Good news coming out of the USA this evening as the Van Der Steur Aston Martin Racing team confirm another driver line up for the team within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series.

Debuting next time around from Sebring in just a couple of weeks, sees established racers Trenton Estep and Allen Patten join forces for the first time within the teams #66 AMR Vantage GT4 Evo – presumably alongside their more established husband and wife racing duo of Christine and Ben Sloss.

Estep’s racing history has mainly been Porsche related within, most recently the GT World Challenge America Series whist Patten’s career to date has been a little bit more cosmopolitan. To find out whether this is a full season as just a Sebring only entry remains to be seen or learned as Patten has already announced an entry within the GT4 America Series.

Photo credit - Team

 

 

The penultimate round of the GT Winter Series is fast approaching and todays reveal of their somewhat modest entry list for this round at Motorland Aragon, the list also confirms the rumours of another racing return of an once Aston Martin Racing factory driver.

Having been busy since his professional retirement with his family racing team (amongst other things), this weekend sees Stefan Mucke partner long time team customer Thilo Goos aboard his #700 AMR Vantage GT4 within the Club class.

 

For the three previous rounds, Goos has been partnered by Mattis Pluschkell but as that young German now steps up to the Prototype Cup with the Mucke Motorsport team, Goos has apparently persuaded Mucke himself to see out the remaining two rounds of the season with him.

They will again be joined by the #007 Araujo Competicao AMR Vantage GT4 Evo squad of Bruno Pereira and Frederico Peters within their Pro-Am entry.

 

 

To date, both AMR powered crews have been successful in class, but the Mucke squad were consigned to just one race last time out in Valencia after contact in race two or three for Pluschkell saw then notch up a DNF in that one and a DNS in race three.

As usual, each driver will race solo in races one and two before doubling up in race three of the weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

This week has seen the GT World Challenge Europe Series confirm its full entry lists for both their Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup series this season where this time, we welcome a good handful of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews to their midst ahead of their five round calendar apiece.

The Belgian based Comtoyou Racing had already got out their earlier this year with confirmation of their three car Endurance Cup and three car Sprint Cup packages whilst today and yesterday saw further confirmations from both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR teams.

 

 

 

The other snippet of British GT Championship related news today comes from the recently announced Townsend Racing powered by Fox Motorsport team again.

Nothing new with that revelation of course after James Twonsend’s new association with Fox Motorsport and Aston Martin Racing within the UK domestic championship was released several weeks ago now.

 

 

What today’s news does confirm is that Joe Wheeler will be partnering Townsend within the teams new AMR Vantage GT4 for their 2026 GT4 Pro-Am class campaign as well as the cars livery reveal ahead of the crews full dress rehearsal (test) at Silverstone later this week.

Despite his younger years, Wheeler comes to the team with four years of British GT racing experience that has rewarded him with several class podiums during that time.

 

 

More Aston Martin Racing powered news has been confirmed for the British GT Championship this morning with another new Vantage GT4 entry, this time from the MKH Racing team.

Last season we welcomed the MKH Racing for their part-entry within the new for 2025 GT4 Endurance Cup element within the overall championship that saw former AMR factory Stuart Hall race alongside Peter Montague.

 

 

For their 2026 campaign, however, the team have welcomed in two ‘new’ young guns to compete within their AMR Vantage GT4 as two very familiar faces return to topflight GT racing within the UK.

Previously with Mark Warren and the Forsetti Motorsport team a couple of years ago before moving into the GT4 European Series last season with the Racing Spirit of Leman team, we welcome back Will Orton to the championship as he will race alongside Aston Martin F1 Brand Ambassador and former Beechdean AMR GT3 BGT entrant Jessica Hawkins.

 

 

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning to the British GT Championship in 2026 with MKH Racing, partnering with Jessica Hawkins in the Silver category,” said the former Mini Challenge runner-up. “Having competed in the Aston Martin during its inaugural season in 2024, I’m excited to be back behind the wheel and building on that experience.“

“I can’t wait to get started in British GT, it’s going to be great to be back in the paddock,” she said. “I’m very excited to be teaming up with MKH Racing and Will Orton –I think together we will be a very strong combination. Of course, our aim is to fight for the championship, and I think we have a strong package to do that. Thank you so much to my partners, Armand ELEMIS, for their continuous support, as well as the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team. Will and I are very keen to push hard for a solid, consistent season.

 

If all the AMR stars align ahead of the season opener from Silverstone in April, that brings the AMR powered headcount to seven cars (six Vantage GT4 entries) as MKH Racing join the likes of GBR Stratton Motorsport, Full Send Racing Beechdean AMR (GT3) and Townsend powered by Fox Motorsport onto the grid.

Photo credits – Team / AMR

 

 

German based Eastside Motorsport are the latest team to confirm their Aston Martin Racing powered race programme for 2026 as the return to the ADAC GT4 Germany Series with their Vantage GT4.

Having stepped up to the series late last season, their driver duo of Jan Phillip Springob and Storm Gjerdrum quickly became a driving force to be reckoned with from the opening race of round three of the 2025 championship at the Nurburgring.

 

 

Whilst Gjerdrum has moved on, today’s news sees Springob confirmed alongside another returnee to the team as Philipp Gogollok steps away from his P2 championship winning Porsche team of last season to rejoin the Aston Martin powered team.

Gogollok raced the new Vantage GT4 Evo in the series during what became an ill-fated 2024 season alongside Jan Marschalkowski when the ESM team ran under the Zakspeed name. This time, things will be better after the crew learnt so much last season.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

Within the distinctly organised manner in which they work, the Heart of Racing team today confirmed their remaining driver line up for this season’s FIA World Endurance Championship.

Having already confirmed a full driver line up within both of their #007 and #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar entries, only the ‘lead’ driver of both Ian James and Gray Newell had so far been confirmed within their #23 and #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 entries – until today.

 

 

 

Most of you will have seen yesterday the ACO confirm their first provisional entry list ahead of June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans which again formulates itself as the midway point round to the FIA World’s Endurance Championship.

Not revealing too many surprises when it comes to the Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing powered runners, yesterday’s reveal saw the Heart of Racing team have their #007 and #009 Valkyrie Hypercars as well as their #23 and #27 Vantage LMGT3 cars confirmed (albeit a matter of course as full season FIA WEC entries) although we still didn’t get to see their full LMGT3 driver line ups.

 

Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble, Ross Gunn and Marco Sorensen, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis again crew up the teams two Hypercar entries whilst the team are still only listing Gray Newell and Ian James within their #23 and #27 Vantage LMGT3’s respectively.

With the Prologue Test and opening round to the 2026 season in Qatar fast approaching in late March, it obviously won’t be too much longer before those blanks on the entry list will be confirmed.

 

 

These crews will be joined by a third AMR Vantage LMGT3 crew as the Racing Spirit of Leman team return to the ACO blue riband event after their participation last season as an FIA WEC full season entrant.

This season, the team are again back within both the European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup Series, but their Le Mans 24 driver roster will be team regulars Clement Mateu and Valentin Hasse-Clot alongside Sebastian Baud who is no stranger to either the event or platform so come together as a strong class contender.

 

 

There was a fourth AMR LMGT3 listed but within the reserve list as the Blackthorn AMR team find their continued participation within the Asian Le Mans Series is not quite enough to get an automatic entry into the 24hours.

Currently siting as fourth reserve, the #56 car features an interesting (so far) driver line up of Giacomo Petrobelli alongside Dario Franchitti plus one more yet to be confirmed. To us, that might suggest the teams association with Ecurie Ecosse may continue into the 24hour (if they get an entry) after their association together over the new year within the Asian Le Man Series.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

It appears that we all get a weekend off early season motor racing this time around as we look forward to the next batch of IMSA Series racing due to take place over the final weekend in February.

Until then, and to a point where we will find out if we will have any Aston Martin Racing powered runners within the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series visit to CoTA, we can take a quick look back at the snippets of news that have come out from other AMR powered runners over the last week or so. (UPDATE - unfortunately there are none being listed!)

 

The Japanese D’Station Racing team where out this week in a pre-season Super GT Series test from their home circuit of Fuji Speedway.

The team have already confirmed the return of both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg within the team’s #777 Vantage GT3 entry but it was just the team manager on hand this week as they clocked up some valuable laps as the event was curtailed to just a single day due to track conditions in the bitter cold. The team will now look forward to two official test dates before the opening round to the season from Okayama in April.

 

 

The Spanish based E2P Racing team have had their 24H Series European Series entry confirmed with a four-man driver line up and their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 that they have already raced this year within the GT Winter Series 6 Hours of Portimao a couple of weeks ago.

This will be the team’s second season with the Aston but their fourth within the Creventic lead series.

 

 

Within the ranks of the British GT Championship, the GBR Stratton Motorsport team have again bee out pre-season testing – this time at Donington Park where a familiar face in John Hartshorne having his name above one of the doors of one of the team’s two Vantage GT4 cars that they have entered.

The team is due out again next week at Snetterton and then at Silverstone before we hopefully hear of some definitive names within their GT4 entries ahead of Media Day at Silverstone at the end of March.

 

 

Within Britcar, the Addison Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of father and son namesakes Martin and Bill Addison have also been confirmed earlier the month with the crew moving up to the 17A variant of the car late last season with some immediate class success.

 

There was further class podium success for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered teams within the weather curtailed GT4 Winter Series at the weekend but neither had it all their own way at Valencia.

With predicted strong winds effectively taking out all programmed track action at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Saturday, teams were left with just their Friday testing (if they were in attendance) or going in blind over the course of their race races on Sunday as organises were forced to race series within series in order to get through the race programme.

 

The weekend may have started with racing woe for one Aston Martin Racing powered team, it ended happily for the other as the Violante Rosso Vantage GT3 crew secured a much-deserved class podium finish at the end of today’s 12Hours of Bathurst.

Whilst the Vantage GT4 powered Team New Zealand entry of Graham Dowsett, Romain Leroux and Chris Van Der Drift were forced to lament there early exit from the event after a Free Practice accident for Dowsett saw the car receive non-repairable damage, things were certainly different a few garages up the pit lane for the Sydney based Volante Rosso team as The Mountain experience within the team certainly paid off.

 

 

Bryce Fullwood qualified the #14 car just ahead of the Heart of Racing crew (again competing within a Mercedes AMG GT3), P27 overall and third within Pro-Am as their attention soon turned to the early start to the race on Sunday.

With the thirty-four remaining cars taking the start around the unlit circuit, it was long before the characteristics of the circuit with one entry being literally taken out by a member of the local wildlife in what could have been a more horrifying than it already was accident. A second, non-related incident put paid to almost the first hour of racing with the race (proper) then restarting as the sun began to make an appearance of the horizon.

 

 

 

Disaster struck the Team New Zealand racing team at the 12Hours of Bathurst earlier today when a Free Practice accident saw their #7 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 incur significant rear end damage after contact with the outside wall.

Having already circulated around the Mount Panorama circuit without incident for the Graham Dowsett, Romain Leroux and Chris Van Der Drift driven car, the #7 crew were the fastest GT4 classed crew sitting a respectable P33 out of the thirty-five strong runners after the first session available to them.

 

To end the day of track action was the second bronze driver only session of the day where Dowsett would again run solo with his like graded peers and for his twelve laps completed, was still the fastest of the two GT4 entries.

However, disaster struck the gentleman driver as #21 Herberth Porsche came through into Sulman Park where the line of the Aston Martin was disturbed and the car drifted out onto the marbles to back heavily into the concrete retaining wall. Not as visually spectacular as the R-Motorsport AMR Vantage GT3 at the same corner a few years ago, Dowsett was able to remove himself from his race car unaided and without injury.

 

 

No great surprises when it comes to the livery designs for the two Aston Martin Racing powered cars entered into this weekend’s 12Hrs of Bathurst as both the Team New Zealand and Volante Rosso teams posted very familiar looking photos of their cars today.

After preparations at the circuit earlier, yesterday saw the annual pilgrimage from the circuit to the town of Bathurst for all the cars entered into this year’s event, something that also makes up the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

 

A third consecutive race weekend with the Gedlich Racing Series sees them moves along the coast to the Spanish circuit of Valencia for this weekend’s third round of their GT4 Winter Series.

Whilst the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered entries that ran in last weekend’s non-championship round of Portimao have moved on, we are back to the (so far) two AMR Vantage GT4 entries that will compete within the aptly named GT4 Winter Series again.