Previous rounds have seen the team struggle for performance with their chosen Dunlop tyres within their GT300 class and have so far failed to secure any championship points as a result. Let’s see how this weekend goes for them.

Next up we have the Italian based Lazarus Corse team back in action for the second round of the Italian Gran Turismo Championship from the Temple of Speed at Imola.

Again racing their older 16A variant of the Vantage GT3 sees drivers Mattia Di Giusto and William Alatalo look to make progress upon their Pro-Am class opening results from Misano at the beginning of May where they collected eleven points over their first two races together.

Finally down under, we have the third round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series from the The Bend having last competed on Phillip Island back in mid-April.

There we saw the #38 KMB Motorsport V12 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Mike Bailey return to the SRO series for the first time this season before promptly changing his mind from being a solo driver to that paired up with a young Valentino Astuti.

For this round however, the entry list shows that the #38 car will this time be driven by both Astuti and Marc cars racer, Darren Currie.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

Now the British ultra-luxury sportscar brand takes on both those famous events again, as well as the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa at the end of the month, when three of the most significant and prestigious endurance races come thick and fast through the month of June. And all of them will feature the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Just as it did in 2022, when Vantage led the Nürburgring 24 Hours for several hours into the night, Aston Martin has partnered with an ultra-successful team – this time Walkenhorst Motorsport – as it strives to become the first British manufacturer to win the race outright. The German outfit, which won the 2018 24 Hours of Spa and the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series, will run three Vantage GT3s in the SP9 PRO, PRO-AM and AM classes.

The #34 SP9 PRO Vantage GT3 will feature works driver and reigning Nürburgring 24 Hours winner David Pittard (GBR), a renowned Nordschleife specialist, alongside Aston Martin stalwart and two-time FIA World Endurance GT champion Nicki Thiim (DEN). These two will be joined by Christian Krognes (NOR) and Kuba Giermaziak (POL).

“You never know what the Nürburgring will bring you,” said Pittard, “it’s such a challenging event. With so many cars on track, the varied weather conditions and the tough nature of the circuit, it’s the ultimate track for a driver. New Vantage has shown great pace everywhere we’ve been with it so far this year, and it gives you lots of confidence as a driver, which is what you want around the Nordschleife. But this is such a difficult race to predict, if fortune falls our way and we stay out of trouble, I’d like to think we can be in the mix at the front. It would be amazing to stand on the podium as an Aston Martin driver.”

PROsport Racing has also entered a previous generation Vantage GT3 in the SP9 PRO-AM class featuring Nico Bastian (DEU), Marek Böckmann (DEU), Hugo Sasse (DEU) and Ben Green (GBR), as well as two Vantage GT4s in the SP10 class and another in the SP8T category. Dörr Motorsport, who won the SP8T class in 2022, will run a single Vantage GT4 in the class again, and another in SP10.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “The Nürburgring 24 Hours has always held a special place in the hearts of Aston Martin fans. The enormous racing, technical and human challenge it presents sums up everything that is special about endurance racing. It’s also the reason why it is so difficult to win, and why every victory across every class is such a special achievement. The new Vantage GT3 has proven competitive everywhere it has raced so far in 2024, and we don’t expect anything to change this weekend, but as we all know with the ’Ring, you need a huge number of factors to be correctly aligned to achieve success. In Walkenhorst Motorsport, Dörr Motorsport and PROsport Racing we have three partner teams who know exactly how to put all those factors into play. We wish them all the best of luck and we will see what happens in the race.”

Aston Martin made its Nürburgring 24 Hours debut in 2006, with an almost standard V8 Vantage that provided the springboard for the ultra-successful GT4 version. Since then, the marque has enjoyed many notable class successes including victory in the SP9T class in 2018, when Maxime Martin (BEL), Thiim, Darren Turner (GBR) and Marco Sørensen (DEN) finished fourth overall, having led overall into the final hours amid heavy rain in the last competitive outing for the V12 Vantage GT3. This result still stands as the marque’s best finish in the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

In recent years the Vantage GT4 has flourished. The previous generation (seven of which are entered in the 2024 race) won the SP8T class in 2019 with Jamie Chadwick (GBR), Alex Brundle (GBR) and Peter Cate (GBR). In 2020, Garage 59 finished third in the same class with an upgraded GT8R driven by works driver Jonny Adam (GBR), Alexander West (SWE), Chris Goodwin (GBR) and Turner.

The most recent class win for the brand came in 2022, when Dörr Motorsport clinched a one-two victory in SP8T on its Aston Martin debut with the Vantage GT4. The team also finished third in SP10 behind the second-placed PROsport Vantage GT4, the best result yet for the Nürburgring-based team.

There are now 25 examples of Aston Martin’s spectacular new Vantage GT3 challenger contesting more than 10 significant GT series, including the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Fanatec GT World Challenge series in Europe, Asia and US, as well as the Japanese Super GT Championship. That figure is expected to grow to at least 35 by the end of its first season of competition.

The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which descends from a succession of multiple world championship-winning predecessors shares the mechanical architecture of the new ultra-luxury Vantage road car, was unveiled in February this year. Built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, the Vantage GT3 features all-new nose-to-tail aerodynamics, comprehensively revised suspension and state-of-the-art electronics, endowing this latest-generation Aston Martin GT racer with world-beating potential.

First qualifying for the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nürburgring begins on Thursday, 30 May at 1300 local time (1200 BST) with the race beginning at 1600 (1500) on Saturday.

Source material - AMR

Photo credits - Teams //E Metzner

Brands Hatch saw the #9 pairing of Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins pull off a new perfect four class wins out of the four available races, but the young duo did have to make do with just three wins and a class third for their efforts within their GTH class.

Those results kept the pairing at the head of both the Overall Championship table as well as their GTH Class.

Meanwhile, the teams all female driver line of Jodie Sloss and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt did lose ground to their team-mates within the class as they had to make do with just the one class podium at the end of Sundays sprint race alongside a P5 and P6 finishes in class before that. What really hurt them was being cut from the results of the final race after they were adjudged to have been responsible for an earlier inter-car collision that took the other vehicle out of the race.

Unlike Brands Hatch, the ‘home’ track of Snetterton should also come as no surprise for Kiwi O’Meara-Hunt as she has already tested at the circuit this year during a team/sponsor day a few weeks ago.

Photo credits – GT Cup / Team

That means that we unfortunately only get to see the #23 Heart of Racing Vantage GTD entry but that does see the return of Alex Riberas to the fold alongside that of Ross Gunn, after he has spent the last couple of rounds away from America whilst he competes within the teams World Endurance Championship entry abroad. Riberas's place then was taken by Mario Farnbacher who this weekend takes a back seat.

The typical America street circuit layout will see a varying degree of straight track, heavily punctuated with the braking demands of right-angled corners which, with the inclusion of two massively different classes on track, will obviously lead to some excitement along the way.

Again racing in support of the IndyCar Series, the IMSA series will make use of another compact track timetable starting with two Free Practice and Qualifying on Friday, another Free Practice session on Saturday morning before the start of their 100minute race later in the afternoon.

Photo credit - HoRT

Definitely forecasted ahead of the race, the rains arrived just as the thirty-eight strong grid were halfway around the lap, forcing Race Control to abandon that starting procedure to allow all to fit wet tyres ahead of its resumption.

For the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered teams from both Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR, the rain mattered not to them considering their lowly Qualifying position from the Saturday’s dry sessions as the race eventually started from behind the Safety Car.

The two Forsetti Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 cars were however, quickly on a charge with Jamie Day quickly pushing the leading McLaren and Ginetta’s for the class lead as the rains again stopped and the track appear to dry rather quickly too.

Having eventually taken the lead within GT4, the rains again returned – this time with a vengeance as Day’s efforts proved to be in vain as chaos at the opening corner involving at least eight cars saw the race being red flagged. That was bad news for the three Vantage GT3 cars of Giacomo Petrobelli / Jonny Adam, Matt Topham / Josh Rowledge and Andrew Howard / Jessica Hawkins as all had improved upon their respective Qualifying position positions. The two Forsetti GT4’s were holding P1 overall. For tehir #7 car and P1 in Pro-Am for their #47 car of Marc Warren and Will Orton.

All of this had happened with just one hour of the scheduled three-hour race having elapsed upon the race clock.

Eventually getting back to green after another length delay, the #7 car of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day had come to the attention of the stewards for an irregular pit stop requirement that would cost them both a sixty-four second stop and hold penalty and a shoot at the class win as a result.

Whilst Petrobelli’s #87 car got shoved around at the hairpin (through no fault of his own) and dropped down the order as a result, the #97 Beechdean Vantage GT3 had been slowly climbed the order still further to attain a top ten position overall with still an hour left to go.

The race then hit a period where lots of track action saw lots of Full Course Yellow and Safety Car restarts as others became stranded around the circuit. These of course help to close the gaps so that the #87 car was P9 overall (P8 in GT3 Pro-Am), the #97 P10 overall (P2 in Silver-Am) and the #10 car P15 overall (P6 in Silver-Am). The #47 GT4 was holding the lead of the overall class but had at least three rapid all silver crews bearing quickly down upon them with Porter recovering their position on track up to P8 overall.

With the extremities of the circuit still damp, there was little excitement that could be consumed by the viewer/spectator as the three-hour race was eventually concluded under bright and warming Spring sunshine.

Needing to dig deep after their Qualifying results on Saturday, that is precisely what the three Vantage GT3 crews did with the #87 finally finishing at the head of the trio for a deserved P9 overall finish (P8 in Pro-Am), the #97 Beechdean crew earning their first visit to the podium this season with a P11 overall (P3 in Silver-Am) finish with the #10 car eventually coming home P16 overall (P6 in Silver-AM).

The #47 Forsetti GT4 eventually came home P2 overall and P1 within their own Pro-Am class for a double podium celebration whilst their sister #7 car finished P7 overall (P5 in Silver) for yet more valuable Championship points.

A totally brilliant round, full of incident and sometimes accident but national GT racing at its best as the Championship now looks to its annual jaunt abroad to Spa Francorchamps towards the end of June.

Photo credits – AMR / Jacob Ebrey

 

 

Using one of their new AMR Vantage GT3 cars, the team entered drivers Matisse Lismont and Lorens Lecertua into yesterdays elongated Spa 500 round of the GT Open Series for which the youngsters repaid the team with an immediately impressive P4 Qualifying time despite the depth of field within the thirty-five strong entry that remained after earlier Free Practice.

Despite Lecertua having only the Misano Sprint Cup round as reference within his new Aston Martin, that wasn’t enough to stop the pairing delivering an incredible P3 overall podium finish at the end of the two-hour forty-minute race to bring the team its first podium finish under their new Aston Martin Racing Partnership.

After recent disappointments where earlier Qualifying performances had failed to deliver them the results – this will go a long way.

Photo credits – GT Open

 

 

 

 

Within the combined GT3 Qualifying session, it was the #87 Blackthorn AMR Pro-Am car of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam who finished highest out of the trio but only in P16 overall and P12 in class but nearly two seconds off the pole setting Lamborghini pace!!

Proving that this is BoP related is that the team’s Silver-Am #10 entry of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge secured an aggregated time of just 0.050 of a second slow than their Pro-Am stable mates (despite having lost a lap during the Pro session as Rowledge went through a gravel trap) to earn them a lowly P18 start overall and P6 in class.

Despite Andrew Howard setting the sixteenth best time during his session, his #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 will be starting tomorrows race from the rear of the GT3 field in P20 (P7 in class) after co-driver Jessica Hawkins was, like the AMR Pro’s before her, unable to ring another more out of their Aston Martin. All AMR Pro drivers were within a few tenths of each other.

It was a better picture within the GT4 class as both Forsetti Motorsports kind of continued from where they had left off at Silverstone last time out, although neither would have it all their own way this time.

Mikey Porter and Marc Warren were first out within their respective #7 and #47 cars, and each were able to deliver a respectable P7 overall (P6 in Silver) and P9 overall (P2 in Pro-Am) laps times.

Their co-drivers in Jamie Day and Will Orton respectively, were each unable to take full advantage of their Qualifying session after a stranded Toyota cut that session short with still more than a lap time’s worth still on the session clock. They will be starting tomorrow's race from P5 on the grid for the #7 car and P9 for the #47 car.

If BoP isn’t enough to contend with these days, it looks like Mother Nature will again be offering the Championship another curved ball tomorrow as thunderstorms will be a distinct possibility just in time for the race although air temperatures are expected to remain decent!!

Who knows?

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

Already competing within the GT World Challenge Europe Series in both the Endurance and Sprint Cup, the team has elected to get these two young drivers more competitive seat time within the elongated two hours forty-minute race (+ one lap) that the Spa 500 and third round of the Series will offer.

This entry increases the provisional grid count to thirty-six entries.

Photo credits - GTWCE

Yesterday and today saw both teams field six out of the combined seven car entry into this year’s Spa 24 for its mandatory Prologue test days that saw track conditions turn typically Spa-like going from anywhere from between blazing sunshine to something just short of snowing!!

Unfortunately, gone are Araujo’s reigning GTX Class Champions of Alvaro Ramos and Fernando Soares but the increased AMR line ups will help cater for that fact.

Earlier this week, we posted about how the French Mirage Racing team will be providing one of their cars to young Russian karter Stephan Suslov as he contests a GT4 race for the first time in which we would imagine will be one of their older 17A versions.

Then taking over the #007 Araujo car we have Bruno Pereira and Goncalo Araujo who will compete within the topflight GT4 Pro class as well as Vasco Oliveira and Guilherme Lemos aboard the #28 GT4 Pro entry for the Portuguese team.

The Portuguese Racar Motorsport team will also feature a two car GT4 Pro entry for both Manuel Giao and Mathieu Martins aboard their #2 car and Francisco Cruz and Roberto Faria aboard their #3 car.

Both Martins and Faria will be familiar names having been one of the few race rivals for the Forsetti Motorsport AMR of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day in the GT4 Winter Series as well as Faria also now competing within the #39 GPA Racing AMR within the GT4 European Series.

The final #777 Racar AMR of Ruben Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende concludes the six car Aston Martin Racing entry within the GT4 Am class.

Track action for these crews will start on Friday with Free Practice before Qualifying on Saturday with two forty-five-minute races on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

Mirage Racing started GT4 racing in 2019 and is nowadays a strong contender in the category, with a Pro-Am win in the European series and five in the French championship, in the same class.

For the Iberian campaign, the team based at Montastruc-la-Conseillère will be fielding a race-winning Aston Martin for series newcomer Stepan Suslov, marking his debut in GT racing following four seasons in Russian karting.

Stepan Suslov eagerly anticipates the challenge ahead and aims to start off on the right foot. "I’m really glad to start my journey in GT racing by joining the experienced Mirage Racing Team for the Iberian Supercars. Looking forward to learning and gaining experience this year and hoping that we will show good results straight out of the gate,” said Stepan Suslov.

The Jerez circuit will host the opening round of the Iberian Supercars season this weekend.

Source material – Iberian Supercars

The enhanced forty-one car entry of last time has reduced slightly to this weekend’s thirty-eight cars with the five full season Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 teams again being part of that.