The Racers Group driver Derek DeBoer and his family star in Fastlife, a brand new documentary-style 10-episode reality series streaming now on Amazon Prime.

Just one week after its debut on streaming platform Amazon Prime, Fastlife is quickly becoming a hit. The series, produced and shot by DeBoer’s filmmaker wife Brooke DeBoer, is a no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to become a winning race car driver in the world of competitive racing. From Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas to the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France, Fastlife gives you an all-access pass on the track and off with the DeBoer family as Derek takes the wheel of TRG’s Aston Martin and Lamborghini race cars in Pirelli World Challenge and IMSA action. Derek's TRG SprintX teammate Jason Alexandridis is also featured.

Last weekend's opening round of the 2017 Continental Tyre Sports Car Challenge at the Daytona Motor Speedway left the three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 entries ruing what might have been after a dramatic opening four hour encounter.

With long term series entrants Automatic Racing and TRG-AMR entering three cars between them, a thirty eight car - two category field around the infamous banked circuit was always going to add for good racing and this was no different.

Sunoco Challenge winner Max Bladon took his seat in the #09 Automatic Racing car having tried a GT4 platform for the first time at the Roar and was left (on Saturday) to qualify the yellow and blue in P15 whilst the sister #99 car qualified up in P7. The single TRG-AMR entry of Craig Lyons and Chris Wilson started slightly further back in P17.


After a two lap warm up the race itself started under caution as one of the brand new McLaren's had stopped on track on their out lap but at least that FCY was short lived allowing the cars to get down to racing.

Al Carter in the #99 quickly set about chasing down the pole setting new Ford Mustang's ahead whilst  Bladon and Lyons both held their station throughout the first half hour in the ultra competitive midfield.

The first #TeamAMR casualty was unfortunately the #3 TRG-AMR after just 40 minutes of racing when Lyons entered the bus stop slightly too fast and spun around and back out onto the banking before being immediately collected by the following #4 Porsche Cayman ending both cars race with substantial damage all round. The subsequent FCY at least allowed both the #99 and #09 Automatic Racing cars to pit and double stint their existing drivers to hold P4 and P13 respectively.


With this round being an extended four hour encounter, strategy from the teams with their two or three driver line up would be crucial as each driver would require a 45 minute minimum drive time on top of the fuel and tyre considerations.

Further cautions of track would allow Carter and Bladon to continue until just after the ninety minute mark before they eventually handed their cars over.

The #99 car now had Rob Ecklin behind the wheel but one of his first introductions into the race was being tapped into a harmless but race damaging spin at the Western Horseshoe - that would drop them down to P6 whilst Ramin Abdolvahabi (now in the #09) had dropped back from P9 to P12 before a spin for him going in too hot at T2 would loose them more time as well.


The final driver changes were made with an hour remaining - Charles Espenlaub was now in the #99 car and soon battling for a top three position as he and three other cars bore down on an unsuspecting Chris Beaufait coming off the banking into turn 1!!

However, just two laps later their chance of a podium would effectively end as the #77 McLaren dropped fluid all around the circuit between turns 2 and 6 sending both Automatic Racing cars this way and that as they (and many others) spun off the circuit at speed. Worse was to befall Espenlaub as having already dropped to P8 with that spin he also had to pit again to take on fresh rubber.

The length of clean up to that incident left just 30 minutes of racing - enough time at least for Espenlaub to try and recover the situation in the hope of bolstering their championship point position going into the next round. Come the chequered flag the #99 would finish a disappointing (for them) P7 and the #09 P11.


Daytona's display showed that the newer Ford's, Porsche's and McLarens were susceptible to 'new car' problems in longevity and reliability whilst the Vanatge GT4 is a proven platform - good things can be expected from this team through out the 2017 CTSC season.

The CTSC series now moves to Sebring in mid March for a 'more traditional' two hour race.

Photo credits - TRG-AMR / Sunoco / Automatic Racing

More akin to racing around the national circuits of Britain in his Cooper Class Mini Challenge car, 2017 Sunoco Challenge winner Max Bladon found himself elevated to the dizzy heights of testing an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 ready for the Continental Tyre Sports Car Challenge four hour support race at the Rolex 24 at the end of January.

With past winners usually testing a Sunoco liveried Ford Mustang (or similar), Bladen found himself placed with CTSC and Aston Martin stalwarts Automatic Racing for this weekends three day test spending time in both of the teams #09 and #99 GS class entered cars.


Indeed, far from embarrassing himself he and his team mates (together with the two TRG-AMR entries pictured below) finished the extended test all within the top half of the T&S screen which, for a car/tyre/team/circuit novice is truly admirable.



The #71 Gregory Milzcik/Brandon Davis TRG-AMR car indeed finished P2 overall come the end of the CTSC test session.

All return to Daytona for their extended for 2017 four hour support race prior to the Rolex 24 race itself on Saturday 28th January.

2016 has certainly been a very successful year for both Aston Martin Racing and its global customer team network, with some new teams stepping onto the podium for the first time and other more established teams clinching a number of international and national championships. All will now be looking to channel this #TeamAMR success into their own programmes for 2017.

Coming up first in 2017 will be the Rolex 24 headline event from the IMSA series where we believe (although not officially confirmed) a GTD (GT3) entry return to the Daytona circuit for the third placed World Endurance Championship GTE Am driver line up of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathas Lauda. That same trio together with additional driver Richie Stanaway finished fourth at this event in 2016 so they will be looking for a similar strong performance to 'spring board' their 2017 WEC efforts.


Also at the Rolex 24 and featuring in the Continental Sports Car Challenge support series on the IMSA package will be a V8 Vantage GT4 entry from The Racer Group (see previous post) for Craig Lyons and Kris Wilson.

Just a week later comes the Bathurst 12hr from Mount Panorama in Australia. We already know from the official entry list that there should be at least four AMR cars at the event - two potential V12 Vantage GT3 cars from Miedecke Stone Racing team with a V8 Vantage GT4 and Vantage GT8 from Swiss based St Gallen's R-Motorsport racing arm as they return to the Mountain with AMR works driver Darren Turner for his first Aussie adventure.


After the official AMR winter test at Portimao, Portugal in mid February the works team will be focussing on the upcoming WEC Prologue at Imola, Italy towards the end of March. Again in the absence of any official confirmation we expect another two car GTE Pro entry with the Young Driver AMR squad defending their Driver and Team Championship wins with certainly one GTE Am entry - rumoured two??!!

Then a few days after that will be the turn of the European Le Mans Series entries, with defending GTE Champions Beechdean AMR being expected to step up yet another level and compete in a 2016 specification car. Also from what has (or indeed hasn't been said) upon social media it appears that team's young hot shot Ross Gunn could be the second third of the trio alongside team boss Andrew Howard but again that is yet to be officially confirmed.

Expected to join them in 2017 will be TF Sport having scooped the team championship in the inaugural GT3 Le Mans Cup Series with Salih Yoloc and Euan Hankey. That championship win guaranteed the team an automatic entry into the 2017 24hrs of Le Mans subject to a full season ACO sanctioned series entry in 2017. Drivers and car specification is again yet to be confirmed.


Then, there is always the highly competitive British GT Championship with another plethora of Aston's expected to enter across the two classes. To date just both of the TF Sport GT3 cars have been confirmed with both Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam returning to defend their GT3 titles along with three seats out of four at MacMillan Racing and their new for '17 GT3 and GT4 entry package.

More on that front will become public knowledge as we get closer to the Championship's Media Day at Snetterton on the 28th March.

That still leaves teams such as Solaris who endured a topsy-turvy season first time out in their V12 Vantage GT3 in the Italian GT Championship but despite that they enjoyed a small handful of podium positions, so with a full season under their belt we expect them to perform stronger.


The same could be said of the Miedecke Stone Racing outfit who claimed their first outright race win at Sydney and had a few more potential podium positions cruelly taken from them in the Australian Endurance Championship. Theres more to be seen from these guys - starting at Bathurst in February!

All will come apparent as the days and weeks into 2017 pass us by. In the meantime we would like to thank you all for your support in 2016 and look forward to what should be a cracking 2017.

Happy New Year.

#TeamAMR

Photo credits - GT3 LMC / R Motorsport / Daytona / AMR

The Racers Group will sport at least one Aston Martin V8 Vantage in the 2017 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge with Craig Lyons and Kris Wilson teaming up for the first time with this British GT4 car in the GS class.