The central and eastern Europe based GT Cup Series also race out their penultimate round to their 2025 season this weekend as they visit Brno in the Czech Republic for another dose of sprint and endurance-based GT racing this weekend.

For this fifth round to the season, the Janik Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo pairing of Petr Koukola and Vaclav Janik will again be in attendance with their #73 car as the former will again take on the solo driven sprint rounds with Janik (or both) competing within the longer endurance race.

 

It’s back to the Slovakia Ring next weekend for the GT Cup Series as they host their two sprint and one endurance races at the circuit as part of their fifth round of the season.

Within an expected mixed class entry list of up to twenty-six cars per race type with the #73 Janik Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo of both Petr Koukola and Vaclav Janik who will again compete within both race types with Koukola expected to race the two sprint races individually.

Whilst Optimum Motorsport made some pretty significant steps forwards with their new Pro class podium finish at the second round of their International GT Open Series endeavours at the weekend, for two other Aston Martin Racing Partner teams, this weekends results continued their distinctly split path of results that they have enjoyed so far this season.

Starting in Europe - Friday and Saturday saw the third round of Creventic's 24H Series and the 12Hours of Brno take place from the small but technically challenging circuit in the Czech Republic. Back supporting the series again but first time visitors to Brno with their new 2019 AMR Vantage GT4 was the German based PROsport Performance team (again racing under their PROpeak Performance banner) and their trio of drivers - Rodrique Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Rabindra.


Having already enjoyed a brace of podium finishes in the Series including a GT4 class win last time out at Spa, the team were certainly hoping of maintaining that momentum gained within their this and their other GT4 programmes this season to help offset the frustration that must be building from their (to date) unsuccessful ventures into the ADAC GT Masters Series with their other AMR Vantage GT3's.

This time competing within a slightly larger GT4 field of six cars, the #1 car Qualified P3 for the start of the race which would begin soon afterwards on Friday afternoon before concluding later of Saturday. By the end of the opening three hour part of the race the #1 car was laying in P4 in class but already a couple of laps down to the lead car.

The next nine hours of racing would see the car compete with both of the M4 BMW's for the second two steps of the podium what with the #224 KTM X-bow being dominant from the start of the meeting with their more Brno experienced driver base. At the end of the nine hour stint of Saturday the #1 car would again be podium bound with a P3 finish at their first visit to the track.


Congratulations to them.


Then over in Japan there was the third round of their national Super GT weekend where another of this years Aston Martin Racing convertees, D'Station Racing AMR were competing in the GT300 class with a new AMR V8 Vantage GT3.

Also competing with a similar GT3 chassis in the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series, the team have already enjoyed several podium finishes (including race wins) in that series but had been distinctly unlucky so far in the coveted GT300 series after significant damage was sustained in the wet that was the opening round at Okayama before technical issues blighted round two at Fuji.


Looking to make amends for the poor start to the season, drivers JP Oliveira and Tomonobu Fujii had been working hard in between events to move their svelte liveried #7 car forward. Also enjoying a dry race weekend for the first time this season the #7 car finished P18 during Free Practice (just 1.235 seconds off the lead pace) before having their Qualifying affected by a red flag to finish P19 for the start of Sundays race.

Unfortunately for the team, everything again 'went south' just after the pit stops when Oliveira had to retire the car due to an electrical issue that was effecting its performance. Obviously bitterly disappointed, the team have vowed to continue fighting on looking for that change in circumstance that will allow them to race their competitors on equal levels.


Next round of the Super GT - GT300 will be in Thailand at the end of June.

Photo credits - 24H Series / PROpeak Performance / D'Station Racing AMR

As the World Endurance Championship prepares for its super-season finale at Le Mans in under a months time, another hectic weekend of motor racing beckons for many Aston Martin Racing's customer and Partner teams around the world.

Starting on the far side of the world to where we are presently sitting sees D'Station Racing AMR return for the third round of the Japanese Super GT GT300 series looking to secure their first points of the season after having to retire with damage after the debut rounds at both Okayama and Fuji with their #7 AMR Vantage GT3.


Back into Europe and the International GT Open Series moves to the Hockenheim race track for the first time for their second round of the season after their opener at Paul Ricard.

Optimum Motorsport will be fielding a new driver combination aboard their AMR Vantage GT3 with young gun Ollie Wilkinson now being joined by AMR factory driver and driver coach (to Wilkinson) Darren Turner.

Last time out in France, Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis secured a Pro-Am podium with a P2 finish, only narrowly missing out on the top step after a great debut race in the Aston in lieu of their Audi R8 they raced last year.


Over at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the German based DMV GTC Series have their third round of the season with another triple header of a 60 minute race and two shorter races with their older, no longer main stream homologated group of GT3 race cars.

Timo Scheibner returns with his #13 AMR V12 Vantage GT3 after starting so well with a trio of P4 finishes in round 1 before falling away with technical issues later in round 2.


German based PROsport Performance take their AMR Vantage GT4 race cars over to the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic for the latest round of the 24H Series event after a great P2 finish debut in Mugello before going one better last time out at Spa with a dominant class win.

Their trio of drivers will be looking to maintain the momentum already gained in this latest 12 hour race of the Series.

We wish them all well.


Photo credits - D'Station Racing / Optimum / 

The third round of the 24H Series European GT Championship takes place this weekend from Brno in the Czech Republic and its a return of the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 of Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Ranbindra.

Having enjoyed something of a blessed campaign so far, the #1 car gained their first podium of the season at Mugello (having only just received the car from Prodrive the week before) where they secured a P2 class finish despite stopping out on track and having to have work carried out on the car during the overnight sabbatical. Then at the next round at Spa just over a month ago, the trio went one better to secure their first class win.


As with all Creventic organised events, track action begins with private testing on Thursday before the start of official business later on Friday with Free Practice and Qualifying before the first three hours of the twelve hour race later on Friday afternoon.

The balance of the race will be completed at 10:00hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits - 24H / PROsport Performance