It appears that the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya and the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao are the places to be hanging around at the moment as a large number of teams are using these circuits for some late year testing ahead some early commitments next year.

In Spain, we have seen TF Sport test one of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE’s at the circuit where their new client driver, Sam De Haan is believed to have taken to the wheel of that car as the team and de Haan (amongst many others) prepare themselves for the early season demands of both the 24H Series annual visit to Dubai in January as well as the four header, quick succession rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi in February albeit in GT3 machinery!

In Portimao, we also have the Racing One team testing their two new AMR Vantage GT4’s at the circuit with both team regulars and others (some closer to home here than others) all seeking possible drives within the team’s stated GT4 European and ADAC GT4 Germany Series ambitions for 2022.

This weekend, the team will also be running both of their Aston’s into the GT Winter Series at the circuit for the drivers previously reported.

As others leave, others arrive as we learn that the Bullitt Racing team are also on their way to Portimao for some late season testing with their new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 that drivers Stephen Pattrick and Romain Monti will spearhead in series like the 24H Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup. Their ambition to race within next year’s Asian Le Mans Series have (we understand and like the provisional entry list suggest) been reconsidered.

Whilst we believe that there will be no further Aston Martins entered into the Dubai 24hr next month, we still wait to hear of official confirmation of at least a couple of Aston Martin’s possibly due to compete at the Gulf 12Hrs before that in early January.

Photo credits – Social Media

Already deeply involved in the 2019 24H Series and GT4 European Series' with the German based PROsport Performance team in one of their new 2019 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4, twenty three year old Akhil Rabindra has spread his racing wings still further to race this weekend in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series.

Competing at the beautiful Road America circuit in Wisconsin, Rabindra joins Kris Wilson for this weekends race in the new Vantage platform for the first time for Wilson in the new Vantage and for the first time for Rabindra in the IMSA Series.


Normally competing in the blue, normally aspirated AMR Vantage GT4, Rabindra's early performance in Free Practice and Qualifying aboard the Stoner Car Care car has already left the Florida based Automatic Racing team impressed as he placed the car P3 to todays race after similar performances in the CSJ Motorsport sourced car yesterday.

This car joins the teams other new Vantage GT4 being driven by Rob Ecklin Jnr and Ramin Abdolvahabi the in the Invisible Glass liveried #97 car.


With bad weather threatening the start of track proceedings today, the race is due to start in about an hour.

Photo credits - Automatic Racing

Its been a busy twenty four hours for Aston Martin Racing over in Le Mans as various announcements have come out from both the team and series, announcements that will help sculpt the path along which the team will follow moving forward - not just in the this 24hour race but as a whole.

First came the news that the ACO had indeed addressed an apparent imbalance with the Balance of Performance across the GTE Pro range where the new Aston Martin Racing GTE received the biggest number of adjustments compared its competitors - an increase in turbo boost across the rev range and a larger  permitted fuel load.


That was all well and good if it hadn't been for the further  incomprehensible adjustments to all the other OEM cars except for the Porsche - which happens to be celebrating a significant anniversary year!

Five seconds is a great deal of time to be able to make up on track and we can already see from this afternoons first (and only) Free Practice session that the two AMR Pro cars have indeed moved forward in lap times - but so have the others so the #95 and #97 cars are still three seconds in arrears. despite the whole wrath of changes in that class.

Only time will tell we suppose ..............................!!


This mornings news from the team was final confirmation of the partnering with Sky as the marques official media partner. Clues to this had been visible for some weeks - the Sky logo was clearly visible on the transporter as AMR visited Snetterton the week before the LM24 Official test for example so although commercially significant, it wasn't front page news!


Sky logos will also be visible on all of the AMR cars entered into the Le Mans 24hours and going further into this new Super-season from the FIA. The V8 Vantage GT4 as driven by Sir Chris Hoy and Martin Brundle in Saturdays Aston Martin Racing Festival will also carrying the logo.


Finally, the most exciting news of the day (or non news to be exact) was the publishing of photos of the new AMR Vantage GT4 and GT3 that both have a physical presence within the Festival paddock but these did not come from the team. We understand that the cars were due to be revealed at 15.30hrs this afternoon but for some reason that didn't take place as apparently planned.


Months ago there had also been some hype as to one of Aston Martin's Valkyrie hyper-cars leading the Festival field around the Circuit de La Sarthe - that doesn't appear to have any degree of reliability anymore so maybe (just maybe) the two latest recruits from the Aston Martin Racing empire will take to the field instead?

We ourselves now have a very early start tomorrow whilst we embark on our annual pilgrimage to Le Mans - let the good times roll!

Photo credits - AMR / Aston-Passion

A group of fantastics photographs were released by Aston Martin today of the entire seven car production run for their extreme, race to road car Vantage AMR Pro.

First announced just over a year ago, this road legal thoroughbred has taken many influences from its Vantage GT4 and Vantage GTE racing stablemates that helped launch the AMR Pro branding. Back in July last year, the running of the car up the infamous hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed helped the iconic brand 'steal the show' before the car was then unleashed onto the motoring press at Snetterton.



Todays announcement confirms that the entire production run has indeed been fulfilled with each example off David King's Special Operations department beautiful creations being shipped off around the world to their respective new owners.

Mimicking the colour scheme of last years Aston Martin Racing WEC squad, these cars also carry a little memento from the factory teams achievement at Le Mans last year! Sweet.........



Photo credit - Aston Martin

With the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge Series now two races in, many will have noticed the omission of the very distinctive De La Torre Motorsport Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 from its grids.

Last seen out at his 'local' Circuit of the Americas race track in Texas during the inaugeral Creventic 24H Series event in America last year, Jorge De La Torre has recently posted a piece upon his social media channels explaining what is going on.


Having just achieved his business degree, the young Mexican has been busy at work having also just opened his first Mexican themed restaurant in Texas having patiently taken the last two years to put everything into place.

As competing in any level of motorsport is extremely expensive these days, the young Mexican goes onto explain that his small 'career break' from motor racing he "also wanted to reflect over the past few years about my racing career, see where can I improve and how to obtain better results. Reflecting on everything"

"I have realised that my learning curve for racing was steep and I was not happy with my ending results in track. This is the time to practice more, get better and give a maximum result always" he posted on Instagram last week.


Quite what De La Torre's timetable is for all of this we don't quite know but he has said that the team will certainly be looking to return to the track in 2018 at least for the return of the Creventic 24 hours race at the end of November.

Photo credits - De La Torre

Another significant milestone was achieved by TeamAMR's latest member with Team Brit running their new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 for the first time around the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent today.

With the team having been formed back in 2010 by Dave Player and a now regular sight on the national racing circuit, 2018 sees the "most inspirational team in motorsport" take another giant leap forward into the realms of GT racing for the first time this year with selected entries into both the British GT Championship and Creventic's 24H Series events for any combination of their six, so far named drivers.


On hand today to continue raising media awareness of the team and their efforts to become the first ever all disabled team to compete at Le Mans was none other than former F1 Champion and BRDC President Damon Hill.

Hopefully we can get some footage and some quotes from the team in due course but in the meantime here's a very healthy hand clap from us!!

Photo credits - Team Brit

Thanks to a very quirky but very apt comment from one of our Twitter followers, tonight is indeed that very special night in the land of #TeamAMR as we have just one more sleep to go before the full, simultaneous public unveiling of the new Vantage road car and GTE sports car.

Having be extremely fortunate enough to have secured an invitation to this exclusive event in central London tomorrow night, we shall of course endeavour to (as far as our cameraphone batteries allow) provide as much coverage of the event that we can.

You could say that we are already pretty excited!!

Having already raced for a very gruelling fourteen hours yesterday the 41 cars spread across the eight classes have just restarted their second, ten hour part of the race have just enjoyed a very polite and gentlemanly overnight break.

For a circuit that appears so vast with safety barriers set way off the racing limits, the preceding fourteen hours created for some extremely eventful racing with some competitors suffering some extreme damage to their cars in the process.

The three Aston Martin cars entered have all been included in that plethora of cars sustaining damage (self inflicted or not) leading to untimely delays in the garages.


Unfortunately, the #225 Speedworks AMR Vantage GT4 has suffered the most to date, sustaining front end damage in the opening minutes of the race yesterday, damage that has then gone on to continually hinder them throughout yesterday with intermittent electrical issues.


Despite all of this, the team are well versed to the complexities of running in the Creventic Series and have 'dug deep' into their pool of resolve and available spare parts to continue.
At the moment, team boss Chritian Dick is running P34 and fourth in class.


Next up in the Aston Martin Lagonda entered Vantage GT8 #232 of AML boss Andy Palmer, Peter Cate, Paul Hollywood and John Hindhaugh have led the SP3 class for many hours yesterday before firstly braking issues dropped them back down slightly before more sizeable contact damage and then suspension issues dropped them still further.


Presumably it was a difficult night sleep last night for AML VP and Special Operations Director David King having seen his one off pride and joy so distorted but then - who is going to argue with the boss?!!

Having to run to a defined delta lap time of no faster than 2:20:00 the #232 presently runs second in class but 14 laps down to the leading Brookspeed Porsche.


Finally, but no means least is the #20 De La Torre AMR V12 Vantage GT3 of Jorge De La Torre, Ross Gunn, Mark Kvamme and Korean Tack Sung Kim running in the A6-AM Class. Having been up at or about the top of the Am class lead for much of yesterday the young Mexican De La Torre finds himself circulating P9 overall and P4 in class having themselves struggled with earlier technical issues and damage.


With still more than nine hours of racing remaining anything can happen.........!!

Photo credits - AMR / Speedworks / 24H

First, we had to wait all year for one and then three turn up at the final round of the 24H Series from the Circuit of the America's from Austin in Texas!!

Not since the tail end of September 2016 and the withdrawal of the Massive Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 before the end of that season have we seen an AMR prepared car in this series. That has obviously been corrected this weekend with three cars from the stable being entered - two in the SP3 (GT4) class and another in the A6 (GT3) class.


With the fragmented (14 +10) 24 hour race already underway at CoTA, everything is for pride as far as these AMR teams and drivers are concerned, all conscious that championships still need to be resolved this weekend for some of the full season entries.

Car to look out for are -

#20 A6-Am Class De La Torre AMR V12 Vantage GT3 - Drivers Jorge De La Torre, Ross Gunn, Tack Sung Kim, Mark Kvamme.

#225 Speedworks AMR V8 Vantage GT4 - Drivers John Gilbert, Christian Dick, Will Phillips, Tom Ingram

#232 Aston Martin Lagonda V8 Vantage GT8 - Drivers Andy Palmer, Peter Cate, Paul Hollywood, John Hindhaugh.


Live stream and Timing available HERE

Photo credits - Speedworks / 24H

Andy Palmer will trade his business suit for a race suit this weekend, when he takes on the challenge of competing in a 24-hour motor race. The Aston Martin President and CEO will race in the Hankook 24 Hours of CoTA (Circuit of the Americas) in Austin, Texas on 11-12 November.

Naturally Palmer’s car of choice is the Aston Martin Vantage GT8, the very same car that won its class at the Nürburgring 24 Hours earlier this year. He will share driving duties with Paul Hollywood, John “The Voice of Le Mans” Hindhaugh and Peter Cate.

De La Torre Racing is set to take on the 1st Creventic 24H Championship at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.

“We can’t say enough, we are honored to present a talented group of drivers that come from diverse regions,” said Jorge De La Torre, DLT Racing CEO and Owner. Upcoming November 10-12th at the Circuit of the Americas, the drivers will proudly represent De La Torre Racing as well as their home countries Mexico, USA, England and South Korea. “As for the De La Torre racing family, selecting the correct drivers for the Aston Martin GT3 racing program is just as important as building and preparing the car. We believe we have the best car, crew and now we have the best drivers to match this amazing car”, stated CEO/Owner Jorge De La Torre.

With most national, European and International series coming to an end in the next few weeks, its somewhat refreshing to read of two premier winter racing events at least having some Aston Martin Racing entries to cheer for this year.

First up will be the Gulf 12hours from the Abu Dhabi circuit in mid December where the TF Sport prepared Oman Racing V12 Vantage has already been confirmed for 2017 race after they skipped last years race. Having previously raced with the likes of Darren Turner and Jonny Adam, Ahmad Al Harthy will this year be joined by Road to Le Mans partner Tom Jackson and Porsche driver Euan McKay.


They will be joined by the Appleby Engineering prepared Generation AMR SuperRacing of duo James Holder and Matt George who have raced in the European GT4 Southern Cup Championship this year. It will be their second visit to Abu Dhabi with their AMR V8 Vantage GT4.


Next up will the return of the 24H Series event from Dubai where after a couple of years without any Aston Martin representation we understand that a GT4 from New Zealand has been entered with the return of the Mike Racing team. As yet their driver line up has not been confirmed.

And then of course comes Bathurst!!!

Photo credits - Teams social media

Glancing through the entry list for next months 24H Series visit to the Cirucit of The Americas next month we notice that the #20 De La Torre Aston Martin Racing entry has a couple more names joining them for that series inaugeral event in the USA.

Joining the already confirmed Jorge De La Torre and Ate De Jong in the A6 class car will also be American Mark Kvamme and a certain Ross Gunn. Whilst Kvamme has a vast experience of racing on the American scene over the years in GT's and both PC and Daytona Prototype classes within the Weathertech Sportscar Championship, this will be Gunn's first experience of racing in America although the car will be more than familiar.

Last week we learned of the #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE strangely testing at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk as the team continue to prepare themselves for the Le Mans 24Hr in just over three weeks time.

Today we learn that the factory team is back at the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium continuing that preparatory work with at least one GTE car and at least two drivers being present. The #90 TF Sport Vantage GTE has already been publicly confirmed as being at the circuit for what appears to be a two day test with Nicki Thiim certainly cracking in a few laps in it following the cars recent service at Banbury last week. We don't now if any of Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey or Rob Bell are also there though.

We have since established that Daniel Serra has also now arrived in Belgium and that the team have joined several other WEC teams (including Ford) at Spa for what is a notifiable two day event. Judging by some of the clips of team personnel shot on social media, this test is a full factory test as the team look for performance breaks as they head into the Le Mans Test Day in 12 days time somewhat on the back foot.

It was great to read today that Texas based De La Torre Racing have entered their Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 into the inaugural round of the 24H Series in continental USA when the series visits the Circuit of the Americas in November.

The Circuit Of The Americas track is one that the small team of De La Torre Racing is very familiar with. Jorge De La Torre, CEO, Founder and Driver, will be applying his teams experience from this track to the 24-hour race. “Our team is excited for this opportunity with CREVENTIC and we are working hard to prepare for this 24-hour race.” said Jorge De La Torre.