It was then announced that the team would be moving to the ADAC supported GT4 Germany Series with up to two AMR Vantage GT4 cars as well as a possible AMR GT3 entry into the bigger ADAC GT Masters Series.

What has now been confirmed by the series is now just a solo AMR Vantage GT4 entry for drivers Mike David-Ortmann who will be supported in this series by Hugo Sasse before both then go and race (with others) within the GT Masters Series in different teams and cars.

They join the full season ADAC GT4 Germany entry from the Doer Motorsport team and their drivers Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth aboard their #69 car. These guys haven’t raced in the series since Zandvoort in early July where they secured a P3 class finish in race two before the next scheduled round at the Nurburgring in early August was postponed due to the extensive flooding in central Europe. For their Dutch result, the #69 crew carry a 5kg weight penalty for race one this weekend.

Championship wise, the #69 crew sit P5 in the overall stakes with 63 points against the leaders 129 but in the Junior Class, Dorr sits in P4 on 88 points against the leaders 110.5 with two more rounds to go after this weekend.

As far as the potential GT3 entry goes, the team were putting it out there that their second DTM Trophy drivers, Tim Heinemann would be joining up with Nicki Thiim for this weekend’s events at the Sachensring in the remaining AMR Vantage GT3 chassis. That is clearly now not the case!

Photo credits – DTM Trophy / GT4 Germany / Teams

This event will also be the first time that the Ian Lacey Racing team have competed at the circuit with their AMR Vantage GT3 with drivers Frank Gannett and Drew Staveley behind the wheel.

For these guys, the last round at Watkins Glen was one to forget really after pace from the previous round to that at Road America somewhat evaded them two weeks ago at Watkins Glen during the first race where they finished P5 in class only for them to then retire with a mal-functioning engine sensor during race 2.

For the first year of any Bronze-Silver pairing running in a Pro-Am class in a brand new (to them) GT3 car, podium success was never going to be expected but the team and crew have persevered with their project to lie P13 in their Championship table with a similar number of points gained so far this year compared to their opposition even after their first DNF of the season last time out at Watkins Glen.

Completing the trilogy of SRO America Series at the Sebring meeting will be the GT America Series for bronze ranked GT3 and GT4 drivers only who visit the circuit in an invitational only basis making for a non-championship point scoring round for them.

That has come about after this series supported the IndyCar Series at their Nashville Music City Grand Prix event in early August and as many of the GT America teams also feature in either the GT World Challenge America or GT4 America Series already due to race at Sebring.

The GT America rounds from Watkins Glen also paved the way for two more Aston Martin Racing teams as both the 3R Povoledo Racing and Zelus Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4’s raced for the first time. These two races proved to be very productive as Jason Bell took a double class win in his #2 GMG Racing Aston, Gray Newell picked up his first solo driving podium with a P3 in race 1 in his Heart of Racing Aston and also featured a debut AMR/team podium for Ross Chouest in his #50 Povoledo Racing car.

The #888 Zelus Motorsport Aston that competed at Watkins Glen is not on the entry list this time for Sebring although the #09 Automatic Racing prepared car for Paul Kiebler is as he also races in the SprintX series.

As with all SRO America series, all races will be streamed live via their respective social media channels.

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

One lowly result from four races including two DNF’s and one DNS for the #82 Feathers GTH Class car of James Guess and Tom Canning kind of summed up their weekend after accident damage was sustained in that weekends opening sprint race whilst the #15 Century prepared car of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis did at least punctuate their two mid class finishes with a podium P2 finish in the weekends first pit stop race before also finishing that weekend off with a DNF of their own.

Both cars are back this weekend to see out their season in this championship but with Darren Turner returning to the Feathers team having skipped another round due to his commitments at the Goodwood Revival that weekend. Sadly, neither car are now in any championship standing of note so for these four drivers it will be a simple matter of Gentleman pride being at stake!!

Joining them in Norfolk will be the return of the Ultimate Speed Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 of Mike Brown and Matt Manderson in their #47 car after their last run out in the Championship at the circuit back in early June.

Completing the AMR contingent within the thirty-six car entry is the #72 24-7 Motorsport AMR GT4 N24 car of Chris Murphy and Michael Coker. Whilst Murphy is a regular GT Cup campaigner, we have only seen Coker out once before in his (then) Valour Racing prepared Aston at the Silverstone round of the Britcar Endurance Championship.

This final round will again be made up of four races – one sprint for the Am driver and one pit stop punctuated race over Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits – GT Cup / Teams

One such crew that is on the cusp of a possible Championship win is the #007 AGS Racing Events Silver Cup entry with drivers Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romain Leroux who presently stand thirty-seven points clear in their class going into these final two races this weekend.

Having only dropped one non-point scoring race at the second round at Magney-Cours with only one more result off the podium itself, the young French duo will still need to be at the top of their game this weekend as three drivers in the class still retain a mathematical chance of surpassing their score with fifty points still on offer over the weekend. 

A similar position, but with a lesser points margin exists between the AGS Events team and the second placed CMR team in the Silver Cups Team title stakes.

In the Am Drivers Championship, that title has already been decided and the best that any AMR crew could hope for is a final P2 placing for the AGS Events Racing crew of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere should they win both races and the car ahead of them in the Championship fails to score both times.

Finally in the Pro-Am class, the previous five rounds have so far failed to find an outright winner or favourite with ten crews still in with a mathematical shout of this championship title should other results go in their favour and for our attention, the #89 AGS Events Racing AMR of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy presently sit in P7 and just twenty-seven points behind the leading crew.

The AMR crews listed above will again be joined by the #79 AGS Events Racing Am Class car of Lauris Nauroy and Stephane Desbrosse, the #38 Mirage Racing Pro-Am car of Ruben Del Sarte and Yves Lemaitre and finally the #8 JSB Competition Am Class AMR of Julien Briche and Jean-Laurent Navarro.

Still all to race for (even if it is only pride) – so we will see what Sunday afternoon brings us.

Photo credits – FFSA GT4 / Teams

Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 made a victorious return to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, as the British luxury sportscar brand secured its first ever win on the famous German circuit in Round 8 of the high-profile Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie (NLS).