sundays race.

Unfortunately for the team, everything again 'went south' just after the pit stops when Oliveira had to retire the car due to an electrical issue that was effecting its performance. Obviously bitterly disappointed, the team have vowed to continue fighting on looking for that change in circumstance that will allow them to race their competitors on equal levels.


Next round of the Super GT - GT300 will be in Thailand at the end of June.

Photo credits - 24H Series / PROpeak Performance / D'Station Racing AMR

Heading back out to Hockenheim in Germany for the second round of the International GT Open Series proved to be a very different one for its young gun Ollie Wilkinson and their #96 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 this weekend.

Firstly it was the young mans 23rd birthday (so happy birthday to you), secondly he would over the course of Saturday's events be elevated to Silver grading and thirdly - he got to do it all with Le Mans winner and AMR factory driver Darren Turner by his side.


Having entered into the preliminary Free Practice sessions still categorised as the Pro-Am entry that they had been to date, we understand that at the request of the series Wilkinson was reassigned as being a silver graded driver and a decision was then taken by the team to step up into the full Pro class in time for race 1 on Saturday.

Lap times over Saturday were continually falling for the crew as Wilkinson was about to take the first round of Qualifying that would decide his starting position for Race 1 and that was done with his quickest time of the weekend so far with a 1:37:880 meaning a P12 grid slot.

With cars in front of the #96 Vantage GT3 either being of different class and/or having their Pro driver aboard at the start it was never going to be easy for Wilkinson to stay in contact with some of the cars ahead. Still in only the start of his third season of full motor racing Wilkinson showed a great level of maturity from the start by staying out of trouble, holding the correct racing line around turn 1 as others went many cars width wide and stealing two places in the process. His local AMR Driver Academy Coach (Turner) would have been proud!!


On only the second lap Wilkinson was extremely lucky not to be collected by the #19 Lamborghini as it smashed into the rear of the #19 Mercedes AMG going into the hairpin - a collision that took place literally a couple of metres in front but he did at least have the next eight minutes of a Safety Car period in which to calm down and catch his breath!

As the race went green again, the next fifteen minutes or so seemed to be appear fairly static for the #96 car with it holding station to cars front and rear to hold a comfortable P10 overall and P5 in class position just ahead of the mandatory stop which the team elected to do straight away. As Turner was being strapped into the car a beached car over at the hairpin brought about a few moments of panic should a Safety Car have been called with them having just pitted under green. That was thankfully not to be and Turner was away for his first racing experience in the series for five years aboard the latest specification of AMR Vantage GT3.

The final fifteen minutes proved to be very competitive for Turner as having moved up to P7 overall and P4 in class he would have to defend his position - quite robustly sometimes as the #14 Lamborghini wanted past. Unfortunately it wasn't too long before the clearly faster Lambo' made its move and the #96 went back to P5 in the Pro Class which is where they finished at the end of the first seventy minutes of racing.


Sunday morning was a new race day and was the turn of Darren Turner to take the #96 out to Qualify for the sixty minute race that he would be starting yet his time of 1:37:440 was still not fast enough to break the Emil Frey Lamborghini lock out of the front row.

Again, with multiple cars taking the racing limits well beyond that of the white lines out of turn 1 on the opening lap, a rule abiding Turner would soon find himself being 'mugged' of his P3 position by at least three cars before he was able to redress the balance with a single position nett loss by the end of the first lap.

Whilst the leading Lambo' slowly escaped into the distance the other simply baulked everyone else early progress with a procession of at least nine other cars bumper to bumper behind. That situation wasn't really going to change until the start of the pit stop window when the 'slower' Lambo' pitted and released the cars behind. When the next car ahead of Turner also pitted some very quick laps where soon pinned onto the timing screen by Turner with a fastest lap to date amongst them.


Pitting just after the half way mark, Wilkinson would emerge P3 overall and P2 in Class but with some seriously faster drivers and cars behind him and all wanting past him as soon as possible. Trouble for Wilkinson soon came in the form of a back marker that broke his rhythm and forced the #96 to go defensive too early leaving him little opportunity of keeping the #63 Lambo of Albert Costa behind him - down to P3 in class with still over fifteen minutes to go.

As two more cars moved up onto the tail of the Vantage GT3 the pit crew could only offer words of advice and encouragement Wilkinsons way but then a little bit of luck helped him out as a mistake from the then overtaking #59 McLaren allowed it to be overtaking itself by the #10 Mercedes AMG all giving Wilkinson the gap he needed to take the car to the flag.

In a near reverse repeat of the opening round of the Series from Paul Ricard last month, the #96 car of Ollie Wilkinson and Darren Turner secured a P3 podium finish in race 2 at Hockenheim but this time in the Pro class. A great effort and well done to all concerned - receiving the silverware for this race must have been the best birthday present that he got this weekend.


The Series now moves onto Spa Francorchamps in early June and this is the event that the team will be attending over that of the third round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone.

Photo credits - GT Open / Optimum 

Never backward in coming forward in displaying the road and track capabilities of his Aston Martin Vulcan, Gleb Stepanov again leads the way for the marque as he shares his rather special car with another driver for an eight day charitable drive from Mykonos to Ibiza in the Gumball 3000.

Having already raced his Vulcan at the Aston Martin Racing Festival at Le Mans in 2018 and again in the Aston Martin Owners Club meetings at both Snetterton and Donington last year where Stepanov and co driver Stephen Tomkins also achieved the Vulcan's first race win (albeit in the Invitational Class), he has always wanted to encourage other like minded Vulcan owners to take their cars either to the race track to to exhibit their car publicly at other events..


What makes this car additionally special is that it is also the only Vulcan to have been made road legal by the RML Group. For the Festival race and the AMOC meetings the car had been upgraded to the more bonkers AMR specification but in order for it to be road legal again it will have been downgraded again.

Stepanov did partake in a similar road festival last year when he and his car were awarded a wild card entry into the Best of Italy Rally which was fully appreciated by the large crowds over that weekend.


Joining him in the race organisers 21st birthday Gumball 3000 celebratory event - a 3000 mile / 8 day / 10 countries event will be UK automotive lifestyles and Youtuber James William Walker who will be making regular video log updates of his experiences - starting with this shakedown event from Silverstone earlier this year.



The event takes place over the 7-15th June 2019

Photo credits - Aston Martin / Newbridge Motorsport / RML

Sadly unable to defend her 2018 British GT Championship GT3 crown this season, Flick Haigh has had to so far restrict her own racing activities in 2019 to just a single, planned appearance in the Michelin Le Mans Cup’s Road to Le Mans races from the Circuit de La Sarthe at Le Mans later next month.

With her entry into the event already confirmed by the Series, today’s announcement from TF Sport sees Haigh join forces with the 2018 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner and Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe racer Tom Gamble in one of Tom Ferrier's 2019 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's for the two race format that supports the main World Endurance Championship event finale.


Previously coached by AMR factory driver Jonny Adam whilst racing with Optimum Motorsport in British GT last season with her own AMR Vantage V12 Vantage GT3, Haigh has already had one test session with the new variant of car race car at Anglesey under the watchful eye of Adam as well as in her older V12 Championship winning car at Silverstone before a more recent test from Spa Francorchamps, this time under the watchful eye of new AMR Junior driver and team WEC racer Charlie Eastwood.

We saw the pace of the 17 year old Gamble at the last round of the British GT Championship at Snetterton last weekend when he deputised for an injured Adrian Wilmott in the Century Motorsport BMW M6 GT3, claiming a race pole in the process for race 1 at the first time of asking.


Haigh and Gamble will join full season Le Mans Cup racers Beechdean AMR and their drivers Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn at the event and their two races run on Thursday evening and Saturday morning before the start of the WEC 24Hours of Le Mans.

Photo credits - Gamble / Anglesey Cct

As the World Endurance Championship prepares for its super-season finale at Le Mans in under a months time, another hectic weekend of motor racing beckons for many Aston Martin Racing's customer and Partner teams around the world.

Starting on the far side of the world to where we are presently sitting sees D'Station Racing AMR return for the third round of the Japanese Super GT GT300 series looking to secure their first points of the season after having to retire with damage after the debut rounds at both Okayama and Fuji with their #7 AMR Vantage GT3.


Back into Europe and the International GT Open Series moves to the Hockenheim race track for the first time for their second round of the season after their opener at Paul Ricard.

Optimum Motorsport will be fielding a new driver combination aboard their AMR Vantage GT3 with young gun Ollie Wilkinson now being joined by AMR factory driver and driver coach (to Wilkinson) Darren Turner.

Last time out in France, Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis secured a Pro-Am podium with a P2 finish, only narrowly missing out on the top step after a great debut race in the Aston in lieu of their Audi R8 they raced last year.


Over at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the German based DMV GTC Series have their third round of the season with another triple header of a 60 minute race and two shorter races with their older, no longer main stream homologated group of GT3 race cars.

Timo Scheibner returns with his #13 AMR V12 Vantage GT3 after starting so well with a trio of P4 finishes in round 1 before falling away with technical issues later in round 2.


German based PROsport Performance take their AMR Vantage GT4 race cars over to the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic for the latest round of the 24H Series event after a great P2 finish debut in Mugello before going one better last time out at Spa with a dominant class win.

Their trio of drivers will be looking to maintain the momentum already gained in this latest 12 hour race of the Series.

We wish them all well.


Photo credits - D'Station Racing / Optimum / 

On a day that has sadly seen the official confirmation that the BMW factory GTE Pro team will now not be returning to the World Endurance Championship for the season 2019/20, it has been great to see Surrey based TF Sport have today confirmed their entry application for another single GTE Am class entry into the Championship for next season.


Having made the progressive steps up the GT ladder over the years, this 2018/19 transitional 'Super-season' was the teams first experience of racing upon the world stage with their 2016 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE, a car that has been raced by their trio of drivers with great success to date.


Podiums at Spa last year followed with others at Silverstone and Fuji, culminating with their a class win earlier this month at the 6Hrs of Spa Francorhamps all leave the team with every possibility of lifting the GTE Am Class Championship title by the end of the 24Hours of Le Mans next month.




Team boss Tom Ferrier confirmed that it had always been their intention to continue in the FIA World Endurance Championship and they have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that they remain at the highest level of GT racing. "We have high hopes that our entry will be accepted and that we can return to Silverstone in the new Aston Martin Vantage GTE.” he added.


No drivers have yet been confirmed and all applications are of course subject to official confirmation from the FIA WEC.

The third round of the 24H Series European GT Championship takes place this weekend from Brno in the Czech Republic and its a return of the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 of Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Ranbindra.

Having enjoyed something of a blessed campaign so far, the #1 car gained their first podium of the season at Mugello (having only just received the car from Prodrive the week before) where they secured a P2 class finish despite stopping out on track and having to have work carried out on the car during the overnight sabbatical. Then at the next round at Spa just over a month ago, the trio went one better to secure their first class win.


As with all Creventic organised events, track action begins with private testing on Thursday before the start of official business later on Friday with Free Practice and Qualifying before the first three hours of the twelve hour race later on Friday afternoon.

The balance of the race will be completed at 10:00hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits - 24H / PROsport Performance

Despite the smiles and hopeful anticipation from the drivers and team, the second round of the German ADAC GT Masters Series from the Most Autodrom in the Czech Republic brought German team PROsport Performance back down to the ground for another reality check after another difficult double header at the weekend.

Despite finishing the races at the opening round at Oschersleben, continuing technical infringements of one description or another left the team's two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 cars with zero points heading into the weekend. Testing at the Czech circuit earlier in the month had left the team certainly hopeful of a good showing at the second round as performance gains had been made.


Slow compared to their peers during Fee Practice on Saturday, the team's two cars Qualified even lower down the grid for race 1 - down in P23 for the Daniel Keilwitz/Maxime Martin #99 car and P29 for the Hugo de Sadeleer/Valentin Hasse-Clot #98 car.

A thirty one car grid and a very tight left-right chicane acting as turn 1 and 2 would always going to lead to incident on the opening lap and that was certainly the case as over half a dozen cars took to the shortest route across the gravel trap to avoid a stranded car on track. A Safety Car was immediately deployed costing the hour long race nearly 10 minutes of running around what was commented to be a very technical - balance critical circuit. Opening drivers, Keilwitz (#99) and de Sadeleer (#98) had very little running time before they handed over to their respective co-drivers as the pit window opening after just 26 minutes.


For the #99 car, now with AMR Factory driver Martin behind the wheel, the steady progress of cars in front getting penalties or suffering from early tyre degradation allowed him to slowly pick off cars to finish P10 by the end of the hour albeit 26 seconds behind the leader but six points is six points at the end of the day. The #98 car of Hasse-Clot was unable to replicate this and finished P23.

With the two cars again Qualifying down in P24 for the #98 and P28 for the #99, there was still an optimistic chance that some opportunist points could come their way again for Sundays race.

Another T1 incident on the opening lap again produced another Safety Car to recover another stranded car but the restart quickly lead to an early red flag as a spinning Porsche caused barrier damage on the outside of a fast swapping corner that needed repairing. By the time repairs were made and the remaining pack was let go by the controlling Safety car only 38 minutes remained.


The trouble was, just like whats being seen in other ACO and SRO sanctioned series, the new V8 Vantage GT3's simply couldn't get out of the slower, more technical corners quick enough and were losing seconds per lap to that problem. In race 2, there was to be no repeat of Martins rise through the field at the end and both cars would finish P19 and P20 respectively - some 40 seconds down - even after a fragmented red flag influenced race.

Martin put on his social media that the results were 'embarrassing' and in some regards he is right - the fact that AMR's new fleet of race cars are not seemingly able to compete on the world stage consistently is something to be concerned about. The teams and the drivers are all doing what they can but it just looks as if AMR have taken a massive backward step which clearly they haven't as nobody would release a new product obviously slower than the one its replacing. It must be a case of BoP?!?


Hopefully the series can do something to help out before the next round at the Rd Bull Ring in three weeks time.

Photo credits - PROpeak Performance / ADAC GT Masters