The 70th running of the Total 24Hrs of Spa is the most competitive and gruelling endurance event in the world for GT3 runners and its four grades of driver entries and this year's event was certainly no exception to that.

Four Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3's from three customer teams entered this years event - one was promoted to overall pole position for the start whilst its sister car would start from the opposite end of the grid, one was looking to overcome previous bad luck and misfortune whilst the local crew were simply taking challenges of the event for what it gave them.

For possibly two of these teams, this event was also the last time that they would be running with the V12 variant of the car at the event as the new V8 turbo charged car comes on line later in the year.

With all of the cars in the midst of their qualifying runs on track, we take a quick picture postcard look back at last nights events in the town centre where the cars and drivers interacted with the enormous crowds.

Driven from the circuit to the town and back again on the eve of the first track action for all, the annual task of taking the event to the crowds was obviously another great success for the Total 24Hrs of Spa and was enjoyed by all.

Snetterton was again a very productive race meeting for the two Aston Martin Racing teams competing for  both the overall championship win and their respective classes in the fourth round of the GT Cup championship.

Hudmotorsport's Nigel Hudson and Adam Wilcox looked particularly racey after a successful round last time out at Spa Francorchamps where Hudson secured his first race win of the season. Meanwhile, Whitebridge AMR would turn up with their latest V8 Vantage GT4 acquisition for team boss Chris Murphy and No2 Adam Hatfield to help strengthen their own class position after two previous rounds aboard a Ginetta.

Two of Aston Martin Racing's finest finally return to what is a very hot and sunny Snetterton race track for the fourth round of the GT Cup championship this weekend.

We say finally, as Whitebridge AMR had the misfortune of 'loosing' one of their available V8 Vantage GT4's in a crash whilst testing for another series and have since then been competing in a Team Hard Ginetta for the last two rounds, which at least had kept their class championship title hopes alive.

Whitebridge AMR drivers Chris Murphy and local lad Adam Hatfield return with the teams latest AMR acquisition that the they ran at the Aston Martin Racing Festival at Le Mans earlier this month as well as the last round of the Britcar Championship last weekend. The more observant of you will see that their #72 car is indeed a former Generation AMR SuperRacing car that Murphy purchased from James Holder after the earlier accident, a purchase that allowed the car to win its class at the Le Mans Festival!

Great to see local team Aston Martin Brussels again supporting the Spa Francorchamps round of the International GT Open Series as it returns for its third round of the season next weekend.

Joining the team's resident professional driver Tim Verbergt in their distinctly liveried yellow and white Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 will be former Nissan Academy driver Wolfgang Reip who tested with the car and the team for the first time at a track day at the end of March and again two weeks later.


With Aston Martin Brussels sadly not committing to any long term race programme they have continued to support GT Open at Spa over the years, usually doubling the AMR entry with both Solaris and TF Sport entries of old but this year they will be the only Aston Martin runner.

Reip meanwhile has been conspicuous by his absence since his release from the Nissan driver development programme and then latterly from Bentley in the Blancpain GT Series, so this might be a route for him to get back into the GT racing scene especially with the Spa 24 just around the corner.

We will wait and see .................!!

Photo credits - Reip / Bas Fransen 

Lurking in the background of this photograph with one of the oldest versions of the Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 is probably the newest - and the last to be produced by Prodrive.

These photographs were taken about a month ago at a track day event at Spa Francorchamps with Aston Martin Brussels running their chassis 8 GT3 as well as one of their GT4's with this multi-coloured GT3 hiding in the background.


That car was also depicted in several interesting journalistic pieces about both Aston Martin racing and Prodrive in the first few months of this year and from what we understand it, that car is the final GT3 car of the present iteration to be built by Prodrive for a customer as a track only car. That customer is or has a connection with Aston Martin Antwerp.

Notably, the double front seated car also features some Vantage GTE' esq features on it including mirrors, doors and steering wheel.



From everything that AMR have said over recent events, the run of GT3 cars finished at chassis #42 but we already know that one of the R-Motorsport cars is Chassis #42 so we assume that this beauty is older or newer than that?

Either way - can we have a ride in it please????

Photo credits - AM Antwerp / Filmed with Passion

The International GT Open Series have confirmed the entry of a second Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 for the next round of the series at Spa Francorchamps at the end of May.

Re-joining the series for another one off visit will be the local Aston Martin Brussels Team last seen out in the series at the same race in 2015 when they competed along with the TF Sport entry. This year they join the sole full season AMR entry of Solaris Motorsport in the race.

We understand that the AM Brussels car will be livered to raise awareness of the ONG Liege aide Haiti (Liege helps Haiti) campaign which raises funds to improve life on the Caribbean island after their devastating earthquake in 2010.

The two races are over the weekend of 27-28th May.

Today saw the teams and cars of the European Le Mans Series and GT3 Le Mans Cup complete their first laps of the Spa Francorchamps circuit as they readied themselves for the penultimate round of their respective series.

With both the Beechdean AMR Vantage GTE and the TF Sport Vantage GT3 more than competitively in with a chance to taking their respective championships by the end of the season, a solid points finish at the Spa round is critical for both of them.


In the GT3 LM3 the #34 vantage GT3 of Salih Yoluc/Euan Hankey car made for a slow start in FP1 finishing two thirds of the way down the timing screen before slowly creeping up the screen with quicker lap times during FP2 later in the afternoon. The appearance of local team Autoclub Excelsior had a more turbulent introduction to the series, having already been fined by the Series for their latte driving line up confirmation, ending the day dropping from fifth to eleventh during the first day.


Over in the ELMS paddock Andrew Howard was first out in his #99 Beechdean car, this weekend sporting the split Union Jack/Belgium tricolour wrap on it s roof, for the Bronze driver test gaining valuable GTE experience on a track he knows well from his GT3 British GT days.

Come the first Free Practice the expertise of AMR works drivers Darren Turner and Alex MacDowall were on hand to help complete set up pushing the car up to mid table in the GTE field at the close of session.


Saturday will see the GT3 LMC complete their qualifying in the morning before the start of their two hour race at 17.30hrs local whilst the ELMS teams will have the second and final Free Practice in the morning before their qualifying in the afternoon. The start of their four hour race will not be until 14.00Hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits - Adrenal Media

Series organisers today released the twelve car entry list for next weekends penultimate round of the inaugural Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup championship at Spa Francorchamps, including details of a second car from the Aston Martin Racing stable.

Joining full season entries Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey in their #34 TF Sport Vantage GT3 will be Belgium team Auto-club Excelsior with their Vantage GT3 to driven by Tim Verbergt and an as yet unidentified second driver in the car we believe to belongs to Aston Martin Brussels Racing team.

Verbergt was last seen out in that car, in a full european format at least when he and Michael Schmitz competed with podium success at the Spa round of the International GT Open event last September.


The two AMR's, together with the single McLaren, Porsche and Lamborghini will at least break up what is otherwise a Ferrari 458/488 GT3 festival who's cars make up the remaining grid.

The #34 TF Sport car presently leads the team championship by 13 points from the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari but Hankey and Yoluc are both 10 points in arrears to the Russian line up of Basov and Shaitar in that #72 458.

With just Spa and the final round at Estoril to go both championships are open enough for even the mid table drivers /teams to win should those above suffer misfortune.

Full entry list can be found HERE

As usual, Free Practice is on the Friday with both qualifying ad the two hour race on Saturday (24th) with the race itself starting at 17.30Hrs local.

Photo credits - GT3 LMC

Aston Martin Racing Customer teams TF Sport and Aston Martin Brussels Racing have this weekend come away with two class podiums each from the two GT Open races at Spa Francorchamps.

In the GT-Pro category AMR Brussels Racing car of Tim Verbergt and Michael Schmitz was being dubbed a 'red devil' prior to the meeting and the local drivers clearly lived up to that name tag, being easily able to take the race to the series favourites during the Saturday and Sundays races despite some variable weather conditions over the weekend.


Race 1 the Belgium team secured a third place finish whilst in Race 2 they improved this to a P2 finish with the fastest lap with only the Teo Martin McLaren 650S of series regulars of Miguel Ramos and Alvaro Parente thwarting their efforts.


Making the trip over the channel with Surrey based TF Sport were Von Ryan's McLaren 650S British GT pairing of Euan Hankey and Salih Yoluc, driving one of the team's V12 Vantage GT3 for the first time.

The start of Race 1 was dry for Hankey which allowed him to settle himself into the car and race his immediate competitors. By the time the compulsory pit stops came about the 'traditional' Spa rain had arrived making for some very trying driving conditions for the more inexperienced Yoluc who, despite a spin brought the car home in P1 partly aided by the failings of others.


Race 2 was much the same except for absence of any falling precipitation. Keeping himself out of trouble on the initially greasy track Yolic was the first in class to pit giving Hankey the maximum possible time in the car for him to secure their second top step finish of the weekend.

Great job by all

Photo credits - Int GT Open

Aston Martin Brussels will this weekend compete in the International GT Open series at the Spa Francorchamps circuit with its distinctive yellow and white liveried V12 Vantage GT3. They join fellow AMR Customer team TF Sport who also recently announced their attendance with their GT3 car.

Being now stranger to the series in its former guise of GPR Racing the team's drivers,Tim Verbergt and Michael Schmetz will be hoping to rekindle some the teams previous series success that might ultimately lead to a continued participation within the series.

This route follows on from what the team describe as an unfortunate experience when they competed in the Spa round of the British GT series earlier in the year. "The difference is huge' , says Schmetz . "In British GT it made ​​us realise that we did not want us. In GT Open it's the opposite , they have welcomed us with open arms"

Race 1 starts 15.45Hrs local on Saturday and Race 2 13.45Hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits - AMR Brussels