Those looking for some GT4 powered action this weekend should look no further than the next round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series who will be undertaking a four-hour marathon around the small but perfectly formed Mid-Ohio circuit.

Five weeks since the last round of the series at the Weathertech Laguna Seca circuit in California, its back towards the eastern seaboard of the country as thirty GS (GT4) and sixteen TCR based cars and crews prepare for this weekends fourth round of the season with its second endurance round.

 

The provisional entry list sees four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews amongst the GS class with returning entries from the Medusa, Circle H, Heart of Racing and Van Der Steur Motorsport teams.

Being twice the usual two-hour race, all bar one of these four AMR teams have elected (so far) to run with a three-driver squad with most of the extras being familiar names from the four-hour season opening at Daytona way back in late January.

 

The two young guns within the #4 Medusa Motorsport AMR sees Jacob Loomis join that of AMR Drivers Academy participants Hunter Yeaney and Athan Sterling whilst Martin Sarukhanyan rejoins Thomas Merrill and David Hampton aboard their #14 Circle H Racing AMR entry.

Mike David Ortmann gets his next run out with both Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir within their #26 Heart of Racing entry with Allen Patten and Trenton Estep presently run as just a pairing within their #66 Van Der Steur Racing car.

 

Track action starts this Friday with Free Practice 1 before Free Practice 2 and Qualifying on Saturday before a near midday wave off to the four-hour race on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

The trucks have already rolled, and the teams are now on site preparing themselves for what will be an elongated stay at the Circuit de La Sarthe in time for this weekend’s official test day ahead of next week’s FIA World Endurance Championship round and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In this somewhat disjointed season after the postponement of the scripted opening round to the year in Qatar back in late March, next weekend’s event will be the third round to the 2026 season having opened at Imola in mid-April before moving onto to Spa Francorchamps last month for its second six-hour race of the year.

 

 

As has become something of a norm, all the attending teams and indeed crews (if new to the 24-hour event) must attend the official test day at the circuit during which all ‘novice’ drivers must complete a minimum number of laps (as well as a simulator session in Paris) before they will be allowed to race.

For the two Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars – that will not be an issue to them as all six drivers have raced that car at the circuit last year as have many of the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crews from both the Heart of Racing and Racing Spirit of Leman crews.

 

The four Heart of Racing entries remain the only four full season entrants from the British brand with the #59 RSLM crew only there by invitation from their European Le Mans Series endeavours this season as it appears that the second reserve from the Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR team has been unsuccessful in their quest this season.

A total of sixty two Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGT3 crews should be in attendance this weekend for the test day on Sunday where there will be two three-hour sessions available to then within which all teams must do whatever is necessary to prepare them and their crews for next week’s opening sessions for the 24hour.

Photo credits - Teams / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another crazy edition of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup now ‘safely’ in the books after yesterday’ s three hour near demolition derby left many cars in literal tatters but (more importantly) nobody injured around the Autodromo Nazionale Monza,

It was always going to be another fast and furious second round the season having started the year out at an equally fast Paul Ricard circuit in France just a few weeks back, but the ultra-fast and more traditional circuit layout of the Italian circuit would also have the probability of certainly a turn one, lap one incident for the fifty-seven-car entry.

 

The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of last time out race winners Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi were always one crew to keep an eye out for last weekend but their performance around the circuit in previous sessions and into Qualifying left them a down on the fourth row ahead of yesterday afternoons start.

Their participation within the race however was strictly limited to the distance between the start line and the entry into the first chicane as multi-car contact saw the #007 sent onto the grass before collecting an already spun out and damaged car, destroying the front end before the race has truly started.

 

That first corner incident alone accounted for the loss of half a dozen cars including the first three cars on the grid but that sadly did not tone down the driving characteristics within some driver crews as a similar incident at the same location towards the end of the race took out some other cars competing for race or class wins at the time.

The #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed entry for Kyle Marcelli, AJ Muss and Marcelo Tomasoni were also seen to be in the wars after rear end contact into the Variante Ascari that saw them run through the gravel to impact rearward into the tyre wall sustaining them significant damage in the process too. Albeit able to limp back to the pits under the Full Course Yellow, the damage had already been done to their race in more ways than one.

 

There was hope seeing the two Walkenhorst AMR Vantage GT3 crews as their names peaked towards the head of the timing screens with little over an hour of the race to go but sadly, their pit stop strategy still owed them a minimum timed stop apiece that obviously dropped them back down the order again. The #34 Pro entry of Christian Krognes, Jamie Day and Henrique Chaves could do no better than P8 in class despite the best efforts of the Portuguese racer during his stint within the chaotic final hour whilst the #35 silver entry of Mateo Villagomez, Ethan Ischer and Gaspard Simon also finished P8 in class.

The reward of racing success at least went to the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR bronze classed entry of Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonny Adam and Lorcan Hanafin who managed to stay out of trouble on track – thanks in part to their low qualifying position second last on the grid at the start to finally come through eventually P9 overall and second in class. That was however thanks in part to one class rival being taken out of the race at the second big incident at turn one.

 

Many teams now face a fierce battle to repair or replace their GT3 rolling stock in time for the Spa 24 – the next round of the Endurance Cup stakes at the Belgian circuit at the end of the month.

Photo credits _ Teams / Series / social media

 

 

It was to be a disappointing second round of the GT4 European Series for the Racing Spirit of Leman team at Monza after a late race one crash for one of their two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews saw them miss out upon another potential class podium as well as failing to take the start to Sundays second race.

This year, the Swiss based team are the sole AMR powered team competing within the European Series fielding both a silver and Pro-Am class entry. Whilst the team’s #74 silver class car remained driven by both Pedro Garcia and Clement Seyler, their #72 Pro-Am entry had changed since the opening round from Paul Ricard a few weeks ago where now Florent Grizaud was now being partnered by team returnee Kevin Kullmann.

 

All went well during the two Free Practice and Qualifying sessions where Garcia would claim a third row start ahead of race one on Saturday evening whilst Kullmann secured a P25 overall start (P9 in class) having not been in a race car much this year.

All was going well during that first one long opener right up until Seyler attempted to gain what would have been a podium contending position down the opening straight and into the first chicane, but his car unexpectedly snapped hard left before nose diving heavily into the armco barrier taking another car with it.

 

Causing immediate race ending damage to themselves, that would be compounded for them by the team being unable to repair the car in time for Sundays finale making the Monza event a double zero achievement for the crew.

That left just the racing efforts of the #72 Pro-Am pairing which in itself was still a massive struggle for the AMR Vantage compared to the platforms around them where the best that they could do was P12 in class for race one and P14 after an equally eventful race two.

 

The crews go again at the end of the month from the equally fast and furious Spa Francorchamps circuit.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

It was another tough and sometimes physical day at the IMSA office for the sole running Heart of Racing entry at last night’s fifth round of the Weathertech Sportscar Championship around the improvised street circuit of downtown Detroit.

Again in support of the IndyCar Series, this weekend’s episode was just for the headlining GTP and GTD classes putting out a grid size of twenty-one cars that still made the 1.7mile circuit appear extremely tight.

 

Ross Gunn again got things underway in Qualifying with a P9 position for the #23 Aston Martin Valkyie that he shares with Roman De Angelis within the IMSA series with their being little expectation upon the car and crew already knowing that the power characteristics and available BoP of the car never favoured the V12 normally aspirated engine.

Gunn also took the start of the one-hundred-minute race where it took little over four minutes for the first Full Course Yellow to be thrown for debris after an opening lap bash between two prototypes. That used up the five-minute restriction placed upon all crews in GTP before driver changes could be made but the #23 car elected to stay out for a further fifteen minutes or so.

 

Mistakenly, the crew were then penalised at that stop for having too many crew members over the wall at the refuel and driver change sequence meaning that any remaining hope of a decent finish evaporate with an untimely Drive Through Penalty next time around for De Angelis.

With another GTP crew also falling foul to a DTP of their own, the #23 car quickly became the target for the #11 car but that drivers method in their manner of passing and then forcing the #23 into a sideways glance with the wall earned himself another stop +60 seconds penalty for their efforts. Thankfully, the #23 was able to continue.

 

Two more successive caution periods later within the final fifteen minutes, the Valkyrie was running as high as P8 in class, but the Vanthoor brothers were soon as able to relegate the #23 car back down to tenth at the end as the team’s and driver’s attentions quickly turn to the Le Mans 24 Test Day next weekend in France.

Photo credits – Team / AMR / social media

 

Another Aston Martin Racing powered team will be competing at Spa Francorchamps this weekend as the Britcar Championship hosts its third round of the season from the Belgian circuit.

Representing the brand this time around will be father and son duo Martin and Bill Addison who will be competing within their #189 AMR Vantage GT4 within the Championships GT class for this weekend’s two sixty-minute races within the Supercar Challenge powered by Hankook events with an expected entry of twenty multi-classed cars.

 

After two races apiece at the season’s opening rounds at both Donington and Oulton Parks, the #189 crew presently stand sixth overall in the Driver’s Championship – third in class with plenty more racing opportunity still to come with a season that concludes at their “Into the Night Race” from Brands Hatch in early November.

Photo credits – Social Media

 

 

 

As the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup make their way Monza for their second round of the season this weekend, so do the forty-four expected entries within the supporting GT4 European Series for another of their (usually) action packed double headers.

Up in numbers slightly from their opening races to the season from Paul Ricard, France six weeks or so ago – unfortunately we will still only have the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered entries from the Racing Spirit of Leman team and their silver and Pro-Am classed entries.

 

One familiar name and one new name were aboard each of those cars last time out and it is expected to be the same for this weekend as Florent Grizaud was about pair up with Louka Desgranges again aboard their #72 Pro-Am entry but his position has now been taken by Kevin Kullmann whilst Clement Seyler again pairs up with Pedro Garcia aboard their #74 silver entry.

The Paul Ricard circuit saw the Vantage GT4 Evo and their unfamiliar crews outpaced by most of the platforms that they was competing against with an unsurprising result in race one result saw the saw the two cars finish down their respective orders.

 

Race two was more encouraging after Grizaud qualified his car fourth in class whilst Seyler went some better to start from the front row of the grid in second. Whilst the pace of the #74 car allowed them to secure their first podium finish of the season in second, the #72 car did fall away at the end enough to give both drivers and team food for thought.

This weekend will see the usual two one-hour races across Saturday and Sunday with track action starting on Thursday with private testing before Free Practice 1 and 2 on Friday before two qualifying runs plus race one of Saturday.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

Destination the Temple of Speed (Monza) this weekend for the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with its expected fifty-seven car entry, with the six full season Aston Martin Racing powered contingent amongst them.

This is just the second round of the 2026 season having kicked off their five-round series at the six-hour racing visit to Paul Ricard back in early April.

That round witnessed an impressive start and come-back during the race for the #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Mattia Drudi, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen who started from the front row of the grid but had to come back from behind to secure an overall race win at the death.

 

There was also a celebratory performance from the #21 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Kobe Pauwels, Oliver Soderstrom and Sebastian Baud who had to make do with a third-place finish in their silver class having secured the class pole position earlier in qualifying.

They were the AMR powered highs of the opening round – sadly countered by the early demise of the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Pro entry after Jamie Day suffered a heavy off during an earlier session that prevented him and his co-drivers Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves from taking any further part.

 

Each of these teams will field another crew each in the form of the #11 Comtoyou Racing entry for Kyle Marcelli/AJ Muss/Marcelo Tomasoni within their bronze class entry alongside that of the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry for Mateo Vilagomez/Ethan Ischer/Gaspard Simon and their silver classed entry.

The six will of course be completed with the presence of the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR of Jonny Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli and Lorcan Hanafin who replaces the unfortunate Tom Wood who impressed so well in France.

Track activity will begin on Thursday with the Bronze Driver Test before moving onto another private test on Friday before Free Practice one and two on Saturday. An early start to Sunday will see the three individual qualifying runs before the green flag to this three-hour race being waved off at 15:30hrs local.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

After his podium winning successes last weekend up in the north of England, Ross Gunn will very quickly be making his way back over the Atlantic to pair up again with his co-driver Roman De Angelis for the latest round of the America IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

Round five of the season sees perhaps the smallest IMSA grid take to the improvised street circuit layout in downtown Detroit for this weekend’s one hour forty-minute sprint.

 

 

The duo will reconvene within their #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP car within a class size of eleven cars that will race with the ten strong GTD Pro class around the 1.7mile circuit.

Street circuits tend not to favour the normally aspirated V12 Aston Martin engine against those of its hybrid-based rivals, but pace was looking good two rounds ago around the streets of Long Beach California – or at least it was until the #23 car got shouldered checked into the tyre upon a restart.

 

This year is also second time around for the Valkyrie GTP car and its crew so comparisons can now be made after the crew finished eighth in the race last season. Last time out at Laguna Seca would see the crew secure their best qualifying performance to date in P6 before eventually finishing eighth overall.

A short and sweet event sees the IMSA grid take to the track early on Friday morning for Practice 1 before Practice 2 just two hours later with Qualifying rounding off the day. The race will be waved off at 11:10hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits - Team

 

 

 

This weekend’s second round of the British GT Championship proved itself to be a very productive one for the five Aston Martin Racing powered crews after the results of race one earlier today were surpassed by a clean sweep in class podium finishes for each crew after the delayed race two.

Usually the opening round to the domestic season over the Easter weekend, this weekend’s visit to Cheshire was this time blessed with the hottest recorded days in May and with that came some fine performances from the one Vantage Gt3 crew and the four Vantage GT4 crews.

 

The #7 Beechdean AMR GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn had earlier made their statement of intent as both drivers secured an overall pole position for each race in Saturday’s individual qualifying sessions with the #21 MK Racing GT4 car of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins doing similar in class.

The Bank Holiday Monday race programme got underway earlier with the ‘amateur’ driver taking the start within both classes but that saw both Howard and Hawkins pipped for overall class position going into the first corner of the first lap. A spin within the GT3 ranks was thankfully avoided by all coming up from behind as the race quickly descended into an intensive but individual GT3 and GT4 class battle.

 

Whilst Howard and Hawkins were able to stabilise and hold their P2 position in class, Dan Lavery was having to make up for lost ground following their pit lane start and James Townsend was coming under unwanted attack around the Shell hairpin. John Hartshorne in his #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 was running at his own pace but was soon descended upon by the GT3 leaders just ahead of their pit stop window,

Over the course of the separated GT3/GT4 pitstops, however, a clash between two GT4’s and then a GT3 going off on the dropped fluid brought out the Safety Car before all GT4’s had completed their stops. That at least allowed the #21 MK Racing Aston to complete their compulsory stop not at racing speed with the ability them to catch up onto the tail of the pack before the race went back to green.

 

Stops over, and the #7 car of Gunn was still holding second overall and although Gunn did drop off the tail of the leading Lamborghini, he did eventually catch them back up again but the race clock had counted down to zero immediately before the two cars crossed the line meaning that there would be no second chance and second overall was the prize for Beechdean AMR.

That result was backed up by another deserving P2 finish for the silver classed #21 crew as well as a P2 in GT4 Pro-Am finish for the #27 Grange Racing GT4 of Lavery and Darren Turner – something that went towards making up for their DNF at the season opening at Silverstone last month. The #97 GBR Stratton car of Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson would finish P22 overall/ P5 in Pro-Am with the #40 Townsend Motorsport AMR of James Townsend and Joe Wheeler one car behind.

 

Race two was delayed somewhat by a prolonged red flag period during a support race as well as other technical issues at the circuit to eventually start nearly eighty minutes later than scheduled.

This time, and as elected by Race Control, it would be a Safety Car restart after two warm up laps meaning that the possibility of a time delaying opening lap incident was reduced as much as possible (with marked consideration for the circuits end of meeting curfew).

 

This time with the Pro’s taking the start, Gunn needed to put in some quicker laps to make up for their forthcoming seven second success penalty at their stop over that of the chasing #77 McLaren that remained in hot pursuit. The air temperature was still into the thirties by the time that the race eventually started will all five Astons on the grid in time to roll off behind the Safety Car as this time, it was Orton’s job to play catch up with the #42 Ginetta that was then romping away into the distance.

As the GT3 class came up towards their stops, the gap that Gunn had built up to the car behind was suddenly slashed to less than a second but at least the gap to the chasing pack had grown to nearly nine seconds as the #7 car headed to pit lane at the last minute. Whilst the #77 McLaren did make the pass for position within their pitstop sequence, a slower stop by the McLaren team made the deficit not as large as it could have otherwise been.

 

Next up were the GT4 cars and whilst the #40 car of Townsend did steal position from the #27 AMR of Lavery, that would later be adjudged to be down to their own stop being too quick for which that earned themselves a stop plus one second penalty for that error.

The silver class and podium in race one success time penalty also dropped the re-emerging #21 car of (now) Hawkins behind the #27 Grange Racing overall in the overall stakes, but Lady Luck would come their way soon after as the then class leading Ginetta would go off track with apparent steering damage to hand the lead to Lavery as a result.

 

Despite some big pressure from Hawkins, Lavery would survive a late error of his own to take the GT4 class overall win plus his own GT4 Pro-Am class win with the #21 MK Racing close behind securing their second overall podium result of their own plus being first in Silver. Reward would also come to both the #40 Townsend and #97 GBR Stratton entries again as their secured P2 and P3 respectively in GT4 Pro-Am – the second of the season for the #97 crew.

The biggest race to the flag, however, was within GT3 as Howard had to deal with the close attention of two other cars behind straight from his pit lane exit to the flag as he would be fortunate to benefit from the timely positioning of GT4 lapped traffic to preserve his lead of them until the end to claim their second P2 overall finish of the weekend as the Championship heads south to Spa Francorchamps for their next round of the season in a months’ time.

 

Oulton Park was certainly a great result for all five AMR powered runners.

Photo credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey / social media / P Hay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a frustrating trip to the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort for the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing after they arrived earlier this week for the second rounds of both the DTM Series and the ADAC GT Masters Series.

Having already had a busy couple of days at Spa Francorchamps with their Prologue testing duties ahead of the Spa 24, it was double driving duties for all but one of their drivers and a triple stint for one of those.

 

Having raced already at the faster and wider Red Bull Ring in the opening rounds of both series, the tight and twisty coastal circuit of Zandvoort was always going to be a tall ask for their three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered runners with their available BoP never going to see their cars of either series.

Race one in DTM was uneventful for the #007 of Nicki Thiim and the #008 of Nicolas Baert as Thiim qualified and finished ninth overall whilst Baert improved from his P19 start to finish P17 within the twenty-one starters.

 

Race two also didn’t go their way after Baert suffered from another tyre failure whilst Thiim was given penalty for earlier contact which resulted in both Aston’s finishing at the rear of the pack.

Within the ADAC GT Masters Series, it was still a learning curve for Baudouin Detout as he prepared to compete in only his second competitive GT3 powered race weekend under the watchful eye of Jamie Day aboard their #39 Aston Martin.

 

Starting the weekend in sixth after Day’s earlier qualifying run, Detout would start the car before handing over the Englishman to end the busy day of Saturday P11 out of the entry of fifteen cars. Race two on Sunday would start the other way around in driver rotation with Day being able to elevate their car from its P15 starting position before handing over to Detout to eventually finish P8 overall.

The next round for both series will be from the Lausitzring in mid-June.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

 

 

There were only four Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3’s entered into this weekend’s second round of the SRO GT3 Revival Series from the Spa Classic in the end but three of the four put on show to claim further race silverware for their efforts.

Jonathon Mitchell and his Scott Sport prepared #007 former TRG-AMR runner was again the man to beat as he came away with the race win on track after a red flagged shortened race into the night on Saturday only for a post race BoP based time penalty dropped him down the order before taking a class win at the end of Sunday’s fifty-minute finale.

 

Race one was shaping up into an exciting clash between the #007 car and the #4 GDM Motorsport prepared car of Guido Dumarey into the evening right up until another car suffered a high speed off at Blanchemont which was first covered by a Safety Car before the race was eventually pulled at the halfway mark. Fortunately, the driver involved was later reported as being otherwise OK

The #62 former R-Motorsport AMR of Franz Wunderlich and Pascal Huteau would claim P18 overall/P5 in class whilst the solo driven #16 Britec Motorsport car of Afshin Fatemi would finish his first race within the series P20 overall/P11 in class.

 

Sundays finale was this time run earlier in the day under full sunshine around the Spa Francorchamps circuit. This time the #007 and #4 Aston Martins had been knocked off the front row in earlier qualifying so there was much to do for the four V12 powered Prodrive machines.

Numerous Safety Car interventions sadly marred the race, taking significant time off the available race clock but that was still enough time in the final minutes for Mitchell to bag another class win (albeit in third overall) with the #62 Fanta Racing AMR also claiming P6 overall/P2 in class finish.

 

Next stop for the series will be from the Le Mans Classic in early July.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

Any hot, sunny Bank Holiday weekend is always good for business with any ice cream company and that was definitely the case for the Beechdean Aston Martin Racing powered crew today as Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn swept the board in today’s British GT Championship qualifying.

With the twenty-four strong grid having made their way up the M6 to the Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park for this weekend’s second round of the season, the sun and warmer temperatures of late have certainly put many in the mood for Monday’s two one-hour sprint races.

 

The #7 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 crew also did have the exclusivity to good performances within the AMR camp either as the #12 MK Racing AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins also shone in qualifying as Orton secured a front row start for race two after his silver class position attaining lap after Hawkins a P3 start for race one earlier in the day.

 

The #27 Grange Racing by FSR AMR Vantage GT4 on Dan Lavery also secured a P2 start in Pro-Am ahead of race one – supported by an identical P2 start in class for Darren Turner in race two.

 

The #40 Townsend Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of James Townsend and Joe Wheeler would qualify P3 in Pro-Am for race one but would become victim to a lost lap for track limits in Q2 for Wheeler to drop down to P6 for race two whilst the #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport of John Hartshorne would end his run P6 in class (Pro-Am) whilst his co-driver Ronan Pearson would elevate their car up to sixth place overall in GT4 (P4 in class) after a stellar performance from him in the heat of Saturday.

Being a Bank Holiday weekend and Oulton Park, the drivers all get a day off tomorrow to do whatever it is drivers do on a Bank Holiday Sunday before reconvening at the circuit ahead of Monday’s two races starting at 11:05 and 15:45.

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey / Teams / social media