This time everything is in place for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team as they prepare to embark upon the second season back within the Japanese topflight Super GT Series starting this weekend from Okayama.

Last season saw a new car with the AMR Vantage GT3 Evo, a non-regular driver pairing as well as racing in amongst the most competitive tyre battle between manufacturers that any main series can offer today and whilst there were many signs of success, the overall package lacked the required level of consistency.

 

The Japanese based D’Station Racing team wrapped up what was an impressive return to their domestic top-flight Super GT Series with another decent finish that cement their top five position in class at season end.

Competing again at Suzuka for what was effectively still round five of the season after its original scheduled date was postponed at the last moment due to an impending typhoon, the #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg found themselves out of overall GT300 Championship contention but with still a top three position to race for.

 

This weekend sees the Japanese Super GT Series race out this seventh round of their eight-round season from Autopolis although a weather induced cancellation at Suzuka earlier in the year still leaves two further rounds to go after this one.

Within the GT300 class is of course the #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 from the D’Station Racing team who are in the midst of something approaching a rich vein of success within their topflight GT series after another podium finish last time out at Sugo.

Spotted this beauty for sale on Racecarsdirect.com today - an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT2 originally ran in the European Le Mans Series by Essex based JMW Motorsport.

Its most recent appearances this year have been at the Aston Martin Racing Festival at Le Mans in June as well as selected rounds of the new Masters Endurance Legends series with Shaun Lynn.

Full details can be found HERE

Thanks to a very quirky but very apt comment from one of our Twitter followers, tonight is indeed that very special night in the land of #TeamAMR as we have just one more sleep to go before the full, simultaneous public unveiling of the new Vantage road car and GTE sports car.

Having be extremely fortunate enough to have secured an invitation to this exclusive event in central London tomorrow night, we shall of course endeavour to (as far as our cameraphone batteries allow) provide as much coverage of the event that we can.

You could say that we are already pretty excited!!

Aston Martin Racing clinched the GTE Am drivers’ and teams’ titles in the final round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain on Saturday. Capping an astonishing season that included seven pole positions and four victories for the crew of the #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE, Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy covered themselves in glory on the series’ final visit to the Bahrain International Circuit.

Having started from pole position, the #98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE delivered a storming drive to take an emphatic victory of the season in the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, securing a dream result for everyone in the team and those back at the factory in the UK.

Aston Martin Racing claimed the GTE Am pole position for the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, bringing the crew of the #98 V8 Vantage GTE to the brink of FIA World Endurance Championship title glory.

Pedro Lamy (P) and Paul Dalla Lana (C) claimed a vital point for their achievement to give them both and teammate Mathias Lauda (A) an 11-point lead over their nearest rivals. The trio must finish at least third in Saturday’s season finale to secure the GTE Am drivers’ and teams’ world championships.

While Pedro delivered his usual high level of performance in qualifying, the Portuguese paid tribute to Dalla Lana who’s time was more than a second faster than any other amateur in the session. It was the crew’s seventh pole position of the season.

British marque Aston Martin retires its most successful ever racing car, the V8 Vantage GTE, from GTE Pro duty after the final round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain. Meanwhile, the team’s GTE Am squad goes into the finale hunting championship glory.

V8 Vantage GTE: 2012-2017

After winning the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans in June in dramatic fashion, the #95 and #97 Aston Martin Racing entries will be looking to provide both cars with a suitable send-off this weekend in the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain, the final race at the venue which does not feature on next year’s calendar..


The #95 car will once again be driven by the 2016 GTE reigning Drivers’ champions Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim. The Danish duo wrapped up their title in Bahrain last year with victory, while Le Mans-winning drivers Darren Turner and Jonny Adam will occupy the driving seat of #97.

Having won 36 races, four championship titles and stolen the hearts of race fans worldwide between 2012 and 2017, the V8 Vantage GTE will look to add one final win to its tally in GTE Pro this weekend.

After racing the car in each of its campaigns and taking Le Mans victory in the car earlier this year, driver Darren Turner said: "For everyone at Aston Martin Racing, the actual journey with the race car has been truly a great experience. From the first year in 2012; where we didn’t get the car’s first win until the last race in Shanghai, to then watch it grow into one of the most successful cars in the championship both in Am and Pro. It has pretty much won at every venue throughout the championship and it's been amazing.

"We've had some hard battles with it, we've had the highest highs and we've had a few lows as well. The evolution of that car from one season to the next as we've strived to remain competitive with the technical package is testament to the hard work that has gone into it by everybody back at Aston Martin Racing and everyone at Aston Martin developing and designing such an amazing and special car. So it will be sad to race it for the last time in the Pro category on Saturday, but everyone can look back and have fond memories and be very proud of what has been achieved with the V8 Vantage GTE."


In celebration, all three V8 Vantage GTEs will sport a unique livery this weekend, with a montage of iconic podiums from the car’s WEC career from 2012-2017 adorning each roof and the iconic Vantage GTE nameplate will be proudly worn across each rear wing.

While the V8 Vantage GTE will live on in GTE Am, this weekend marks a significant point in Aston Martin Racing’s history.

Source material - AMR

This weekend's round of the World Endurance Championship is not only the final race of the 2017 season but also marks itself as the final competitive time we shall see an Aston Martin Racing normally aspirated, 2016 specification V8 Vantage GTE compete in the top flight GTE Pro world stage.

Having joined service with the team at its development stage over the latter half of 2011, the V8 Vantage GTE entered the competitive GT scene in 2012 as the factory's direct replacement to the ill- fated AMR One Project and since then has delivered many times over including the GTE Pro titles last year and of course the brilliant LM24 win this year.


With both the #95 and #97 cars unfortunately already out of any championship contention in whats left of the 2017 season, the team will still be looking to give its very reliable and successful racing representative of its road going fleet the send off it deserves as the curtain falls on what has been a somewhat mixed season for team.

Running what has effectively been a Grandfathered car in a field of new, groundbreaking endurance racers has been a difficult affair in its own right but those who AMR race have also 'picked up' their own game to match and even excel in areas of strength that AMR enjoyed for themselves last year.

Encouraged by the allocation of a positive Balance of Performance adjustment for this event by virtue of a slight base weight reduction (1186kg to 1181kg) and large air restrictors (29.0mm to 29.8mm) these should (at least in theory) give both Pro cars the momentum that they have yearned for most of the season whilst the Ford's, Porsche's and Ferrari's are all preoccupied scrapping for this seasons top honours.


The car shall of course now remain within the Championship in the GTE Am class with possibly up to three cars being fielded in 2018.

Hopefully over the course of this weekend we shall also start to hear more answers to the questions being raised from the video captured last week of the new for 2018 Vantage GTE testing at Sebring, with the new car seemingly sporting the rubber of another tyre manufacturer together with speculation (from one main stream media outlet at least) of an expected driver change for 2018! Its somewhat ironic that one of the test circuits for the new platform this year was the same as the opening round for the then new GTE creation back in 2012!

But then, the official release of the car has been confirmed as being on the 21st November, just three days after Bahrain and what we don't learn over this week we will hopefully find out by the of Tuesday next week!

We also wait to see if AMR will in fact be present at the post Bahrain race test on Sunday despite only four cars being listed from AF Corse and Porsche but we suppose that will rather depend upon how many new cars Prodrive have built!!


Track activity begins this Thursday with the first of two Free Practice sessions before the third session and Qualifying on Friday. The start of the race begins at 16.00hrs GMT.

Photo credits - AMR

With only a handful of days left before the start of track proceedings for the final round of the 2017 World Endurance Championship, we see that the crew of the #98 Aston Martin racing car will be on the back foot in their quest to secure their first Championship title on Saturday.

Having left China after that convincing win (by over a lap) after their nightmare round that was Fuji and having re-established themselves at the top of the Am leader board, drivers Paul Dalla-Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy will start the 6Hours of Bahrain event with another negative Balance of Performance adjustment that shall see a slower V8 Vantage in the desert.


A 10kg increase in base weight compared to Shanghai of 1198kg to 1208kg and smaller air restrictors (29mm to 29.8mm) will have a massive impact on the cars performance both in acceleration and top end speed as we have seen many times before with the teams two Pro car entries.

At least the #98 squad shall enter the final race with a ten point advantage over the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche with a further point to the #61 Clearwater Ferrari and with another 26 points again being on offer the permutations are endless!

Neither the Porsche nor Ferrari have had a BoP adjustment placed upon them.


We believe that Dalla-Lana was also present at last weeks test at Sebring with the new 2018 V8 Vantage GTE along with Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen as the Canadian strives to finalise his plans for 2018

As usual, track action starts this Thursday and Friday for the Free Practice and qualifying sessions with the race itself starting at 16:00hrs GMT

Photo credits - AMR

Today saw official confirmation of the reveal date for the new 2018 Aston Martin Vantage road car and the new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE for the 21st November.

Today we also saw the release of some more video footage of the new GTE car testing at the Sebring track in Florida, footage which appears to carry the same level of official sanction as the previous video taken earlier in the year at Rockingham!

We know from the Shanghai round of the WEC last weekend that the team was testing in Florida this week (so no secret there) and we know that works drivers such as Paul Dalla-Lana, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim are there on site testing. Also it now appears that from details posted upon one particular main stream site that other, non AMR factory drivers are also there testing?

We have seen the car at Rockingham, we have personally watched the car at Snetterton and now we see the car at Sebring and at no stage prior till now have we seen Michelin stickers on the side wall of the tyres so has there been a change of preference during the elongated testing schedule or is this just a comparative test from data captured last year at Sebring when Thiim tested the then newly revised 2016 car with Jonny Adam in readiness for the 2017 season??

Maybe more detail will be released from this weeks test - if not its only a couple of weeks before the official reveal so lets just hope the reveal has something left to reveal!!

Video credits - Fansofthe12hours on Youtube

Bolstered by the double, record creating GTE pole positions of yesterday, Aston Martin Racing completed the 6 hours of Shanghai yesterday back on top and back in the records books for their efforts.

With the GTE Am car of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda being the only car of the trio who could end the 2017 World Endurance Championship season with any chance of a championship title, the #98 delivered maximum points back from the penultimate round to re-establish themselves at the top of the GTE Am Team and Drivers Championship's with just a single round remaining. The race win also notched the 50th GT win for the team under the Aston Martin Racing banner.


It wasn't all clear cut for the #98 car at the start however, as Mathias Lauda was quickly overtaken by former AMR Am driver Francesco Castellacci in the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari on the opening lap but that only lasted for about fifteen minutes or so before 'normal service' resumed and a domineering drive was established.

It was always going to be another tough day at the office however for both of the team's GTE Pro cars and despite qualifying on pole Nicki Thiim was soon overtaken by the 'faster in the corners' #92 Porsche and #66 Ford. Overall speed wasn't the issue for either the #95 or #97 - it was just the stopping and the twisty bits that their Dunlop's were to have problems with!

Thankfully, it was just not AMR who were having issues with earlier tyre degradation as could be seen on the TV feed with tyre material strewn all across the race track at every point of high friction. Both AF Corse Ferrari's were also struggling in the opening stint and were at one point be running last in class and that gave hope that the all conquering 488 could indeed be fallible!


As a connoisseur of GT racing we were to be unfortunately robbed of a potential great battle for GTE Am honours as just after the first stops the #54 Spirit of Race was unceremoniously punted off the race track and ultimately out of the race care of a wayward LMP2 That incident would also hobble another GTE Am Championship contender in the #61 Clearwater Ferrari but (for a change) the luck went in the way of the #98 car who capitalised on it to the full to run to the chequered flag, winning by a clear lap to the second placed Gulf Racing Porsche. Just what the doctor ordered!!

For a while it looked like the #95 might to be able to run its own race and hold station in P3 but whilst the #92 and #66  had cleared off ahead the second of the Porsche's and #71 Ferrari had other ideas and both leap frogged the #95 in the first pit stop cycle.


With some very spirited LMP2 battles going on around them, the #97 car with Jonny Adam then at the wheel watched on as a Manor car ahead simply out braked himself at a corner only to find the P2 car burying itself into the rear quarter of the V8 Vantage as he tried (unsuccessfully) to rejoin the track. The apportioned drive through penalty hardly covered the stupidity of the event yet alone the additional loss in time (for spinning) and performance incurred by the #97 for the remainder of the race.

Whilst Shanghai was another difficult race for Aston Martin Racing in GTE Pro, they at least have their eyes set firmly upon the imminent release of the new for 2018 GTE car along with some further testing announced for Sebring this week for both the Pro drivers and indeed the Am crew as they consider their options for 2018.


For GTE Am, the race continues into the final event of the WEC calendar at Bahrain in two weeks time and with a ten point lead over the now second placed Dempsey Proton crew, prospects now at least look better than they did after Fuji.

Saying no more!!

Photo credits - AMR

Aston Martin Racing will be looking to cement their position as GTE Am title challengers this weekend, as the 2017 World Endurance Championship reaches the penultimate round of the season this weekend in Shanghai, China.

Victorious last year at China’s leading race circuit, the team’s #98 V8 Vantage GTE Am entry of Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A) will be looking to repeat that feat. Currently poised just one point behind their rivals, the trio will be looking to reverse the order by Sunday.

Dalla Lana said, “Shanghai was extremely good to us last year with pole position and a win to take the maximum 26 points and we’ll be hoping to collect the very same again this time round. The competition has been tough over the past few races and this title is going to be hard to take, but for whoever finishes top of the table in Bahrain, that victory will be even sweeter”.

In the GTE Pro class, the #95 of Nicki Thiim (DN) and Marco Sorensen (DN) and #97 of Darren Turner (GB) and Jonny Adam (GB) will seek to close the gap to the title leaders this weekend; a gap of currently 39 points for both entries. With the current V8 Vantage GTE nearing the end of its racing career in the World Endurance Championship GTE Pro class, Aston Martin Racing will be fighting hard to claim its 50th win since the team’s inception in 2004 in the final two rounds of 2017.

Paul Howarth, Team Principal Aston Martin Racing said, “The team are committed to claiming vital points this weekend in both the GTE Am and Pro classes this weekend. Obviously, we are in a great position for the championship battle with our #98 car and we’ll be looking for victories in both classes to keep our title hopes alive in the GTE Pro class too”.

The 6 Hours of Shanghai begins at 11h00 local time on Sunday 5 November.


Source material - AMR

As we get through the second half of the 2017 World Endurance Championship at an alarming rate of knots, this weekend sees the Championship's penultimate round from the Shanghai International Circuit in China.

With Aston Martin Racing's GTE Pro Championship aspirations all but washed away in the deluge that was the six hours of Fuji two weeks ago, all eyes will turn towards their GTE Am championship contending #98 car as they look to reclaim their position at the head of that championship table going into the final round in Bahrain after their equally bad run at Fuji.

The #98 Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy go to China just three points behind the new championship leading #61 Clearwater Ferrari and one point behind the second placed #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche with the season finale in the deserts of Bahrain just two weeks after China. GTE Am winners last time out in Fuji, the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari are already out of the championship hunt but  could be there again as a spoiler to others should Shanghai be another wet race.


The wet is of course where the three AMR's cars lost out to their Michelin shod class advisories with the latters full wet tyre being far more useful than that of the teams Dunlop tyre in the wet of Japan.

We believe that the rain shortened race in Japan will also negate any possibility of any Auto BoP adjustments to any of the cars in the two GTE classes so any wet race could prove itself to be another race of tedium for the team.

Indeed, Shanghai has traditionally proved itself to be something of a frustrating circuit for the AMR Pro cars with none ever finishing higher than mid way in their class in the last three visits to the circuit whilst the teams GTE Am entries have generally finished on the podium - so at least that is the right way round for what is still achievable this season and what is not.


Bearing in mind that Shanghai is eight hours ahead of GMT, track action shall begin as usual with Friday Free Practice at 11:00hrs (local) before a second session at 15:30hrs (local). Final Free Practice is at 10:00hrs (local) on Saturday morning before Qualifying that starts at 14:00hrs (local)

The six hours of Shanghai starts at 11:00hrs (local) on Sunday.

Photo credits - AMR

Outgoing European Le Mans Series (ELMS) GTE Champions Beechdean AMR rounded off their 2017 campaign with a fourth place finish at the Algarve International circuit.

Featuring a different driver line up for the final round at Portimao, consisting of Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Immanuel Vinke, the #99 qualified sixth and was able to pick up the pieces from the unreliability of the Spirit of Race Ferraris during the 4 hour race to claim fourth and 12 championship points.

Team boss and driver Howard commented, “I enjoyed my stint chasing the Aston ahead. Congratulations to JMW on winning the championship. I am looking forward to returning to racing in 2018.”

Despite their best of efforts and finishing on the podium yesterday afternoon, Surrey based TF Sport left the Portimao circuit almost empty-handed after the final round of the European Le Mans Series.

Whilst nobody would ever complain of the fact that long term series protagonists JMW Motorsport did enough on Sunday to clinch both the GTE Team and Drivers Championships by just two points over TF Sport, yesterday's results do leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouths of any discerning Aston Martin Racing fan with the thought of what might have been.


That feeling has been echoed by the sometimes very carefully worded social media posting from drivers Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Nicki Thiim after each event since the Red Bull Ring in July when the V8 Vantage received its last Balance of performance adjustment - an adjustment that then placed their #90 car (and indeed that of the #99 Beechdean AMR) behind that on track of the subsequent all conquering Ferrari 488.

All that being said, there was nothing the team nor the drivers could have done about it despite all their protestations, leaving everything else to what they do best as racers and giving their all for which nobody could have asked for anymore!

Whilst we pass our congratulations onto JMW for their championship win and for another season of great motor racing, we also pass our congratulations and thanks to TF Sport who have supplied us fans with another awesome season of european racing as we now eagerly look forward to what plans are confirmed for 2018.


They also don't leave Portugal quite as empty handed as we thought as their second place finish in the GTE leader board earns the team their second consecutive automatic entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 so its not as bad as it could have been.

Well done guys!

Photo Credits - Andrew Lofthouse / Jacob Ebrey