The Stoner Car Care Racing fielded by Automatic Racing team heads to next weekend’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 with an exciting new line up, starring two young stalwarts of the Aston Martin Asia program who have sterling pedigrees both on and off the racetrack.

Weiron Tan and Anderson Tanoto will make their Michelin Pilot Challenge series debut in the two-hour endurance race, behind the wheel of the iconic No. 99 Invisible Glass Aston Martin Vantage GT4.

Both Tan and Tanoto come to the Stoner Car Care team with extensive racing experience – and significant off-track accomplishments.

Tan, 26, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, began his career in karting then progressed up the junior open wheel ranks, finishing second in the 2013 Formula Renault series and fourth in the 2015 Indy Pro 2000 Championship, driving for Andretti Autosport.

He made the move to sports car racing in 2017, contesting races in the Asian Le Mans Series, the Blancpain GT Series Asia and the World Endurance Championship (WEC). Tan is also a co-founder of Motorsport Services AMR Asia Ltd, the official Aston Martin racing representative and exclusive distributor in Asia.

Tanoto, 32, from Jakarta, Indonesia, began his racing career in 2018 with a victory in the six-race Asian Audi R8 LMS Cup. He has also competed in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia and the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, but he is most well-known as the managing director of Royal Golden Eagle, a group of resource-based manufacturing companies in Indonesia. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tanoto Foundation, a philanthropic organization involved in poverty alleviation through education and empowerment. Tanoto is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School.

The two drivers met in 2018 when Tanoto first started in the Audi Cup Asia. Tan was the series driver coach and the pair were building a relationship when the pandemic hit. Neither driver has raced in the past year and a half but when the idea hit to come to the States, Tan knew who to contact.

“We made a miracle happen in a short amount of time,” said Tan. “We are so lucky to be working with (Automatic Racing team manager) David Russell as we get ready to join the Michelin Pilot Challenge. It’s wonderful to be back in a seat and to race alongside Anderson. I’m still involved in motorsports with the Aston Martin distributorship, but it’s good to get back in the car.”

Both drivers look forward to competing at the fabled WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The track’s 2.238-mile, 11-turn configuration challenges drivers, but no corner is as famous as the legendary Corkscrew, with its 18 percent drop (from entry of The Corkscrew, which is Turn 8, to the exit of Turn 9 the elevation change is 109 feet, or just over 10 stories) – especially behind the wheel of one of the series’ iconic liveries.

“WeatherTech Raceway is one of my all-time favorites,” said Tan. “Having driven there back in 2015, I know the circuit very well. Anderson has done some open track days, but we’ll get him some laps next weekend, and I can help get him up to speed quickly. And it’s fantastic to be racing under the Stoner Car Care colors – the Invisible Glass livery is instantly recognizable and I’m so glad to have them onboard. I know we’ll have a great weekend and I hope we’ll be competing for a podium finish.”

Russell eagerly anticipates introducing the two drivers to the team, the racetrack and the Michelin Pilot Challenge.

“It’s fun running guys who are part of the Aston Martin community,” said Russell. “They’ve been shut down in Asia for a while and they’d been looking for somewhere to run with Aston Martin – and what better place than WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca? We’ve had some really good conversations with both of them, they’re really tuned in, and I know they’ll be good. There won’t be any pressure, it will take them both a while to figure it out, even though Weiron has been there before. It’s a learning curve with the track and the car but they’re diligent guys, they’re smart guys, I have no doubt they’ll both be up to speed quickly.”

The WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 takes the green flag at 7:40 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, September 11.
Source material - Stoner Car Care

Up to eighty-six GT3 and GT4 race cars grace the provisional entry lists for this weekend’s penultimate rounds of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series and GT4 European Series from the Nurburgring in Germany with an additional Aston Martin Racing surprise in each.

With the last round of the GTWCE Endurance Cup being the Total Energie Spa 24Hours of nearly a month ago now, some teams have had that long to recompose themselves after the workload of the toughest GT3 24 Hour race about – except for the Garage 59 Aston Martin Racing Partner team who travel to Germany straight off the back of the latest round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup from Brands Hatch last weekend.

Whilst their Silver Cup pairing unfortunately struggled again there, it was another confidence boosting double podium for their Pro-Am pairing of Alex West and Jonny Adam as that duo travel to Germany to meet up with their third man (Chris Goodwin) in time for this round’s three-hour race on Sunday afternoon.

Chasing the leaders hard in the Sprint Cup, the #188 Pro-Am crew also have ground to make up in the Endurance Cup after gearbox issues put them out of the Spa 24 early on meaning that West and Goodwin are now fourteen points behind the class leading Ferrari with two races remaining.

Alongside the #188 car will of course be the #159 Silver Cup car of Valentin Hasse-Clot, Alex MacDowall and Nicolai Kjaergaard. For them, a slow start to the season at both Monza and Paul Ricard was bolstered by a great performance at Spa which lifts the trio up to P10 in the Silver Cup table – still some thirty-two points behind the championship leaders but still with some time to do something about it both at the Nurburgring before finally at Barcelona.

These two full season entries will be joined by another one of Tom Ferrier’s one off “specials” as Ahmad Al Harthy, Giacomo Petrobelli and Charlie Eastwood re-join the series for this round in the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport AMR Vantage GT3 that last competed in the Le Mans Cup at Le Mans a couple of weeks ago.

With Aston Martin Racing sadly reduced to supporting the ventures of its partner and customer teams only at present, every effort is being made to secure the continued loyalty of customer drivers like Al Harthy, Petrobelli and more recently Michael Dinan with the marque for this and subsequent years to follow. 

With the Omani driver being prevented from committing too much this year due to global travel restrictions and the likes of Dinan very much in the market for a GT3 deal somewhere in the world – these one-off events are specifically designed to keep these people engaged with the brand and its supporting teams as they decide where 2022 will take them – and with whom!

The Nurburgring three-hour race starts at 14:45hrs local.

UPDATE - AMR factory driver Maxime Martin steps into the Oman Racing Aston with Al Harthy and Petrobelli as Charlie Eastwood gets ‘pinged’ for being close to someone who later tested positive for Covid. 

Photo credits – GTWCE / Garage 59 / TF Sport

After something of a twelve week break in seeing most of the SRO America’s GT3 and GT4 runners and riders of the GT4 America back in action from Road America at the weekend, that wait proved to be worthwhile as the GT4 series gave us two extra-ordinary races.

Running as the fourth round of the seven-round season, Road America boasted a near forty car entry list for its two one-hour, pit stop punctuated races that saw the return of most of the season long Aston Martin Racing customer team entries as well as a new squad from the Automatic racing stable.

Last time out at Virginia International Raceway in early June saw podium finishes for the #59 WR Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Paul Terry and Brandon Davis as well as the first overall race win for the #15 Bsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Bryan Putt and Kenton Koch but it also saw the Dexter Racing team sit out with an ongoing electrical issue with their car and another accident for Matt Dalton in his Notlad Racing Vantage.

Despite some torrential rain during the preceding sessions and overnight between races, the first GT4 Sprint X race was another highly exciting affair with some brisk early pace from the #062 Dexter Racing car of Ryan Dexter as well as a highly charged Terry. Unfortunately for the #59 crew, early contact with a BMW in the opening laps saw both cars stationary of the trackside which brought out an early FCY. Whilst the BMW would recover itself to the pit lane – that would be it for the #59 crew for the weekend.

With the BMW M4 GT4 obviously way out front in terms of performance to all the other makes and models entered, it was a case of hanging on to what they had achieved so far for the #15 Bsport and #2 GMG Racing car of Jason Bell and Andrew Davis as just one non-BMW featured in the top eight after the pit stop window closed.

By the end of another hard race, Davis had topped the #15 car to become the top AMR to finish P9 overall and P6 in Pro-Am whilst the #15 car finished P13 overall and P9 in Pro-Am. For the remaining Astons from both the Heart of Racing team and the Automatic Racing team, it was a slow catch up for their amateur drivers after the long break for Gray Newell aboard the #24 HoRT car and a tough introduction for Paul Kiebler in his #09 car as each finished the day P29 and P34 respectively.

Sundays second race was a very similar affair to the first but this time the #15 car of AMR Academy driver Kenton Koch had qualified P3 overall but with the next highest AMR down in P17.

Another early lunge from Koch into the first corner of lap 1 gained him an early position but that didn’t last two long before the BMW’s around him got their tyres up to temperature heading towards the stops. More early gains from Ian James aboard the #24 HoRT car as well as Davis in the #2 GMG Racing car but his namesake – Brandon Davis’s race in the #59 WR Racing Aston only lasted three laps before that car disappeared from the leader board.

An errant Porsche getting stranded in the gravel brought out another FCY just ahead of the pit window, meaning that that was delayed until the restart but with the Pro’s in most of the Astons, all would stay out until the last possible moment.

Another incident through The Kink brought out another FCY just ahead of the end of the available pit window, forcing all remaining cars to stop with Putt, Newell and Bell emerging P5, P9 and P10 respectively but another long period of caution would only give all just over seven minutes to improve upon their positions.

With just three minutes remaining, a bullish move from Putt dispensed with two cars in one corner as he moved up to P3 overall onto the final lap whilst Newell was having a better race as he improved his P8 (in class) position to P7 by the end whilst the #2 car of Davis was right behind. 

This time, just two weeks separate the teams from the next two races from Watkins Glen – another traditional American circuit layout that will suit the GT4 platforms very nicely, so another two entertaining races should be in store. Whilst we wait for these results to be verified, the gap between the #15 Bsport car and the Pro-Am leading Nolasport Porsche remains vast and despite the #47 cars poorer performance at Road America so there is still very much all to race for.

Photo credits – GT4 America / CSJ Motorsport / Teams / F Lagunas

It was something of a productive weekend for Jason Bell and his GMG Racing prepared Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 as the American racer secured a pair of podium finishes in the amateur only GT America races from Road America at the weekend.

Having elected to run in the preceding Music City Grand Prix event of the series at Nashville at the beginning of the month with fellow series AMR runner Gray Newell, this weekend saw the series return to a more traditional racetrack at the four-mile Wisconsin racetrack.

Now on the ‘homeward’ stretch to the season, this fifth round of the revamped GT America Series would see twenty-four cars entered for the two forty-minute races with cars near evenly split between the GT3 and GT4 platforms. This weekend would also see the #09 Automatic Racing entry of Paul Kiebler take to the stage in his former Kohr Motorsport AMT Vantage GT4 alongside Bell and Newell in his Heart of Racing AMR.

Qualifying second in the GT4 field, Bell was right behind GT4 Championship leader Sean Quinlan and his Cameron BMW and an early march down the front straight at the start saw the white #2 AMR take the class lead going into turn one but despite gapping the #119 car for the first ten minutes, Quinlan soon retook the class lead from which he would not look back.

Newell meanwhile had made a clean start to hold his Qualifying position during the first half of the race and was lucky not to have become involved in an incident directly ahead of him as a Porsche and as Mercedes argued over apex rights for that corner. Kiebler meanwhile, was doing what he needed to do – staying out of trouble and getting those all-important race miles in to broaden his short racing experience thus far.

Losing the class lead as well as losing contact with the class leader, the race soon become something of survival for Bell as the third placed Mercedes latched upon his tail. Thinking that he may have done enough, a missed braking point around the final lap was enough for the #39 Mercedes to snatch the middle step of the class podium at the death. Newell would retain his acquired P7 in class whilst Kiebler would not be classified as a finisher.

Sundays second race of the weekend would virtually be over before it had really started as a multiple car accident effectively ended the race on only its second lap as the debris field was cleared.

What appeared to have occurred was Newell’s AMR was struck by a Porsche going into the first corner of the opening lap, and that ruptured an oil cooler on his Aston Martin for him to then inadvertently and unknowingly drop oil around the next half dozen corners. All was good until the start of lap two when a large number of GT3 and GT4 cars spun off on the oil – some spinning off track before recovering, whilst others impacted heavily into the concrete wall bringing out an immediate caution.

Thanks to Bell having made a move to secure P2 in class going into turn one on the preceding lap, the resulting FCY meant that that was where the #2 car would finish as the race was eventually ‘called’ with still seven minutes on the clock with some eight cars not be classified.

These results remain very much provisional as the series looks to its next round from Watkins Glen in two weeks time.

Photo credits – GT America / CSJ Motorsport

The penultimate round of the 2021 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup was a gruelling home affair for the Garage 59 Aston Martin Racing team, but another two podium finishes sets up a winner takes all event at Valencia in a month’s time.

This weekend racing at Brands Hatch, events didn’t start off on a positive note as the team’s #159 AMR Vantage GT3 Silver Cup entry of Nicolai Kjaergaard and Tuomas Tujula needed a gear box replacement after an incident during Free Practice, and that would haunt that car’s efforts during the remainder of the weekend.

With the team unfortunately not doing so well in Silver Cup, their Pro-Am entry of Alex West and Jonny Adam however was doing very well with a constant stream of podium finishes during the eight races so far this season keeping them within an arm’s length of the Championship leading Barwell Lamborghini going into this round.

This time featuring the two one-hour races on a single day, any issue on track during Sunday morning’s race would automatically put any team onto the back step for the second race later in the afternoon.

With the threat of rain lingering over the grid ahead of race one, twenty-eight cars featured on the grid as the thought of so many equally balanced GT3 car thundering into Paddock Hill Bend for the first time excited the large attending crowd around the entire Grand Prix loop. Tujula started the #159 from P19 overall whilst West’s #188 car was down in P27.

Getting around the opening sequence of corners without too much incident, it quickly became apparent to the casual observer that overtaking was next to impossible without making contact or jeopardising your cars own integrity and that was pretty much the case for the two Garage 59 cars as the field approached the opening of the mandatory ten-minute pit window.

In this series, only tyres and drivers are allowed to be changed and by the end of the available pit window, AMR factory driver Adam emerged P26 overall whilst Kjaergaard came out ahead in P22. Compounding an already difficult season for the #159 crew, that position was also to diminish still further after they were deemed to have speeded in pit lane and that earned them a drive through penalty.

Approaching the final five minutes of the race, a move past the Tempesta Racing Ferrari by Adam for position also removed the #188 car from an area of danger as contact between the leading two cars and the Ferrari saw the race leading #38 Jota McLaren and the Ferrari spin off (and over the safety barrier for the #38 car) bringing out an immediate Full Course Yellow as Ollie Wilkinson thankfully extricated himself from what was left of his race car.

With the race effectively halted at that point, that meant that the #188 car had claimed the final step of the Pro-Am podium with an important P3 finish whilst the #159 would finish down in P10 in class.

Sunday afternoon’s second race was much of the same in terms of congestion but that there was also a little more realisation that any move had to be done early whilst the track was together.

This time race one’s finishing drivers started the race and that meant that Adam had a chance to chase down the #77 Barwell Lamborghini that was starting ahead of them again whilst Kjaergaard would see what he could salvage from his P26 starting position. That was all well and good until someone dumped out the guesting RAM Racing Mercedes into the gravel on the opening lap to bring out the Safety Car.

Ten minutes were lost behind that before the race eventually went back to green with Adam now just two cars behind the #77 whilst Kjaergaard had had to pit for grass to be removed from his cars radiator grille having had to take avoiding action at the RAM Racing spin. His re-emergence was soon helped by Race Control as two incident offending cars were soon given penalties that would see the #159 car gain two positions but again, their race was already run!

Staying out for as long as he could, Adam would hand over to West with just over twenty-five minutes remaining. Coming out of the pit lane blend line in the class lead, West was soon overtaken by the #77 as he went around Druids for the first time. Never with quite enough performance as those ahead, West quickly had to settle for protecting his P2 position to the end which he did despite the Mercedes behind gaining two seconds per lap.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that could have been done about the #77 Barwell crew achieving another double win to extend their lead over the #159 crew (despite their own double podium) by fourteen points going into the final meeting of the season at Valencia in a month’s time but with some thirty-five points still available – there is still everything to race for!!

Photo credits – GTWCE / Garage 59

 

Great news out of North America today as the Heart of Racing team announce a second Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD effort in the remaining IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship for drivers Alex Riberas and Ian James.

Having started the 2020 season with the team at the opening round of the IMSA season at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Riberas soon found himself literally isolated in New Zealand as the COVID pandemic spread across the world and utilising that opportunity, he and Darren Kelly established the HoRT effort that went onto secure both the New Zealand’s North and South Islands Endurance Series over this year and last.

Incredible to think that it was two years ago since we saw the two R-Motorsport Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s race around the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch at the last round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Series to have visited the UK.

Even taking a year out for COVID and then a delayed attendance this year for the same reason, that is still a long time to be without any high class European based GT racing within our shores, so this weekend’s twenty-nine car entry is certainly more than welcome back.

With both a Pro and Silver Cup entry from the Swiss team back then, this time we again have both a Pro-Am and Silver Cup entry from the UK based Garage 59 team after something of mixed bag for the team last time out in the Sprint Cup at Misano in Italy at the start of July when the #188 Pro-Am car of Alex West and Jonny Adam bagged a double podium with a P2 and then P1 class finish respectively in the two races.

That was followed by with firstly a DNF after contact in the first race for drivers Tuomas Tujula and Nicolai Kjaergaard before they collected themselves back together for a P5 class finish in race 2.

Since then, the team were of course involved at another eventful Spa 24 which started with Adam missing out completely have tested positive for COVID after the British Grand Prix. Although his #188 car ultimately retired from the race with technical issues, his omission from the results now sees West head the Pro-Am Drivers table alone, some ten points ahead of Adam in third!! A similar issue with the #159 car sees Kjaergaard head the cars crew in P15 with Tujula in P19 after omissions at the start of the year.

With all still to race for, this weekend’s event will feature two – one-hour races (both on Sunday) with track action not starting until the first Free Practice session for Bronze and Silver ranked drivers on Saturday morning.

Photo credits – GTWCE / Garage 59

Consistency remains the aim for the two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s of PROsport Racing after another round of the DTM Trophy that saw early promise in Qualifying fall short of their hopes and ambitions by the chequered flag.

This time racing at the Nurburgring for the third round of the GT4 series, the #1 car of Tim Heinemann and the #19 car of Mike David Ortmann had hoped for more after recent some post incident repairs after the last round of the series at the Lausitzring and subsequent testing before the weekend, and that was demonstrated with sound qualifying pace from both cars.

Amongst a grid of twenty-two cars, reigning DTM Trophy Champion Heinemann Qualified P5 whilst Ortmann was in P8 – his best place to date but whilst Heinemann barged his way up to P3 going into turn one, Ortmann found himself being pushed wide in into the gravel to recover down in P13.

With each of the two races only being thirty minutes long, that gave Ortmann little time to clean up his tyres and recover the situation whilst Heinemann would spend much of his time heavily defending his podium position from the Championship leading #85 Mercedes.

In something of a ‘calm’ race by recent DTM Trophy standards, Heinemann would finish to take his second podium finish of the season whilst Ortmann would finish P10.

For Sunday’s race, the cooler track conditions suited by Astons much better as the #1 car claimed a front row start in P2 whilst Ortmann would start from a season’s best in P7 however, poor starts again from both drivers saw that effort count for nothing as both dropped into the pack in P3 and P13 respectively.

This time it was the #1 cars turn to be shouldered out into the gravel which in turn dropped him further back to P6 with neither car seemingly having the race pace to recover. Despite some last lap passes, the #1 car would finish P5 and the #19 car in P13.

These results leave Heinemann way off the Championship leaders in P6 with less than half the points of the leader whilst Ortmann shows just three points from his four races since taking over the #19 car from Patrik Matthiesen after the Monza debacle.

The next round will be at the Red Bull Ring in two week’s time.

Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Teams

 

What better a birthday present you could give yourself than a podium finish after the hardest 24-hour race at Le Mans.

Having recently celebrated his 50th birthday sees Ben Keating and his #33 TF Sport prepared Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE crew of Dylan Pereira and Felipe Fraga claim second placed in the GTE Am class at the conclusion to this weekend’s event.

With little under an hour to go before the start of the 89th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, here’s a quick shout out to all the team’s, driver’s, support staff, track marshal’s and of course race fans who have managed to make it over to the Circuit de La Sarthe for this race and hope that your experiences this weekend are good ones.

 

Despite a brief interlude for one of the series three weeks ago at Nashville, it’s been nearly three months since we last saw the GT World Challenge America and GT4 America Series cars race at Virginia International Speedway, but this weekend we welcome them and the GT America cars back as all three series ready themselves for Round 4 from Road America.

At this round and for the remaining rounds of the GT4 America Series, we welcome the Automatic Racing team into the SRO series with an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crew of Mikel Miller and Paul Kiebler and their patriotically livered car. We believe that this car is the last years IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season winning car used by Nate Stacey and Kyle Marcelli.

 

Four Aston Martin Vantage GTEs will return to the scene of the brand’s greatest racing triumph this weekend when three partner teams take on the most famous endurance race of all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Eleven months ago, Aston Martin clinched the FIA World Endurance Championship GT title by winning both GTE Pro and Am classes at Le Mans. Alex Lynn (GBR), Maxime Martin (BEL) and Harry Tincknell (GBR) took a famous victory after a race-long battle with the works Ferraris and Porsches, while in the Am class works drivers Jonny Adam (GBR) and Charlie Eastwood (IRL) joined Salih Yoluc (TUR) in helping TF Sport complete the double for the British luxury sportscar brand.