No joy this time around for the Volante Rosso AMR at Sydney Motorsport Park

Monday, May 05, 2025

It was to be something of a reality check for the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing powered crew at last weekend’s second round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series at the Sydney Motorsport Park after their herculean efforts at the opening weekend of the season.

Eager to continue their early visits to the podium, the Liam Talbot/Declan Fraser driven 16A variant of the Vantage GT3 had, like the thirteen other crews, a night race to contend with on Saturday before normal GTWC service resumed for the second race on Sunday.

With Fraser blaming missed performance opportunities during Qualifying for their respective starting positions, opening lap contact for Talbot with the #7 Audi saw his Aston Martin spin out onto the extended run off. Although both cars recovered, Talbot was down to P11 with still the whole race in front of him.

Recovery around the circuit at night proved more difficult for the #1 car than it was at Phillip Island at round one with Talbot handing over to Fraser only in P10 at the halfway mark. Fraser could do no more either as he and his Aston continued to circuit only around the cusp of the top ten for the remaining half hour of the race for a disappointing P10 in class finish.

Race two was back to a Sunday afternoon wave off with the #1 car of Fraser starting off that hour long race in ninth but two places were quickly made by him on the opening lap although they would eventually be ‘handed back’ by the end of his opening stint.

A delay with the rear left tyre at the stop further delayed the #1 car saw Talbot come out in tenth but at least his first position change was an easy with an Audi going off track at turn 2 before finally moving up to P7 overall at the end.