In interesting event at the Zhuhai International Circuit last week as the Chinese BSEM AMR team held a multi-vehicle corporate day at the circuit with its fleet of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 cars.

With many Chinese provinces still locked down to motor racing events, this has been one of the few showings within the country for a team that hasn’t now competed on track since the end of 2019.

A bizarre set of circumstances befell the BSEM Asia Sonic Racing team at the Shanghai International Circuit as they competed in the third round of the China GT Championship this weekend.

Again entering a pair of Aston Marin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's - old and new specification -
Qualifying on Friday didn't exactly go to plan as the newer #618 car of David Pun and Yves Volte only just finished ahead of the normally aspirated 2016 #619 car of Zhang Fangxuan and Stanley Yang with P7/P8 and P9/P10 starting slots respectively for the two - one hour races over both Saturday and Sunday.


Featuring a lower car count than previous years, just 17 cars started race 1 under light drizzle as the cars formed on the grid. Starting and running on slick tyres, all appeared well at first until just after the pit stop window had closed when the heavens suddenly opened, drenching the circuit and leaving the struggling competitors to aquaplane all around the circuit. Indeed, such was the 'devastation' on track that the race was red flagged with still over 15 minutes left on the clock - the race wouldn't be restarted.

For the older #619 car, the early termination of the race would see them finish a very credible P4 whilst the newer #619 car has struggled throughout the race with transmission problems - forcing the crew to pit multiple times before a wild spin in the rain saw them ultimately classified as the final finisher in Race 1, down in P12.


For Sundays second race of the meeting, the rain at least arrived and fell before the scheduled start but then gave all the dilemma of tyre selection with half the track remaining wet for the start. That however, didn't effect the way Aston Martin Racing Academy driver Yves Volte ran his race as he would ultimately hand the #618 car over to gentleman driver David Pun from P3 although that would drop to P5 by the close of the race.

Importantly though, this P5 finish would firstly be their highest finish of the season so far but also marked another milestone for the new AMR Vantage GT4 in claiming its first Asian theatre podium with a P3 Pro-Am finish for the pairing.


The sister #619 car didn't appear to run in race 2 and at first we didn't know why until video footage was released of a nasty incident involving the car at the point immediately before the race was red flagged. Approaching a sharp left hand corner, the clip shows the #619 aquaplaning into the corner, spinning around before slamming into the front of another car that had already spun - sadly for the driver (Yang) that impact resulted in sizeable damage to the car and a (?) broken leg for himself.


The Championship now has six weeks off before round 4 from Shougang GT Circuit, Ginhuangdao in mid August.

Hopefully, the tide of misfortune has now turned for these guys and we wish Stanley Yang a speedy recovery.

Photo credit - China GT 

With the new 2019 China GT Championship season just around the corner, we find that its all change within the Championship as the primary Aston Martin Racing team enters into its third year of racing within the GT4 class

New Year - new cars - new drivers - new team name and indeed new racing rules are just some of the changes that we can expect to see as the 2019 season looks to kick off at the Asia GT Festival from the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia in little under three weeks time.


Firstly, China Equity AMR have changed their team name over the winter to become Asia Sonic Racing to reflect that of the teams primary backers title in Beijing Sonic Events Management that has appeared on the teams title banner from the start. Then, it has been confirmed that the team will be running two 2019 specification cars at the opening event of the season in Malaysia (as long as they arrive from the factory in time) - the first time the Championship has ran outside of mainland China.

Next up come the drivers - only two have been confirmed publicly so far and thats Yves Volte - the young German racer who now resides in China and who raced with the team so competitively at the final to races last year in Shanghai. He - as only announced today will share his car with returning team driver David Pun - but not for Malaysia as prior engagements will keep Pun away.


A replacement for Pun at the Asia GT Festival together with the driver line up for the second car remained unconfirmed although sources from the AMR suggest that all other drivers recruited into the team for the 2019 season will be regionally based pay drivers so unfortunately we will not be seeing the likes of reigning China GT GT4 Champion Jack Mitchell nor AMR factory driver Ross Gunn make a return to the Championship.

Next up we see a new name come forward to compete with an AMR platform for the first time and that will be in the form of King Dcar Racing - a previous GT3 championship winning team who will enter the Festival with a mix of Mercedes AMG GT3's and AMR Vantage GT4's (we believe these cars to be the older 2016 specification) amongst their four confirmed entries.


In terms of rule changes, now both Pro and Am drivers will be required to each set a time in Qualifying - times that will be used to determine their grid starting positions and the driver who starts race 2 must be different to that who starts race 1. That sequence must also be determined in advance to the event by the team. Remaining changes evolve around points awarded as well as the introduction of a new Manufacturers Championship.

The Asia GT Festival starts the season over the weekend of the 16/17th March with five further double header race weekends between then and mid October with a further invitational race possible around the street circuit of Wuhan in November.

Photo credits - Asia Sonic Racing

Another great weekend for Aston Martin Racing success around the world today as Jack Mitchell todays secures the China GT Championship GT4 Drivers title alongside China Equity AMR winning the Team title in Shanghai this earlier morning.

With the results still provisional, todays final race of the season was certainly something of a nervy one as Stanley Yang had to fend off the close attention of the #540 McLaren to a point where both cars actually collided (twice) with one another on only the first corner of the second lap. That contact proved to be the end of the race for the #540 car first spinning and then stopping out on track but at least Yang was able to continue and hold station on track in P3 although his speed had dropped slightly going into the pit stop window.


The cars of the weekend were clearly both KTM X-Bows who had already locked out two steps of the GT4 podium yesterday with Mitchell and Yang splitting the pair to claim second in Race 1 and to go into todays final race 8 crucial points ahead of the #570 McLaren of David McKintyre. The weekend was always going to be difficult for the McLaren due to the superiority of the AMR V8 Vantage GT4 around the Shanghai circuit but the final nail went into the #570's Championship's aspirations after contact with the #619 China Equity AMR car that damaged the McLaren's suspension and power steering - a situation that could well have happened with the #618 Mitchell/Yang car earlier in the race - then the championship positions would have been reversed!


After the pit stops Mitchell was to emerge from the pits to continue the battle with the KTM's with the sister #999 China Equity car alongside. With their championship rivals at the Winning Team clearly not having the track position to contest the championship fight the race was to end with David Pun graciously allowing Mitchell past just before the flag in order for the #618 car to claim both P3 in the race but also the GT4 Drivers and Team Championships in the process.


Well done to the China Equity AMR team for putting the resources into place for the 2018 season to have a truely competitive chance this year after their tentative steps in the clearly expanding series last year where they finished third overall. With the team a significant investor within the Aston Martin Lagonda company we would assume that they will be back in 2019 with several examples of certainly the new AMR Vantage GT4 and even maybe the new GT3 Vantage.

Obviously well done to Jack Mitchell who claims his second GT4 Drivers Championship of the year after lifting the British GT GT4 Drivers Championship last month and we look forward to where about you might pop up in next year as well!

Photo credits - China GT / China Equity AMR

With presumably multiple new Aston Martin Racing Vantage's on order with the Prodrive factory, Partner team China Equity AMR will see out their domestic China GT Championship with four Vantage GT4's running at this weekends finale in Shanghai.

GT4 Championship Jack Mitchell is indeed joined again by Stanley Yang as the team pulls out all the stops to help the recently crowned British GT GT4 Championship overcome his two point championship deficit to lift GT4 class title by the end of Sunday.

After Qualifying today for Saturday's first race of the week, Mitchell was the fastest individual around the Shanghai International circuit and by the time Yang entered his times the duo find themselves starting from P2 on the grid for race 1 tomorrow. His main championship rival, David McKintyre in his #570 McLaren which he will again share with Charlie Fagg will start from seventh in tomorrows opener and a finishing position in that order will create an interesting final race on Sunday.


Joining the #618 car will be three more V8 Vantage GT4's from the Chinese team, the first time since the opening races back in May and all distinctly liveried whilst running almost a new driver line that before in the championship.


The #619 car will run an all Bronze crew of Yves Volte and Tu Rong Zhen, the #721 car another an all Bronze crew of You Zhao and Yang Zhi Yi and #999 car for Shang Zong Yi and the returning David Pun. The #721 and #999 cars certainly appear to have some sort of connection with last years AMR customer team Zea Fea Racing.


Photo credits - China GT / China Equity 

Our best wishes extend this weekend to the British GT GT4 Champion Jack Mitchell who will travel to Shanghai for the final, championship deciding round of the China GT Championship with his China Equity AMR team.

With the team swapping around his co driver from the regular Ryan Liu to Stanley Yang for the championship's first visit to the street circuit of Wuhan two weeks ago, and despite two P2 finishing positions at that event, Mitchell now finds himself back behind the Winning Team's McLaren 570S of  David McKintyre going in the finale.


The deficit has come about by the #570 McLaren finishing on the top step of the GT4 podium at Wuhan for both races giving McKintyre a slender two point lead of Mitchell and rekindling the battle that both have been enjoying all season.

With twenty five points available per race it is certainly all to play for as China GT returns to the Shanghai circuit again.

Photo credits - China GT

Despite achieving two podiums at rounds nine and ten of the 2018 China GT Championship this week, China Equity AMR's Jack Mitchell and Stanley Yang come away from the event having lost their GT4 Championship lead with just the season finale in Shanghai coming up in two weeks time.

With little information again coming out of central China in terms of video footage and timely race reports, we can see that the #618 crew benefited early on in race 1 of the week as the pole setting McLaren became carried away on the tight street circuit of Wuhan, colliding heavily firstly into another car before the barriers causing a long Safety Car period whist the debris as cleared.


For the immediate period after and up the the compulsory pitstop window at the halfway mark Yang led the race with the team's sister #618 car close behind before Charlie Fagg emerged from the pit lane in his Winning Team McLaren in between the two AMR's leaving something of a repeat of the final round of the British GT Championship when Mitchell secured his GT4 crown.

After putting in repeated laps quicker then Mitchell, Fagg eventually passed his fellow Brit to take the class win - something he seemed considerably pleased with considering what happened at Donington Park two weeks ago.


Race 2 of the Championship was something of a domineering affair for the two Winning Team McLaren's as they held a controlling 1-2 over both Astons leading into the pitstop window. Team orders or just a chivalrous act followed allowing the then trailing car of Charlie Fagg (who had taken over again from team GT4 Championship contender David McKintyre) to pass the leading McLaren to claim maximum points from the weekend.


The #618 car was hampered on the damp street track after Yang made early contact with the barrier requiring a long pitstop for repairs but at least a little luck was to come their way after the race. The sister Winning Team McLaren of Dong Liang was later disqualified from the race for a technical infringement - a decision that elevated the #618 crew up to second place for the second time of the event with the sister China Equity AMR in third.


That result returns the Championship lead to David McKintyre by just two points over Jack Mitchell with the final event in Shanghai to come!

Photo credits - China GT / China Equity AMR

With so many national and European race series having already come to an end you would have thought that this year's motor racing season was coming to another natural conclusion for the year, but in fact this weekend is just as busy as another other in the year (and will be for the next few weeks) as many members of the #TeamAMR family will be striving for success around the world.

Firstly, the China GT Championship's penultimate round in the more central Chinese city of Wuhan is already underway with a mid week fixture around its street circuit as China Equity AMR look to strengthen their slender four point GT4 championship lead over the chasing pack with just four races remaining.


In a slight change to the driver line up, Stanley Yang takes his seat back again behind the wheel of the  team's championship leading #618 car and will with freshly crowned British GT GT4 Champion Jack Mitchell as Ryan Liu takes a 'back seat'. The team's #619 car will again be driven by David Pun and Will O'Brien.


We understand from race organisers that there will be NO live stream of either race over their social media channels which is a great shame!


With huge significance for the Aston Martin Racing team, Saturday sees the first competitive race entry for its yet to be homologated V8 Vantage GT3 at the penultimate round of the German VLN Series from the Nordschleife. Entering its final and critical phase of development, the demands of the Green Hell will be used to finely tune the new GT3 platform ahead of its official homlogation date of early March 2019 but which time many new cars will have already been supplied to the first bunch of customer teams.

AMR factory drivers Darren Turner and Maxime Martin will get the honour of driving the #56 car in Saturday's four hour race and that will be after Martin and Jonny Adam have finished with it after a further two day test at the Circuit de Catalunya this week. You will recall that AMR test and WEC reserve driver Ross Gunn had the overall honour of launching the new car onto the world stage by 'coming first' in the Aston Martin Racing Festival race at Le Mans in June although then the car was  more a of GTE than a GT3.

Supporting the factory effort in the new GT3 and launching their own pathways through to the all important VLN GT3 Permit aboard one of the AMR Performance Centre's Vantage #150 GT4 will be Ross Gunn competing alongside AML development driver Chris Goodwin in what we believe may be his first public racing experience with Aston Martin?


Long term AMR Performance Centre customer Jurgen Kroner will again peddle his wares around the circuit in the Centre's Vantage S car alongside Marco Muller and a double stinting Turner in the AMR Performance centre #144 Vantage S.

Full season entry from Avia Racing will again be back with their #188 Vantage GT4, presumably desperate to overcome their recent run of bad luck with two DNF's and most latterly a DNS after a season that started so well for them.


Back in the UK, the Dunlop sponsored Britcar Championships hold their penultimate round of the season at Silverstone with just Chris Murphy and his Whitebridge AMR holding the flag for the marque with the EDF Motorsport prepared Vantage GT4 of Mal Sandford again sitting the round out after something of a mixed bag last time out at Snetterton.


Finally in club racing, the Aston Martin Owners Club also have their final round of the season at Silverstone alongside Britcar. It was hoped that Gleb Stepanov's Aston Martin Vulcan could have been there again after it wowed the crowd last time out at Snetterton but now we understand that following an extended run out at both the Best of Italy Festival and then a private Aston Martin Vulcan customer test at Vallelunga the other week, that has now put pay to that possibility sadly.


And at Snetterton 22GT Racing will be along with one of their V8 Vantage GT4's that they helped run at the Aston Martin Racing Festival At Le Mans in the 750MC event on Saturday.

Photo credits - EDF Motorsport / AMOC / AML / China GT

Fresh from his British GT GT4 Championship winning performance from Donington Park at the weekend, Kent based racer Jack Mitchell is back over in China ready to face his greatest test in the China GT Championship as he hopes to secure his championship crown of the year.

Racing the #618 China Equity AMR V8 Vantage GT4, Mitchell and co driver Ryan Liu presently lead the GT4 Championship by four points from Radical RXC racer and fellow Englishman, Tom Ashton. The characteristics of that leader board changed somewhat after two disastrous racers for both the China Equity AMR crew but also by their then main championship contenders in the  Winning Team McLaren 570s - it was just a case of the #618 car doing less badly!


Races nine and ten of a twelve race season takes place on a street circuit around the city of Wuhan in central China. We believe that this may be Mitchell's first taste of a street circuit which he will partner new co driver Stanley Yang who replaces Liu at least at this event due to the Am drivers recent bout of collisions and race time wasting penalties. Yang is the driver that AMR factory driver Ross Gunn partnered last year in the Championship in which the Taiwanese driver finished third overall - this year the team want to win the class!


Like all street circuits Qualifying is everything as by the looks there will be little availability to overtake without risk and faced with a new person who has not raced for nearly a year at the wheel of his car any emphasis to recover any situation on track will be upon Mitchell's shoulders.

Both races take place over the 4th/5th October.

Photo credit - China GT

Looking to close down and overcome the points deficit to the then GT4 Championship leading McLaren 570S, China Equity AMR frontrunners Jack Mitchell and Ryan Liu endured something of a chaotic fourth round of the China GT Championship from the Shanghai International Circuit at the weekend.

Early signs of promise in Qualifying for the front row in race 1 soon disappeared after an unseen manoeuvre from Am driver Ryan Liu made contact with David McIntyre's championship leading McLaren causing race ending damage to that cars cooling system after just ten minutes of racing.

For that Liu was soon awarded a drive through penalty for the avoidable collision.


Meanwhile, the sister #619 China Equity AMR car of David Pun and Bill O'Brian had been having technical problems of their own over Qualifying 1 and Race - issues that eventually led to an engine change for their golden Vantage GT4.

By the time the pits tops had been completed and Liu and handed over to Mitchell, the #618 car had dropped down to a distant fifth with thirty two minutes of the race still remaining. Despite best efforts to put in successively quicker laps, Mitchell became hampered with overheating issues with the AMR V8 and forcing him to slow to finish the race in P5 and just ahead of the sister #619 car in P6.


Race two on Sunday was something of a strange affair with Race Control forcing the grid around for a second formation lap before eventually calling a start to the somewhat disorganised grid at the third time of asking.

Liu again started for the #618 car from towards the rear of the grid before steaming up around the outside of the pack to claim third spot by the time they hit the third corner of the first lap but unfortunately his haste caught him up to the rear of the pole setting BMW too quickly for him to control the situation that then unfolded. With the BMW moving across the track to take the apex of the next left hander, Liu failed to lift to allow the BMW racing room clipping the rear of the M4 into a spin.

Just a few corners later another incident with other cars saw the Ginetta's spear out into the inside barrier requiring the services of the Safety Car.


On the restart O'Brian pushed his cooling tyres too hard to spin out from T7 whilst holding a comfortable fourth just seven minutes before the opening of the pit window with the incident involving the #618 being confirmed to be investigated after the race by Race Control whilst Mitchell was moving up to P2.

Just a couple of corners later Mitchell's car came to a dramatic halt at the hairpin stopping mid corner loosing loads of time whilst he reset the car before he was slowly able to move away with ten minutes remaining.


Crossing the line in fourth, the #618 was later given a post race 23 second time penalty for the earlier contact with the BMW although, fortunately for them that did not alter the finishing order so they leave Shanghai as the GT4 Championship leaders as the series moves on to the Wuhan Street Circuit in early October.

Whilst the #618 car failed to capitalise on earlier promise they at least saw that the #570 Winning Team McLaren suffered varying degrees of technical issue (including them actually hitting it) which limited their points haul from the event. The trouble is that two other teams have now pulled themselves up into contention.

Photo credits - China Equity AMR / China GT

Not quite an Aston Martin fortunately, but this was the fiery end to the CWS Ginetta that Academy Motorsport boss Matt Nichol-Jones was due to co race at the 24H Series event at Barcelona today. The virtues of starting from class pole didn't help the car at all as Finlay Hutchison had to abandon ship in the very early stages of the race - although he was OK the car was extensively damaged.

Over in China, Jack Mitchell and Ryan Liu endured some self inflicted pain as early contact with the GT4 Championship leading McLaren led to a drive through and then some over heating issues in the latter stages of race 1. Fortunately for the China Equity AMR duo is that the #570 McLaren also retired so that almost stagnates the championship tables.


The #620 R-Motorsport AMR also in the 24H Series race at Barcelona made their first start in the Creventic series difficult by loosing over half an hour having to change the cars front splitter after early race contact with their Pro driver behind the wheel!!

The best news of the day comes from Donington Park and the first two races of the penultimate meeting of the GT Cup Championship. Two wins in the GTH class for overall championship contenders Adam Hatfield and Chris Murphy has done their title ambitions no harm at all whilst returning former overall championship contender, Nigel Hudson wins the second race of the day.


Its also been great to see Beechdean AMR back in another series and in the thick of things - Andrew Howard fastest in morning Practice and then a P2 Qualifying and race finish aboard his GT3 whilst Paul Hollywood got some more master classes from former Beechdean boy Ross Gunn in the #407 GT4 car.


Today has been a busy day - and it all gets repeated tomorrow!

Photo credits - China Equity AMR / Steve Jackman / FFSA GT4 / 24H Series