Testing times this week

Thankfully, the #10 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of drivers Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge had been repaired since their Media Day off at Donington Park last week to allow both drivers to complete more than the half a lap of last time to finish within the top ten of cars (and the fastest Aston Martin) after the single day test.

Beechdean AMR again saw Ross Gunn assist Andrew Howard within his #97 Vantage GT3 as his new for 2024 co-driver, Jess Hawkins was on F1 duties down under. He would finish the day just outside the top ten of GT3 cars whilst the second Blackthorn GT3 of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam paved their way around the Oulton track, still within their older 2019 16A version of the Vantage GT3.

Also hoping to have had their new 40A Vantage GT4 in time for this test was the #10 Forsetti Motorsport AMR entry of Will Orton and Marc Warren who still circulated within their older 17A version of the car that they ran at Donington Park last week. They would finish this week’s test at the foot of the table (only because they didn’t run during the days second session) whilst their stablemates within the #7 car (Mikey Porter and Jamie Day) topped the GT4 timings.

Over at the Nurburgring in Germany, both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Comtoyou Racing teams have both been busy testing with multiple sets of drivers ahead of each teams multiple 2024 commitments.

Today saw the Walkenhorst team confirm their first driver line up in this year’s Nurburgring 24Hr which sees AMR works drivers Nicki Thiim, David Pittard join Christian Krognes and Kuba Giermaziak aboard their #34 Pro entry that is in addition to their VLN entries.

Comtoyou have also confirmed that Charles Clark will be joining their GT World Challenge Europe starting at Paul Ricard next month.

At the circuit yesterday and today also saw Dennis Bulatov and Mike David Ortmann get some lap time in with their Walkenhorst Vantage GT3 ahead of their ADAC GT Masters entry this season as well as others out with multiple cars from both teams.

Today saw the UK’s GT Cup Championship hold their Media Day again from Donington Park with exciting news due imminently from the Forsetti team (as mentioned last week) where they will be running their older Vantage GT4 cars whilst their newer 40A platforms compete within British GT.

As for the factory back at Banbury – the still young Tom Canning and crew are still bust shaking down new Vantage GT race cars before shipping them out to expectant customers around the world.

Most recently – first images of the new Racing Spirit of Leman AMR Vantage LMGT3 that drivers Derek DeBoer, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Casper Stevenson will drive have just been published too! She’s a bit of a looker!!!

Photo credits – social media