Walkenhorst Motorsport join forces with Aston Martin Racing for new multi-year multi-car deal
Thursday, November 23, 2023
We are still reeling from what appears to be a most casually of thrown motorsport hand grenades earlier today that sees a long-standing German OEM race team realign themselves with Aston Martin Racing for a new multi-year Partner team deal.
Having been closely affiliated to the BMW brand for many years and having competed with the new all-conquering BMW M4 in both GT3 and GT4 format this season, the team from Melle (east of Hanover) have become the first team to swap across to the new evolved iteration of the AMR Vantage GT3 that is due to be ready in time for the 2024 season.
Operating at the highest level of motorsport, Walkenhorst will become AMR’s latest Partner Team allowing full access to works engineers and drivers as they embark upon a new multi-year contract with the manufacturer listing competitive ambitions with familiar series such as the GT World Challenge Europe Series, Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie and the two infamous twenty-four-hour races that both series are renowned for just for few. This will include a full Pro entry into each of these series alongside two other (undefined) class entries as part of a three-car effort.
With the AMR Vantage GT3 Evo development car having just completed a multi-day Goodyear tyre test at Monteblanco in Spain, it is highly probably (although not confirmed within today’s news) that the team have sampled the new Aston Martin somewhere at its many test locations prior to signing the deal.
When someone at AMR suggested to us earlier this year at Spa ELMS that if we thought 2023 was busy – think again for 2024, news like this today certainly put some meat onto those bones as teams like Walkenhorst are never prized away the staple provides lightly.
“The close partnership with AMR gives us the certainty that we can count on technical excellence and experience in the coming years. This not only strengthens our racing performance, but also consolidates our position as a successful operational team for our partners and customers. We will certainly be well prepared for the coming season and are very much looking forward to working with AMR” said Niclas Königbauer (Managing Director | Walkenhorst Motorsport).
The future really is bright in 2024.
Photo credit - Walkenhorst