The Japanese D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team did their Super GT Championship ambitions a world as they saw out the fifth round of the season from Suzuka earlier today.

Again running both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg aboard the green liveried #777 car, the last round of the season was a bitter pill for them all to swallow as both high success ballast and a fuel flow restrictor saw it impossible for them to even consider even a lower end points finish, but this weekend was different.

 

Having lost a fair wedge of that earlier success ballast (thanks to their poor result at Fuji Speedway), the newfound performance of the #777 was quickly realised in qualifying as the car booked a front row start for Sunday’s 300km race from second in the GT300 class.

Starting on a bright and warm track, it was full defence mode for most of the opening lap as the #777 defended its second position on track with Viger – sometimes going the long way around the corners just to stay where they were before eventually the challenging Mercedes did drop back. The team would maintain their position up until the first FCY for a stranded GT500 in the gravel on lap seventeen.

 

Pitting early compared to some within class, the #777 did fall outside of the top ten as they waited for the remaining half of the grid to make their respective stops to equalise out that equation as the race entered its second half. That was eventually realised by about lap thirty but which time the Aston Martin had dropped to fourth in class.

With just five laps to go, a late Safety Car for another GT500 car in the gravel and tyre wall calmed things down but the circuit damage would see the race finishing still behind the Safety Car with the D’Station Racing crew claiming enough points to pull their championship points back up to second in class as the series heads to Sugo towards the end of September.

Photo credits - Team

 

With both America and Europe seeing most of the Aston Martin Racing powered action this weekend, the Japanese Super GT Series will also be running what is their fifth scheduled round of the season from Suzuka.

Although only running as the fourth actual race weekend of the season after the cancellation of their annual fly-away round from Sepang and couple of months ago, we again look forward to the #777 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg to support.

 

Last time out at the beginning of August at their ‘home’ circuit of Fuji Speedway, the #777 car was severely handicapped with both a maximum success ballast allocation as well as a fuel flow restrictor being applied during their pitstop which obviously affected the team’s performance.

Eventually finishing P23 within their GT300 class, that also saw their championship slump down the order from the head of the pack prior to that 300km event to come away fifth overall in the championship, but still just five points behind the new leaders.

 

Going into this weekend’s 300km race this weekend, their success ballast remains at 70kg over the car’s declared base weight but that is no longer as much as those now above them in the championship.

Competing within another GT300 class size of twenty-nine runners, track action will begin again with Practice and Qualifying on Saturday before the race on Sunday.

Photo credits - Team

 

Fuji’s return round of the 2026 Super GT Series was always going to be a difficult race affair for the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing powered crew as the effects of the then championship leading status took full effect.

Having skipped the last round due to the cancellation of the fly-away race from Sepang, the last race from Fuji Speedway in early May had been the last time the collective GT500 and GT300 classes had been together ahead of what was to be a ‘usual’ 300km race this time around.

With both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg back aboard the #777 AMR Vantage GT3, Saturday’s qualifying position of P27 out of a GT300 class size of twenty-nine cars came as no surprise to them.

 

The race itself got underway on Sunday in a startling way as it was red flagged on only the fifth lap after a GT500 car became airborne along the damp start straight before coming down in something of a crumpled heap. Fortunately, the driver was reported as being otherwise no worse for his unplanned flight along the pit wall but the necessary time for his extraction from the car and the clean-up operation was obviously made.

The race eventually got back underway with still fifty-five minutes on the clock but for the #777 crew, the 70kg of additional success ballast and the additional ten seconds on the refuelling meant that they were never to be in contention within the top twenty in class.

 

The crew eventually finished P23 as attention now moves onto Suzuka at the end of August.

Photo credits - Team

Three further Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews see out this weekend’s mainstream events for AMR’s customer and Partner teams across the world as both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Prosport Racing teams return to the Nurburgring Nordschleife for the latest round of the NLS season and the D’Station Racing team make a return in the Japanese Super GT Series.

Starting in Germany, there has been some controversary already this week after another Nurburgring based endurance series was confirmed for 2027 supported by enticing automatic entries and reduced fees into next year’s ADAC Ravenol 24H main event. All of this would again be in direct competition with the more established Nurburgring Langstrecken Series (nee VLN Series) who race again this weekend with another healthy multi-classed grid.

 

Competing within Saturday’s six hour will again be the #35 Walkenhorst SP9 Pro class entry of Christian Krognes and Dennis Fetzer who last time out in late June (and alongside Mateo Villagomez) secure both overall pole position for the first time plus managing to bring their car home P5 overall, P3 in class.

They will be joined again by the #37 Prosport Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Maxime and Guido Dumarey alongside Marek Bochmann, a team who was also successful last time out in that four-hour race by finishing third within their SP9 Am class. This weekend’s race will, however, be a six-hour affair.

 

Finally, we welcome the cars and teams of the Japanese Super GT Series back on track this weekend as after an enforced layover following the cancellation of the intended third round of the season at Sepang in late June.

For this weekend, the combined GT500 and GT300 grids of which the #777 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg will again be part of as they protect their slender GT300 class lead after their class win first time out at Okayama followed up by a P7 finish at Fuji.

 

This weekend, the series is again back at the Fuji Speedway but this time for a more typical race calendar with a 300km race as opposed to the two individual sprint races as tried last year.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

The D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing claimed enough points at the end of their second round to the Japanese Super GT Series earlier today to retain (an albeit slender) lead within their GT300 class.

Racing today at their ‘home’ circuit of Fujii Speedway, the #777 crew of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg were facing the prospect of running this weekend’s three-hour race (as opposed to a more traditional 300km race) with maximum success ballast after their lights to flag class win at the end of the opening round from Okayama.

 

Reporting back during Free Practice and Qualifying issues of tyre degradation and a lowered level of performance (with the BoP ballast weight having its desired effect), the crew were having to find compromises to make up for that.

Having Qualified in eleventh within their class set of twenty-eight other entries, it was a warm start to the day as Fujii again did the opening stint to the race before handing over to Fagg in P9th before he too elevated their track position in class up to seventh at the end of his run.

 

With the success ballast and a new fuel flow restrictor being imposed onto their stops, the #777 crew still managed to come home In seventh for nine more valuable championship points to secure their class lead as the series now has an elongated wait through the period of the now postponed visit to Sepang before its next round of the season, again from Fuji Speedway in early August.

Photo credits – D’Station Racing

 

 

 

 

D’Station Racing will be upon home turf this weekend as they face the second round of the Japanese Super GT Series from their local Fuji Speedway circuit.

Having won the opening round to the season at Okayama a month ago with their #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 with drivers Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg aboard, all will be looking for something similar this weekend as their race demands increases from a usual 300km affair to a three-hour enduro.

 

For this weekend’s second round to the now seven round season (having had the series indefinitely postpone its travels to Sepang) again sees the #777 crew compete within a twenty-nine strong GT300 class entry plus those faster GT500 class cars too. With this longer race, some of the GT300 entries will be running a three-man crew but not D’Station.

As a result of the #777 crew winning last time out, they will be saddled with an additional 52kg of success ballast for their efforts for an event which will see their usual split format qualifying on Saturday before the race on Sunday.

Photo credits – Team

 

 

 

Emulating the race winning ways of their AMR powered European cousins this weekend, the Japanese based D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team went one better than the Comtoyou Racing team at their opening round of their national Super GT Series.

Beating the #7 Comtoyou Racing’s qualifying position by one to secure a season opening pole position within the GT300 class at today’s Okayama opener, the #777 D’Station Racing pairing of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg went on to run a near lights to flag class win at the end of the 300km race.

 

With weather conditions staying fine over the race weekend, the #777 backed up a good pre-season build up started the officially timed sessions only eighth fastest in Free Practice before going onto shave another 2.4 seconds off that lap time to secure pole position from the #2 Bridgestone tyre shod Toyota.

In a surprisingly clean race, an early stop for fuel for the #777 still saw them come through to the midway stop and driver change in the class lead before Fagg rounded off an otherwise faultless team performance to win the class by over seven seconds.

 

The next round will be from the teams ‘home’ circuit of Fuji Speedway in just over two weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Team / social media

 

 

 

 

 

Rounding off the Aston Martin Racing powered involvement around the world this weekend is another significant GT series kicking off its 2026 campaign as the Japanese Super GT season gets underway at Okayama.

Formerly running as part of an eight-round calendar but some new released by the series earlier in the week saw there long haul to Sepang get postponed indefinitely with the series citing increasing travel costs as the reason.

 

Despite that, the headlining Japanese GT series continues to be in rude health both in the topflight GT500 class as well as the GT3 based GT300 class which is where we will find the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Raving Vantage GT3 again.

This time familiarity will be the case as drivers Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg reunite for another campaign in the class, something that the team excelled at during the middle of last season before unfortunately falling away at the end after crashing out of an important round.

 

 

It appears that we all get a weekend off early season motor racing this time around as we look forward to the next batch of IMSA Series racing due to take place over the final weekend in February.

Until then, and to a point where we will find out if we will have any Aston Martin Racing powered runners within the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series visit to CoTA, we can take a quick look back at the snippets of news that have come out from other AMR powered runners over the last week or so. (UPDATE - unfortunately there are none being listed!)

 

The Japanese D’Station Racing team where out this week in a pre-season Super GT Series test from their home circuit of Fuji Speedway.

The team have already confirmed the return of both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg within the team’s #777 Vantage GT3 entry but it was just the team manager on hand this week as they clocked up some valuable laps as the event was curtailed to just a single day due to track conditions in the bitter cold. The team will now look forward to two official test dates before the opening round to the season from Okayama in April.

 

 

The Spanish based E2P Racing team have had their 24H Series European Series entry confirmed with a four-man driver line up and their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 that they have already raced this year within the GT Winter Series 6 Hours of Portimao a couple of weeks ago.

This will be the team’s second season with the Aston but their fourth within the Creventic lead series.

 

 

Within the ranks of the British GT Championship, the GBR Stratton Motorsport team have again bee out pre-season testing – this time at Donington Park where a familiar face in John Hartshorne having his name above one of the doors of one of the team’s two Vantage GT4 cars that they have entered.

The team is due out again next week at Snetterton and then at Silverstone before we hopefully hear of some definitive names within their GT4 entries ahead of Media Day at Silverstone at the end of March.

 

 

Within Britcar, the Addison Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of father and son namesakes Martin and Bill Addison have also been confirmed earlier the month with the crew moving up to the 17A variant of the car late last season with some immediate class success.

 

 

The Japanese based D’Station Racing team confirmed some good news today as well as detailing a shift from their usual positions for their domestic racing programme this season.

Firstly, the good news was that of their Aston Martin Racing powered return to the topflight Super GT Series with drivers Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg pairing up again for their third season togther aboard their #777 entry.

 

It was a final race visit to the podium for the Japanese D’Station Racing team as they secured a P3 finish to the final round of their domestic Super Taikyu Series efforts from their home track of Fuji Speedway.

Having Qualified in fifth, the #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Yuki Kamimura and Tomonobu Fujii driven car still needed a strong overall finish going into this final four-hour race to cement their fourth-place position within their ST-X class championship. Having skipped the Fuji 24 in favour of partnering their ST-1 Porsche effort, the team had no chance of progressing higher within the class as a result, but a poor display could have seen them drop another position.

 

The Japanese Super Taikyu Series will be running their seventh and final round to their 2025 season this weekend from Fuji Speedway where the locally based D’Station Racing team should again be in attendance with their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3.

Again running another bumper nine class entry, the #777 D’Station Racing entry will be competing within the seven strong and topflight ST-X class with drivers Satoshi Hoshino, Yuta Kamimura and Tomonobu Fujii again behind the wheel.

 

It was a disappointing conclusion to their Super GT Series endeavours for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 team at the end of today’s final round of the season from Motegi.

Having already lost their chance at the GT300 class crown after an untimely string of three no or low points scoring rounds, their arrival at a circuit not exactly suited to their car’s performance characteristics didn’t raise any hopes of a final resurgence going into this final round either.

 

There’s no let up for the D’Station Racing team as they head out for their third back-to-back racing weekend within their domestic arena – this time for the finale of their headlining Super GT Series programme.

Now with three outings out within the GT300 class producing no or low championship points finishes for their #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entry of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg, their class championship battles are sadly at an end although there are of course possibilities for them to climb back up the leaderboard slightly by the end of Sunday’s 300km finale from Motegi.

 

It was a successful return to the Super Taikyu Endurance Series for the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew as they secured another P3 podium finish at the end of today’s three-hour race at Okayama.

Having qualified their car third overall yesterday, the Satoshi Hoshino, Yuta Kamimura and Tomonobu Fujii driven car got off to a sluggish start upon the greasy track surface, initially dropping one place on the opening lap but a later rain shower would again dampen the track.

 

The sign of things to come for over the winter months as there is just one series of interest this weekend where we should be having one Aston Martin Racing powered compete within at Okayama, Japan.

This time it is the penultimate round of the Super Taikyu Series and another back-to-back race weekend for the D’Station Racing team after their exploits last weekend within their premier Super GT Series.

 

Another non-points scoring finish to the penultimate round of the Super GT Series season earlier today effectively consigns the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 season to what might have been.

With Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg again combining well this season, this weekend’s visit to Autopolis needed the #777 crew to be on top form again in order to cut the points deficit to those crews ahead of theme within their GT300 class going into the final round of the season but poor pace from their car took them in the opposite direction.