The 2024 motor racing season, as far as the extended Aston Martin Racing family is concerned, came to something of a fitting end of the weekend at the finale of the Thailand Super Series in Buriram

Contesting their final round of what was a full season entry, the #7 Earl Bamber Motorsport prepared Team NZ AMR Vantage GT4 entry of Graham Dowsett and Ananthorn Tangniannatchai secured two P3 class podiums to add to others won during the five round – ten race strong season.

 

The second round of the Thailand Super Series takes place this weekend – again from the Chang International Circuit near Buriram with the Viper Niza Racing team also again expected to be trackside with their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3.

With their battered car pulled from the shipping container last time around having been just returned to the team at the circuit from its ill-fated venture into the Asian Le Mans Series events in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the team and drivers Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang spent most of their time chasing set up having to repair the car still after its last race incident in Dubai.

 

It was a positive return to the Thailand Super Series at the weekend for the Viper Niza Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang.

Having already embraced a ‘challenging’ 2023 season so far within an ill-fated Asian Le Mans Series campaign and a visit to the Sepang 12hr, this weekend’s visit to the Chang International Circuit in Buriram gave the Malaysian based team precisely what they needed after a difficult season so far that necessitated the rebuilding of the front end of their car after a big accident for Khoo during the second race of the Asian Le Mans Series in Dubai.

Malaysian based Viper Niza Racing team embark upon their third racing series event of the season as they arrive at the Chang International Circuit near Buriram for this weekend’s opening round of the Thailand Super Series.

Having already competed within this season’s Asian Le Mans Series earlier this year as well as mostly recently at the Sepang 12Hour in mid-March, the #65 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang have arrived at a sweltering circuit ahead of this weekend’s opener.

TF Sport will make their Asian Le Mans Series return in January 2021 with GT3 champions, Ahmad Al Harthy and Jonny Adam. The line up will be completed by 2020 British GT GT4 champion, Tom Canning, in their Aston Martin AMR Vantage V8 GT3.

COVID-19 related travel restrictions and a change in calendar led to the withdrawal of TF Sport’s British GT Championship GT3 entries. However, Ahmad and Jonny’s plans of competing together again were never abolished, only postponed, until various championships had confirmed their amended race dates. Determined to ensure Canning’s step-up to the GT3 field still takes place, TF Sport have placed the youngster alongside regular team mates Al Harthy and Adam, with confidence that he will bolster the Asian Le Mans entry.


The revised Asian Le Mans Series calendar sees the four by four-hour races take place within the month of January, split equally between Buriram Chang International Circuit in Thailand and Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia. Consistency will be key over the four races, as the ultimate goal for Oman Racing with TF Sport is to win the championship and gain a Le Mans entry for the future.

The team last contested the GT3 class in the ALMS back in 2018/19 when the River River Sport team of Bonamy Grimes, Ivor Dunbar and Jonny Mowlem raced in the teams V12 Vantage with some success.


Race 1: 4H of Buriram - Buriram Chang International Circuit, Thailand - 9 January 2021
Race 2: 4H of Buriram - Buriram Chang International Circuit, Thailand - 11 January 2021
Race 3: 4H of Sepang - Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia - 23 January 2021
Race 4: 4H of Sepang - Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia - 26 January 2021

Ahmad Al Harthy, Bronze Driver, TF Sport - “I’m delighted to be teaming with Tom [Canning] and, of course, Jonny. Jonny and I have won so much together, I really think all three of us make a very strong line-up for the Asian Le Mans Series. If things work out well in Europe with less restrictions on travel in the weeks and months to come, we’ll probably do some one-off races as well.”

Whilst Sunday evening was to be full of rejoicing and podium celebrations over at the fifth round of the World Endurance Championship in America, the final round of the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series came to an unfortunate grinding halt for the D'Station Racing AMR team in Thailand earlier in the day.

Needing to win the GT class outright at the Chang Buriram International Circuit plus then having to wait for other class results to go in their favour, it would have been a momentous event for the Japanese crew of the #77 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 to come away as season victors anyway but for them, their season ended at the opposite end of the racing spectrum than where it had started in Shanghai last year.


With their resident gold rated driver Tomonobu Fujii again having Qualified the car in P4 for Sundays race, at least two of their main Championship rivals would be starting behind them at the start on the grid giving them at least a phycological advantage with something worth chasing.

With some quick drivers in some quick evo machinery ahead, Fujii stuck with the game plan and pressurised those ahead to move temporally up to P2 in class by the end of the first half hour of racing before he would later pitted from P3 in class just after the first hour of racing.

Handing the reigns to gentleman driver and team co-owner Satoshi Hoshino, all looked to be going well before unseen rear ended contact with a prototype on his opening laps finally saw the green Vantage GT3 come to a lumbering halt half way along the pit lane with no apparent life within the engine.


Rescued by four mechanics, the #77 car was pushed back into its garage box where the first signs of front end damage could be seen above the splitter but the damage had already been done underneath. Damaging the front ended radiators in the impact and unbeknown to Hoshino, the vital coolant had already left the engine cooling system which in turn allowed the engine to critically overheat and ultimately expire in the pit lane by the time he had nursed it back for almost an entire lap.

Inevitably, the team and their Prodrive engineers finally conceded that all was lost within the car and their 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series debut conquest came to a premature end.


A sad end to a campaign for a team who started so well in Shanghai with a class win for the trio of Fujii, Hoshino and Ross Gunn, who himself was this weekend pre-occupied with the events of the WEC. His place was taken by Tom Gamble who sadly never got to drive any racing laps aboard the #77 but at least he know has the experience of both Sepang and Buriram to add to his his CV.

For the team, there were strong reports that they had filed an application to the ACO for this years Le Mans 24hr event in June, competing in the GTE Am class and with a possible tie up possibilities with Tom Ferrier's TF Sport team in the WEC itself and a part/full season return to the ALMS next year.


What ever happens, it has been fun watching them in ACO rules racing with their Aston and we wait to see (by the end of the week actually) if their dream of Le Mans entry comes off for this year or not!

Photo credits - D'Station Racing

Five Aston Martin Racing cars compete this weekend at two tracks on opposite sides and hemispheres of the world making for a fourteen hour time difference for us watching proceedings from the UK.

Japanese team, D'Station Racing AMR compete in the final round of their Asian Le Mans Series challenge from the Chang Buriram International Circuit in Thailand whilst the AMR factory team and their three GTE cars, alongside TF Sport compete in in the fifth round of the World Endurance Championship over at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.


D'Station have already completed their Qualifying for Sundays final four hour race, with Tomonobu Fujii qualifying the green #77 AMR Vantage GT3 in P4 ahead of a race that they must really win to stand any chance of snatching the Class title and that coveted automatic invitation to the Le Mans 24hr in a GTE Am car.

Fujii joins team co-owner Satoshi Hoshino and series debutant Tom Gamble (in place of Ross Gunn who is racing at CoTA) for the race that begins at 12:15hrs local - thats an eye watering 04:15hrs GMT.


Over in Texas, the four Vantage GTE cars have just completed their second Free Practice session of what is unusually a compressed race weekend featuring track sessions over just Saturday and Sunday.

Thankfully the rains of earlier this week have now passed the circuit by although track and air temperatures have remained low and has caused some difficulties with getting the tyres up to temperature and operating as expected around a circuit that has only recently been mostly resurfaced.


During FP1, the #97 Pro crew of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn headed their six car field with a lap time of 2:01:838 and that was reciprocated by the #95 crew of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim during FP2 with a slightly faster time - only missing out on the top slot at the very last moment of the red flagged shortened session despite technical issues of their own that saw Sorensen stop out on track earlier in the session.

In the eleven strong GTE Am class, the #98 AMR prepared car welcomed back Paul Dalla Lana after his skiing injury induced absence at the Rolex 24 with he, Ross Gunn and Darren Turner being the stronger of the two GTE Am Astons as Salih Yoluc, Charlie Eastwood and Jonny Adam have appeared to be struggling for pace and have had to chase the optimum setup in these opening session just ahead of Qualifying later tonight and despite being lighter than their #98 cousins.


Qualifying starts at 17:40hrs local (23:40hrs GMT) with the start to the Lone Star Le Mans 6hr race being waved off at midday on Sunday local (18:00Hrs GMT).

Photo credits - AMR / WEC / TF Sport 

Private testing is over ahead the final round of the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series over at the Chang Buriram International Circuit this weekend as Japanese based D'Station Racing AMR face an all or nothing prospect as far as their GT Championship aspirations as concerned.

Having endured all that Mother Nature could throw at the team's #77 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 at the last round of the series in Malaysia just a week ago, cruel transmission issues ended their expected points haul run with just over twenty minutes remaining. The team know that nothing short of a class win will be enough before they then have to also rely upon the racing misfortune for others ahead of them in the table before they have any chance of snatching away the GT class crown at the last gasp.


Ross Gunn has also ended his duties with the team in Malaysia as his services are needed over at the Circuit of the Americas as the World Endurance Championship resumes after an extended break in the calendar following the cancellation of the Brazilian event.

Tom Gamble takes Gunn's place alongside team regulars Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii and was in Malaysia to meet the team and watch their methodology before they all made the relatively short trip to Thailand.


The #77 car ended todays Private test day third in class just 0.5 seconds behind the revitalised and class leading JLOC Lamborghini. A further change in Balance of Performance sees the new 2020 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of the #27 HubAuto team have their turbo boost reduced for the event having now run in two races and quickly established huge leads of the other cars in class.


Two Free Practice sessions take place tomorrow with the start of the final four hours of racing starting at 11:45hrs local.

Photo credits - ALMS / D'Station

Having endured chaotic scenes at the start of last weekends penultimate round of the 2019/20 Asian Le Mans Series, Japanese based team D'Station Racing AMR came away from Sepang, Malaysia empty handed after late drive train issues robbed the #77 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 of valuable points needed in their quest to challenge for overall GT Class win and earn themselves an automatic invitation to the Le Mans 24hr.

With heavy and thunderous rain having delayed the start of the race for over an hour and a half, Tomonobu Fujii didn't waste any time in taking the GT Class lead by the end of the opening lap having started in P4 after the days earlier Qualifying session.


Despite issues with the car's door number illumination panels dropping the car out of the top three, Fujii's opening stint and a superb hour long stint from gentleman driver and team co-owner Satoshi Hoshino left the teams super-silver driver, Ross Gunn with little over two hours to battle to regain their position within the top three and those all important points as the then series leading CarGuy Ferrari continued to falter at the rear of the field.

Disaster however struck for the team with just twenty minutes remaining with Gunn returning to the pit lane with technical issues towards the rear of the car that cost the team track position as they attempted repairs but five corners after leaving the pits however, the #77 car ground to a halt and would proceed in the race no further.


That stint would be Gunn's final contribution with the Japanese team as this weekend his driving services would again be required over in the World Endurance Championship with the #98 GTE Am entry as that Championship's fifth round of their 2019/20 season had been rescheduled to the Circuit of the America's in Austin, Texas after the cancellation of the intended Brazilian round two weeks earlier.

As a replacement for Gunn, Aston Martin Racing dispatched the 2018 Autosport Young Driver of the Year winner - Tom Gamble to take Gunn's place as the silver ranked driver in the car in what will only be his second event aboard the 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 having first raced a TF Sport prepared car at last years Aston Martin Festival at the Le Mans 24hr. Having watched the team operate in Sepang he will at least not arrive in Thailand completely green and unprepared.


Points wise - anyone of the remaining six GT entries could in theory win the overall GT title but with only 25 points available for a class win and another for class pole position, the #77 D'Station Racing crew will have to hope for some misfortune for the GT cars ahead of them in the class for that to become a possibility considering their 16 points deficit after last weeks DNF.

Official track action at the Chang Buriram International Circuit begins this Saturday with two Free Practice sessions before Qualifying later in the day before the start of the final four hours of Asian Le Mans Series racing beginning at 11:45am (local) on Sunday.

Photo credits - D'Station Racing / ALMS / Gamble

Having qualified P4 earlier in the day for this evenings penultimate round of the Asian Le Mans Series from Sepang, all appeared to be ticking along quite nicely for the D'Station Racing team and the Series until they and the other twenty two cars from the LMP2, LMP3 and GT classes went to collect upon the starting grid for the race.

Torrential rain together with a thunderous electrical storm directly overhead first put pay to the live stream but quickly bit into other safety critical systems around the circuit that warranted the immediate postponement of the start of the race - fifteen minutes at a time before the delay became indefinite as first the storm had to pass over before some repairs could even begin.


Eventually, by the time the storm had passed and the Series had recovered as many systems around the circuit as they could (approx a 1hr 40min delay), the race eventually began behind the Safety car for two siting laps that Tomonobu Fujii undertook for the D'Station Racing AMR team behind the wheel of their #77 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3.

With TV coverage around the 5.5km, fifteen turn circuit being severely limited as a result of the storm, many camera positions had suffered from direct lightning strikes, so much of the race had to be followed with the benefit of live timing.


Despite the earlier heavy rain, the 31deg ambient temperature soon started drying the race surface as the cars were eventually released where Fujii was able to take the lead of the GT class somewhere around the opening lap which he held by right for the next 25 minutes before Liam Talbot in the #27 HubAuto Ferrari 488 Evo eventually found a route around the Japanese driver.

Forty five minutes in, the first Full Course Yellow allowed these top two GT cars to pit - the #27 electing not to change driver but the D'Station team did swap out Fujii for their gentleman driver and team co-owner Satoshi Hoshino. He went on to drive a great, consistent hour long stint - dropping only one position on track due to the staggered pit stop strategy from all the GT teams to eventually hand the car over to Ross Gunn from P3 with just over two hours remaining.


It became a lonely chase for the AMR factory driver as he began the chase towards the #27 Ferrari and #88 JLOC Lamborghini ahead in class, such were the gaps between them as two further FCY's limited that chase time down by several minutes apiece but at least it was only the top three GT cars on the lead lap of their class!

The #77 AMR car received a report from Race Control to fix both non functioning door number panel illuminations at their next stop (a repair that would cost them time in pit lane) whilst the #27 Ferrari ahead also got reported for speeding under the previous FCY so all was getting exciting in class as all were desperate to out score the then GT Class Championship leading CarGuy Ferrari who had been struggling all race with performance despite their earlier pole position.


Forty nine minutes remaining and Gunn pitted the car for another full service stop, albeit that he would again stay in the vehicle - confusion within the Prodrive support pit crew lead to a wheel rolling back towards the live pit lane and too many mechanics being adjudged to have worked on the car during that stop received then a further report to Race Control.

Ten minutes later the car was back into the pit lane - there appeared to be concern for the rear, non-drivers side of the car that slowed its departure. Was it a puncture or contact damage, we don't yet know but having used the customary cable ties to secure whatever was wrong, that eventually allowed Gunn to depart pit lane again - now down to P4 in class but critically still ahead of the #7 CarGuy Ferrari.


Then - disaster.

Attributed to his earlier stop or not, the timing screen suddenly flashed up that the #77 car had stopped on track at T5 on what would have been his out lap and from there the AMR Vantage GT3 would go no further in the race. Eventually being passed by the #7 car on track, the #77 D'Station car would suffer a non points scoring DNF in Sepang but at least the dismal performance of the then Championship leading #7 car may still leave a life line for the team at the series finale at Buriram in Thailand next weekend.


Indeed, such were the volume of incidence during the final hour of the race, the finishing positions of all classes in Sepang would have to be considered as strictly provisional. Then we will have to see just what Fujii, Hoshino and Tom Gamble can do together in Thailand to see if D'Station Racing AMR can earn themselves a place at the Le Mans 24 Hour.

Update - we understand that the D’Station Racing AMR race ending mechanical issue was done to gearbox failure!

Photo credits - D'Station / ALMS

After a significant amount of investment by the team and its stakeholders looking into every aspect of their racing performances so far, D'Station Racing AMR were hopeful of a good points finish as the Japanese Super GT Series made its way over to Thailand for the Chang Super GT Race from Buriram at the weekend.

For the team of the #7 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3, everything was looking promising as drivers JP de Oliveira and Tmonobu Fuji brought the car back second fastest in Free Practice before Qualifying on the second row (P3) of the GT300 grid ahead of Sundays sixty six lap race.


With de Oliveira taking the start for the team, it was clear that the car had the pace to at least maintain its track position in class in the opening laps of the race with the passing GT500 cars giving rise for opportunist moves. Not being able to make any head way against the class leading Realize GT-R car, Oliveira was at least able to take the Hoppy Racing car for P2 by lap twenty and that extended to an overall class lead by the time the leading #56 car pitted ahead of the halfway point.

A Safety Car for the effects of three tangling GT500 cars temporally delayed the stop for the #7 car before Fujii re-emerged P5 in class by the time all the GT300 cars had made their stop after the race went back to green on lap forty three.


Pushing between P4 and P5, Fujii remained in racing contact with three of the cars ahead giving the potential of an exciting last few laps but that was all dashed on lap 60 when debris on track left the #7 car with a rear right puncture right at the worst position of the lap - in the first sector leaving the Japanese driver a slow and painful return to the pits for repairs. By the time he had reached pit lane the car had already dropped to P15 and that dropped again to P19 by the time it re-joined the track for the last couple of laps.



Utterly devastating for the team to have come so far in performance improvement only for a stray piece of track debris to let it all come crashing back down to zero again. They do however take confidence from their performances on track and will be ready again as the Series returns to the Japanese mainland for round five at Fuji - the endurance round in early August.


Photo credits - D'Station Racing AMR

The fourth round of the Japanese Super GT Series takes place this weekend with D'Station Racing AMR hoping that the change in country changes their fortunes in the series as attention turns to the Chang Super GT race from the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand.

Having turned their allegiances to Aston Martin Racing for this season, D'Station Racing AMR have suffered a dreadful introduction to the GT300 category aboard their AMR Vantage GT3 with both accident damage and most recently technical issues thwarting all endeavours of a point finish at the first three rounds of the series so far in Japan.


Round four features a smaller twenty four car entry including the #7 car of Tomonobu Fuji and JP de Oliveira both of whom were racing at last weekends ADAC Total 24H race in separate Nissan GT-R GT3. Presently, the team features at the foot of the GT300 Series table.


If there is a team out there who need a little bit of luck and support to kick off their 2019 season - its these guys. Fingers crossed.

Photo credits - D'Station Racing AMR

Some would say that it couldn't get much worse than a DNF in a short race series such as the Asian Le Mans Series, but without some quick thinking behind the wheel of the car Red River Sport earlier today they could have been looking at a destroyed car with one round still remaining.

The third round of four of the 2018-19 Asian Le Mans Series was always just another step along the path to their ultimate goal of the 24 house of Le Mans for the mentor/students driver line up that makes the Red River Sport entry. Gentleman driver Ivor Dunbar was still playing 'catch up' to his co driver Bonamy Grimes having missed the opening round of the season in Shanghai whilst both continued to be mentored by their resident professional driver Johnny Mowlem.

Worse was to come however for Mowlem as approaching the hard braking area for the hairpin at turn 3 he found the brake pedal travelling all the way down to the floor - no brakes!! Instinctively, the extremely experience professional immediately placed his car into a spin in order to remove as much momentum from the car as it passed through the gravel trap before it hit the barrier. Such was his skill was that the final tap with the tyre wall was literally a tap - no significant crash damage.

Having been extracted from the gravel trap under a Full Course Yellow Mowlem managed to limp the car back to the pit where it was soon retired from the race on the grounds of safety.