A bizarre set of circumstances befell the BSEM Asia Sonic Racing team at the Shanghai International Circuit as they competed in the third round of the China GT Championship this weekend.

Again entering a pair of Aston Marin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's - old and new specification -
Qualifying on Friday didn't exactly go to plan as the newer #618 car of David Pun and Yves Volte only just finished ahead of the normally aspirated 2016 #619 car of Zhang Fangxuan and Stanley Yang with P7/P8 and P9/P10 starting slots respectively for the two - one hour races over both Saturday and Sunday.


Featuring a lower car count than previous years, just 17 cars started race 1 under light drizzle as the cars formed on the grid. Starting and running on slick tyres, all appeared well at first until just after the pit stop window had closed when the heavens suddenly opened, drenching the circuit and leaving the struggling competitors to aquaplane all around the circuit. Indeed, such was the 'devastation' on track that the race was red flagged with still over 15 minutes left on the clock - the race wouldn't be restarted.

For the older #619 car, the early termination of the race would see them finish a very credible P4 whilst the newer #619 car has struggled throughout the race with transmission problems - forcing the crew to pit multiple times before a wild spin in the rain saw them ultimately classified as the final finisher in Race 1, down in P12.


For Sundays second race of the meeting, the rain at least arrived and fell before the scheduled start but then gave all the dilemma of tyre selection with half the track remaining wet for the start. That however, didn't effect the way Aston Martin Racing Academy driver Yves Volte ran his race as he would ultimately hand the #618 car over to gentleman driver David Pun from P3 although that would drop to P5 by the close of the race.

Importantly though, this P5 finish would firstly be their highest finish of the season so far but also marked another milestone for the new AMR Vantage GT4 in claiming its first Asian theatre podium with a P3 Pro-Am finish for the pairing.


The sister #619 car didn't appear to run in race 2 and at first we didn't know why until video footage was released of a nasty incident involving the car at the point immediately before the race was red flagged. Approaching a sharp left hand corner, the clip shows the #619 aquaplaning into the corner, spinning around before slamming into the front of another car that had already spun - sadly for the driver (Yang) that impact resulted in sizeable damage to the car and a (?) broken leg for himself.


The Championship now has six weeks off before round 4 from Shougang GT Circuit, Ginhuangdao in mid August.

Hopefully, the tide of misfortune has now turned for these guys and we wish Stanley Yang a speedy recovery.

Photo credit - China GT 

After what was surprisingly only the second round of the season so far, this weekends races from Misano in Italy proved themselves to be fruitful ones for the lone Aston Martin Racing team of R-Motorsport as everyone got themselves back down to business in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series.

Running with a new AMR Vantage GT3 in both Pro and Silver Cup, the Swiss based team was somewhat adrift in each championship table despite a reasonable points haul fist time out at Brands Hatch in early May so a good show in Misano was imperative for the team to maintain the season chances.

The #76 Pro car of Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer showed great intent in the first of Saturady's Qualifying sessions with the young British driver setting the 2nd best time to position their car on the front row of the grid for the 'into the evening' one hour sprint. The #62 Silver Cup of Aaro Vainio wasnt too far behind in the twenty eight car grid to Qualify P13 overall but P5 in class.


Qualifying 2 also took place soon after where this time the #62 car of Hugo de Sadeleer out qualified the Pro sister car of Kirchhofer to start P9 overall (P3 in class) compared to the unexpectedly low position of the #76 car in P13 - albeit just a second off the pole time such is the competitive nature of the competition.

With the weather conditions over most of Europe being extremely high this weekend, tyre wear and the management of which was going to be the controlling factor again as the preceding races before the evening start to the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe had already demonstrated.

At the start of Race 1, Collard soon found himself being past into the first sequence of corners dropping him down to P3 and already having to run defensively as the top two cars soon set about breaking away from the pack. Vainio meanwhile had had a better start in his #62 car to pick up a couple of early places as the sun began to drop to a visibility impairing level just above the horizon. Just after 15 minutes of racing, instances of contact between other cars and then one of the leaders spinning out into the gravel allowed both AMR's to pick up places without actually having to pass anybody.


With the pack having been slowed first by a Full Course Yellow and then Safety Car, racing only went back to green just as the pit window opened - too late for most to dart into the pit lane, and forcing most to do another lap as both R-Motorsport cars did before pitting - dropping the #76 down to P6 and the #62 P23 (P6 in class).

Another FCY and SC with just 20 minutes of racing left at least allowed the pack to close the gaps to one another on the restart and this allowed both AMR's to pick off a couple of easy places as the clock ticked down to the final minutes of the hour long race. At the chequered flag, the #76 car would finish a very credible P4 whilst the #62 would finish P17 overall (and also P4 in class). Great results and points for both cars.

For Race 2 on Sunday afternoon, the track temperature was just as high (if not hotter) than it was on Saturday evening but at least this time drivers had their own working knowledge of tyre degradation on the baking asphalt.


In a very hectic opening quarter to the race, it appeared that both AMR cars overtook many but were themselves overtaken by just as many to end up running somewhere very close to their respective starting position but both had dropped off some distance off the lead cars to the tune of 16 seconds for the #62 and 21 seconds for the #76 car.

Another FCY and SC, this time to remove a damaged sausage kerb was called just before the start of now delayed pit stop window which again put strategy at the forefront of the race engineers mind as race control tried to combat the possibility of a mass descent of 28 cars into the tight pit lane of Misano. With both cars having pitted at the half way mark of the race, both would also benefit from the results of penalties being awarded for FCY procedure infringements - that would list both cars up one position.


Outright pace was never a strong point of either AMR Vantage GT3 with the Audi, Mercedes and Lamborghini chassis' clearly faster as an overall package. What they did have was consistency and the ability of making the most of any opportunity from  errors made by others others leaving 'the door open' to them. Vainio did just that in the final minutes of the race as the Finn capitalised on a mistake between the battling Silver Cup leading pair to place his car in-between to take the next step up the podium.

At the chequered flag, the #62 car would cross the line P7 overall but incredibly P2 in class whilst the #76 car could do no more than P13. Another great race from the team with an invaluable large addition to their must needed points haul.


The teams now have just two weeks off before the third round of the series at Zandvoort, Holland before the attention of many turn to the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps just two weeks after that.

Photo credits - R-Motorsport / Blancpain GT

Just days after being 'officially' revealed as Aston Martin Racing's new North American distributer and supporter of new Vantage GT3 and GT4 race cars, Texas base CSJ Motorsport were back at the race track today in support of one existing customer and with another little 'gem' of their own.

Having supported Florida based Automatic Racing in the new for 2019 Michelin Pilot Challenge since the start of the season when Automatic first took deliver of the first 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 to race (anywhere in the world but then under waiver by IMSA) at the BMW Endurance Challenge at Daytona event, CSJ Motorsport arrived with their first AMR acquisition of their own in the form of new Vantage GT4 which arrived in the USA only last week.


We understand that the hectic early production schedule of the new Vantage range of race cars out of the Prodrive factory in Banbury precluded an earlier reveal of the new arrangement between AMR and CSJ until now - a time when new orders can now be reasonably facilitated through the factory as CSJ now set about building their customer base ready for next season.

This weekends IMSA event at Watkins Glen forms the final endurance round of the season for the Michelin Pilot Challenge support series with another four hour race around the 3.4 mile circuit for the thirty seven entries including the #97 Automatic Racing car of Rob Ecklin Jnr, Ramin Abdolvahabi and Brandon Kidd which begins on Saturday.

We wish them well.

Photo credits - CSJ Motorsport / Automatic Racing

There are a few small changes taking place ahead of this weekend's fourth round of the GT4 European Series from Misano, Italy for the four Aston Martin Racing Customer teams that normally frequent the series.


Firstly - the #44 Generation AMR Super Racing Vantage GT4 of James Holder and Matt George will not be at the event - they haven't really said why not but have encouraged people to look out for some news regarding a further racing quest for the team in the near future.


The #61 Academy Motorsport car of Tom Wood and Fiona James will have experience a driver change as Academy British GT racer Micah Stanley stands in for an absent James.




Finally - PROsport Performance will be entering just a single Vantage GT4 from their usual number pair for the race. Having competed with both cars at the ADAC Total 24H race at the Nordschleife last weekend, the entry list for this weekend shows that Akhil Rabindra will be joined fellow team mate David Griessner in the #19 car.


Whilst we don't know whether this is by design of from necessity having had both cars retire from the early proceedings of the 24 hour race we don't know - we do know however, that Rabindra's usual co-driver (Florian Thoma) has just been named as a replacement driver in the teams ADAC GT Masters campaign aboard the #98 AMR Vantage GT3.




The two Street Art Racing entries as well as the #62 Academy car remain unaffected.


The first rack action of the meeting starts later this afternoon with the two Free Practice sessions before two Qualifying sessions tomorrow morning and the two - one hour races over both Saturday and Sunday.


Photo credits - Academy / PROsport / Generation AMR

After having temporally dropped their second Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 at the third round of the ADAC GT Masters Series from the Red Bull Ring in Austria whilst the team evaluated their early performances, PROsport Performance have also confirmed a full driver change in their second AMR car moving forward.


In support of AMR factory driver Maxime Martin and Daniel Keilwitz aboard the teams main car, the teams second Vantage GT3 driven previously driven by the teams junior drivers Hugo de Sadeleer and Valentin Hasse-Clot at the first two rounds of the season at Oschersleben and Most will now have new faces behind the wheel as the team look to recover from the early season difficulties.




With the team not going into specifics they have announced that both Hasse-Clot and de Sadeleer will be leaving the teams ADAC GT Masters squad with immediate effect with fellow team driver Florian Thoma stepping up (we don't know if this is instead of or including) from his team efforts aboard one of the AMR Vantage GT4 cars that run in both GT4 European Series and ADAC GT4 Germany.




The co-driver to Thoma has yet to be determined ahead of the next round of the season from Zandvoort, Holland in early August.


Photo credits - PROsport Performance

The fourth round of the Japanese Super GT Series takes place this weekend with D'Station Racing AMR hoping that the change in country changes their fortunes in the series as attention turns to the Chang Super GT race from the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand.

Having turned their allegiances to Aston Martin Racing for this season, D'Station Racing AMR have suffered a dreadful introduction to the GT300 category aboard their AMR Vantage GT3 with both accident damage and most recently technical issues thwarting all endeavours of a point finish at the first three rounds of the series so far in Japan.


Round four features a smaller twenty four car entry including the #7 car of Tomonobu Fuji and JP de Oliveira both of whom were racing at last weekends ADAC Total 24H race in separate Nissan GT-R GT3. Presently, the team features at the foot of the GT300 Series table.


If there is a team out there who need a little bit of luck and support to kick off their 2019 season - its these guys. Fingers crossed.

Photo credits - D'Station Racing AMR

After nearly a two month break, the China GT Championship returns to the track with the third round's two races around around the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend.

BSEM Asia Sonic Racing will be back again with their mix of old and new iteration Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's after something of a frustrating audition for the brand new #618 car in the Asian arena after a pit stop infringement and then puncture thwarted early promise aboard the new race car for drivers David Pun and Yves Volte in the previous two races.


For the teams second pairing of Zhang Fangxuan and Wu Pei, they had something of a nightmare last time out with the older, normally aspirated version of the Vantage GT4 cutting out during the races forcing recovery from the circuit.

All will be hoping for some reward for their efforts this weekend.

After over a year now of searching and negotiation, it now appears that Aston Martin Racing have finally found their desired strategic partner in North America who will be able to take the factory's new range of Vantage race cars forward into top flight racing in the continental USA.

Not since the heady days of Kevin Bucklers TRG-AMR team have we seen any significant assaults on any on the mainstream American race series from the AMR factory or customer teams except for a few periodic appearances of the factory at headline events like the Daytona 24 with long established racing customers.


This latest announcement confirms that San Antonio, Texas based CSJ Motorsport will be the sole officially licensed distributor and support provider to prospective customers wanting to race in any of the new 2019 Vantage range of GT4, GT3 and GTE race cars in any of the (but not limited to) the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, Michelin Pilot Challenge Series and the SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America and Pirelli GT4 America paddocks.

That involved has already started with etc team supporting the only runner of the new Vantage GT4 in the USA so far with Florida based Automatic Racing.


"We’re honored and looking forward to working closely with Aston Martin Racing to build the Vantage GT3 and GT4 programs in the United States,” Susan Jary (co Team Principle) said. “We’ve been in business as long as we have because we put our clients and customers first and pride ourselves on customer relations. We’ll continue that by doing what’s best for the teams running the Aston Martin Vantage.”

“We both started as motorsports fans and have been looking for the right opportunity to get more involved,” Cy Jary said. “Working with Aston Martin Racing, we’ve made the investments needed to run a first-class, competitive operation. Our season has gotten off to a great start with a Vantage GT4 campaigned by Automatic Racing, and we’re looking forward to increasing the number of competitive Aston Martin Vantage machines racing across the country.”

Soon after the joys from Germany earlier this afternoon with Aston Martin Racing claiming a commanding class win in the ADAC Total 24H event with their new turbo charged Vantage GT4, came the first overall race win for the (also new for 2019) Vantage GT3 fromTF Sport in the latest round of the British GT Championship from Donington Park today.

Having had to involuntarily 'delay' this event by two weeks by virtue of unwanted contact with a back marker crashing the same car out of the race the final lap out in the Championship at Silverstone, the #47 crew of Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam finally did what was needed to claim their first race win and that of the car in the British national series at the end of this afternoons two hour race.


With weather again not being a problem, Am driver Davidson was a man on a mission right from the start of the race allowing those behind to squabble between them enabling him to pull out what became an unthreatened lead by the time he passed the car over to Adam.

Two cars making hay at the start were the #99 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard who managed to leapfrog himself up to P4 in the first two corners alone, closely followed by the #96 Optimum Vantage GT3 of Ollie Wilkinson. Fortunately for Davidson, all the accident and incident was at least behind him as team mate Mark Farmer would endure another difficult race in his #2 TF Sport car that he shares with Nicki Thiim as two early spins would see his position plummet to mid pack amongst the slower GT4's. Asking Thiim what he thought of the situation on track, the Dane did suggest that it was "already time to get a beer!"


Kelvin Fletcher was again flying in his #11 Beechdean GT4 as he headed the GT4 Pro-Am class just behind the overall GT4 leaders. Clearly something had again happened with the performances of many chassis in GT4 as the Ford Mustang was again untouchable whereas the Vantage GT4's as a whole were obviously slower than at Silverstone.

Unfortunately, early and unrelated contacts for the #95 TF Sport GT4 of Josh Price and the #35 Optimum GT4 of Jack Butel would see both sidelined on track for a short while before managing to make it back to pit lane for repairs. Losing several laps each, both cars would return to the track but not for to long for the #35 car which would soon pit again and retire from the race. Their respective sister cars in GT4 Silver Cup were also taking their time to come up to speed with the #97 down in P8 in class with the #75 Optimum car a further place back contrary to suggestive speeds displayed earlier in the events proceedings.


Coming up towards the midway point and the compulsory pit stop, both Davidson and Wilkinson were 'enjoying' themselves in P1 and P3 respectively although the Silver Cup #96 car had dropped back from the leading pair. Shaun Balfe was also on a charge in his 720s McLaren and a series of personal best times began to dwindle the Scotsman's earlier lead to just under a second by the time they all pitted.

Disaster was not far away however for the #96 Optimum GT3, as on leaving their pit bay the grey liveried car spluttered and coughed before erupting into a plume of dense smoke as the engine compartment broke out in fire. Exiting the vehicle, Bradley Ellis would make it no further than the end of the pit lane but swift action of the Balfe crew and pit lane marshals at least saved the car from serious damage.


With all the Pro drivers now aboard, Rob Bell had now positioned his red Balfe McLaren GT3 to within 0.5 seconds of the rear of the #47 Vantage and for lap after lap Adam had to lead a defensive line. The fastest man on track however was Nicki Thiim who, having been further delayed at the pit stop because of their podium at Silverstone, soon caught and passed Bell to then place himself (strategically) in between the top two cars despite being a lap down.

Billy Johnson's Ford Mustang was also on a mission chasing down the #11 GT4 of Martin Plowman as the former Le Mans racer defended his Pro-Am lead but a slight error from the Englishman speeded up the path of inevitability and allowed the American past into the final corner of the lap.


Back in GT3, things were really heating up as an uncharacteristic error from Adam forced Thiim to pass him by at the chicane and allowed Bell to regroup back onto his tail. With a GT4 being the villain last time out at Silverstone - its would an incident involving a GT4 that would end up helping the #47 crew as the race entered its final minutes as the yellow flags for an incident forced the McLaren to stay behind some slower GT4's giving Adam the space that he needed to intimately take the chequered flag.

In terms of other successes at the race, the #11 Beechdean car did hold on to claim another Pro-Am podium with another P2 finish for Fletcher and Plowman. The #97 TF Sport of Tom Canning and Ash Hand did claw themselves up from P9 on the grid to claim a P4 finish.


Having now had two events in as many weeks, the Championship runners now get a month to regroup/repair and refocus before the fifth round of the season from Spa Francorchamps in Belgium before the final run in to the end of the season from brands Hatch and Donington Park again.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Steve Jackman

The new Aston Martin Vantage GT4 made a victorious debut in the 2019 ADAC TOTAL 24 Hours (N24), dominating the SP8T class for close-to-production vehicles in the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife-based endurance race. Meanwhile back in the UK, partner team TF Sport delivered the most significant win yet for the Vantage GT3, in the British GT Championship.

Aston Martin’s Nürburgring success was particularly emphatic with one of the two works-entered cars leading their class for more than 20 hours of the race. It marked a triumphant first outing in the event for former European Le Mans Series champion and current LMP2 driver Alex Brundle (GB) and was the second 24-hour race victory in an Aston Martin for W-Series championship points leader Jamie Chadwick (GB). It was also the second class win for their co-driver in the #37 works entry, Aston Martin regular and Nordschleife veteran Peter Cate (GB).

Donington Park is teeing itself up for another highly exciting round of the British GT Championship tomorrow as TF Sport's GT3 drivers Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson pick up from (nearly) where they left off last time out at Silverstone to claim another front row start.

With several drivers from the AMR camp running straight off the back of last weekends Le Mans 24 Hour event, it was no surprise really that Nicki Thiim was immediately the fastest runner out of the bag during FP1 in his #2 TF Sport car that he shares with Mark Farmer to then just luck out a little to the same accolade in FP2.


In GT4, the seven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage runners from TF Sport, Optimum and Academy started showing that the performance of Silverstone was not luck - especially for the #35 and #75 Optimum cars as they completed the top five GT4's along with etc #11 Beechdean GT4 of Pro-Am leaders Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher during FP1. That transposed into FP2 for those cars except for the #97 TF Sport car of Ash Hand and Tom Canning stealing their march to claim top AMR slot in P4 as the teams then prepared for Qualifying.

Being a single race tomorrow both drivers were again required to submit their own time from which the aggregated times would be used to determine their starting position.


With the GT3 Am drivers out first, Graham Davidson again proved that his is a gentleman driver of worth by posting a lap time that even his AMR factory co-driver Jonny Adam could only go onto beat by little over one second to end up claiming overall pole position, putting the demons of the last lap at Silverstone firmly behind them.

Making his return to the national GT championship, AMR reserve factory driver Ross Gunn also put in his best laps to be the fastest Pro driver in their respective Qualifying session that would help elevate the #99 car he shares with Andrew Howard to a P6 start. Whilst the #96 Silver Cup entry from Optimum for Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis remained a constant force in their class to qualify P7 overall and first in class,  slower times from Farmer dropped his #2 car down to P8 (the lowest AMR in the GT3 field) despite the best attempts of Thiim.


Back into GT4 again and again consistency was again the name of the game with the #11 Beechdean car being steady through both Am (P5) and Pro (P7) sessions to an overall P6 in GT4 (P2 in class). Some fantastically fast laps from Micah Stanley in his #61 Academy car posted him initially to P8 in his class although co driver Ben Hurst was unable to reciprocate that in the Pro session for them to end up P19 overall.


Despite early promises at the Silverstone 500 two weeks ago, both TF Sport GT4's have been uncharacteristically up and down over the course of events so far at Donington with the #97 car P9 and the #95 in P13. Both Optimum GT4's of Patrik Matthiesen/Mike Robinson and Jack Butel/Connor O'Brien split the 'yellow perils' with P11 and P12 starting positions respectively.


The weather forecast for tomorrow sees similar temperatures of today but maybe without as much visibility of the blue skies of today. With the usual ten minute warm up for the BGT cars tomorrow morning, Sundays two hour race will start at 13:10hrs.

With the circuit at Donington being more recently used to determine a winner or two at the end of the season with its #doningtondecider label, we can be assured that whatever the weather there will be some epic battles in both classes around the 2.5 mile track.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey 

With the multitude of GT racing racing events that are taking place this month, this weekend also sees a swift return to the British GT Championship from Donington Park for their fourth round of their 2019 season.

Having competed at their blue ribband Silverstone 500 event just two weeks ago, forty one cars across the GT3 and GT4 classes are entered into this weekends first of the Championships usual two hour races having so had two rounds of four one hour sprint races and the three hour enduro at Silverstone.


We have obviously had the 24 hours of Le Mans take place between these two events and as a result of a terrifying high speed accident for Marco Sorensen aboard his #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE during the night last Saturday, he has been medically advised to sit this race out at Donington as a precautionary measure. His place in the #99 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 will be taken by AMR factory reserve driver Ross Gunn.


At least Gunn and team boss/co driver Andrew Howard will be well versed with each other and the car as their both competed in the Michelin Road to Le Mans races from the Circuit de La Sarthe last weekend where they secured a P2 finish in race two on Sunday morning.

Other than that, there are no visible changes to the #TeamAMR line up with many of the drivers having just returned from France having raced or invited to attend the spectacular that is the LM24 as guests of Aston Martin Racing


Silverstone last time out was something of a bitter/sweet experience, especially for the TF Sport team with two class podiums turning into something of a nightmare for both of these GT3/GT4 crews with Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson's GT3 getting taken out off the lead of the race by a dilly-dallying Ford GT4 on the last lap of the race whilst the GT4 pole setting #95 car of Patrick Kibble and Josh Price ended up with a multitude of drive through penalties for self inflicted errors during the compulsory pit stop schedule. Hopefully lessons have been learned there?!?!

Whereas the #47 and #95 TF Sport cars lost out - sister #2 car of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim rekindled their love driving alliance together by securing their first podium of the season with a P2 finish whilst the #97 GT4 of Tom Canning and Ash Hand secured a P2 Silver Cup placing for their troubles.


Optimum Motorsport will arrive looking for some more of the same having had a good run out at Silverstone with two of their three cars where the #96 GT3 car of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis extended their lead in the GT3 Silver Cup class with another class win whilst the #75 GT4 of Patrik Matthiesen and Mike Robinson had their best race so far this season with a P3 finish in GT4 after their underlying technical issues earlier this season.

The remaining car of Jack Butel and Connor O'Brien had something of a bruising affair last time out as did both of the Academy Motorsport cars where the #61 car of Ben Hurst was unceremoniously dumped into the gravel trap at Luffield with damage that would ultimately see their retirement from the race with few laps completed. Alex Both-Jones and Will Moore would again have their own issues with contact incurring additional stops to repair the damage that would ultimately cost them any chance of some points this year.


That leaves the #11 car of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher who are both having an incredible season so far in their new AMR Vantage GT4 that they only saw for the first time at BGT Media Day at Donington Park in late March. Since then they have had Pro-Am podiums at Oulton Park, Snetterton and most recently at Silverstone to lead their championship at this half way stage of the season.


Qualifying for Sundays race again takes place over Saturday afternoon with times from both drivers being used to determine their aggregate time for the grid. Race starts Sunday at 13:10 and will be streamed live via the BGT social media channels.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Steve Jackman