Unfortunately, not too much to cheer about for the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing crew at the weekend after they battled out the middle two races of the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series from the Dubai Autodrome.

Having moved across from Sepang with the opening two races of the season where the Giacomo Ptrobelli, Kobe Pauwels and Jonny Adam driven car had secured an opening race P3 class podium as well as a P13 class finish for their efforts, last weekend’s events had started with a significant weight reduction for the AMR Vantage GT3 as part of a wider BoP “rebalance” in class.

 

 

However, with all the other GT class manufacturers also received BoP changes as well so there was never to be any significant benefit on track for the sole Aston Martin runner after it lost further ground on track to its rivals over the course of the two four-hour races that would make up rounds 3 and 4 of the series.

Race one on Saturday saw the Italian take the start form his P9 Qualifying position but despite some early progresses up to as high as P5 in class, the Aston was clearing struggling for pace with the teams race progress further compounded by two drive through penalties for the Italian for his repeated breach of track limits during his opening double stint.

 

Six weeks or so since the opening races to their 2025/26 season kicked off in Sepang, the Asian Le Mans Series is back at the racetrack again this weekend for another race double header for its mixed grid of LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 cars at the Dubai Autodrome.

Still sporting another combined grid of forty-six cars and crews, we will see just the single Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 from the Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn stable part within this weekend’s two four-hour races with their driver line up of Jonny Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli and Kobe Pauwels aboard their #56 entry with the Earl Bamber Motorsport AMR again being selective in their appearances.

 

 

Last time out at Sepang the #56 crew took a first race podium after their P3 finish in class whilst the #89 EBM car finished in seventh before in race two, both cars finished one lap off the pace in P13 and P14 respectively.

Track action has already begun in Dubai with the first private test session where the #56 appears to be quick out of the box, finishing third in the timing order just 0.211 of a second off the lead pace.

 

 

In Sepang, there were three adjustments to the official Balance of Performance regime within the GT Class and there have been two versions of that document ahead of the Dubai weekend already as the Vantage GT3 first lost 10kg off its declared base weight before losing a further 5kg in its first amendment. All the other platforms within the class have seen similar weight reduction or increases.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

 

The two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews competing within the opening races of the 2025-26 Asian Le Mans Series will need to use the Christmas break to get to grips within happened between races that saw both the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn AMR and the #89 EBM AMR crews finish towards the sharp end of the GT3 in race one but struggled in the weekend’s closing race.

Back-to-back four-hour races of course over the race weekend at each of the three scheduled races in Sepang, Dubai and Abu Dhabi saw the season’s opener take place in Malaysia with another capacity grid of forty-seven LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 machinery with the two Aston’s part of the largest group of twenty-one such cars.

 

The opening track sessions of the 2025-26 Asian Le Mans Series are now in the books as a capacity forty-seven, multi-classed entry looks to get the opening two races in of this new season from the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia.

Now into its fifth season, this is the third time that the ACO rules series has visited this part of Asia to go alongside their more used venues at both the Dubai Autodrome and the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, and like always, each will be a double header race event.

 

The Asian Le Mans Series today confirmed a massive forty-eight multi-classed car entry for their opening round to their 2025-26 winter season that kicks off at the Sepang International Circuit in just a couple of weeks’ time with further news of the expected two car Aston Martin Racing powered entry.

With the sixteen strong LMP2 class again taking the spotlight alongside the ten new LMP3 runners, it’s from within the twenty-two strong GT3 entry that obviously grabs our attention as both the Ecurie Ecosse bannered Blackthorn AMR, and the Earl Bamber Motorsport AMR’s also confirmed at least most of their drivers.

Whilst there was class success from the Aston Martin Racing powered runners within the Iberian Supercar Series runners at the weekend, it was sadly not the case for the two stablemates from the Prosport Racing team as they battled out what was just the second round of the GT4 Germany Series from the Norisring.

First time out at Oschersleben saw both the #19 car of Hugo Sasse and Roman Fellner-Feldegg make their intentions known with both a P3 and P2 finish whilst the sister #17 car of Marek Bockmann and Anton Abee saw off earlier sickness to come back with a P6 finish in race two, so hopes were high for the challenges of the Norisring.

 

Like the GT4 Germany Series, the Thailand Super Series also returns to the racetrack for only its second time this season as the mixed class racing series serves up its latest thriller around the improvised coastal street circuit layout that makes up the Bangsaen Grand Prix.

Now racing separately between the GT3 and GT4 classes, the Team NZ Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Grahame Dowsett and newly crowned Spa 24 Silver Cup Champion Romain Leroux again return to the fold within a combined GT4/GTC grid of approximately sixteen crews.

 

It was a hard graft long distance round to the Super GT Series this weekend as the usually Japanese based series returned to Malaysia for the first time in twelve years for their third round to the season.

That of course included the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg as a full season entrant but also with another ad-hoc entry from the Earl Bamber Motorsport team for their GT World Challenge Asia customer driver Kerong Li alongside local favourite Jazeman Jafaar.

 

The now SRO enhanced Thailand Super Series gets its 2025 programme of events underway this weekend with its first round of the year from the Chang International Circuit with Team New Zealand again flying the flag for Aston Martin Racing.

Grahame Dowsett is again back with his #7 EBM Motorsport prepared AMT Vantage GT4 whilst the one co-driving alongside him has made that relatively short journey from being the team’s driver coach on the pit wall to now being both that and the co-driver.

 

A very timely social media post from Aston Martin Racing just a few moments ago with first renders of the Earl Bamber Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 that they will be entering with the third round of the Super GT Series in Sepang as this weekend, it’s time for round two from Fuji.

 

It was another exciting end to another exciting Asian Le Mans Series race as the 2024/25 season concluded under the lights of the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi this evening as one of the Aston Martin Racing powered teams secured another podium finish within the GT class.

Sundays concluding four-hour round of the season technically began way back on Saturday morning when the second-best lap of the fifteen-minute Qualifying session was used to determine the starting positions for this race.

 

There was sadly no podium repeat of last time out for any of three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews competing within this weekend’s first of the two final races of the Asian Le Mans Series from the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

It what will no doubt go down as perhaps not the cleanest of race events, things got off badly for the GT class after two red flags delayed the proceedings before the #89 Earl Bamber Motorsport AMR of Gabriel Rindone secured a second row start for today’s race in P3 with Giacomo Petrobelli delivering a very credible P9 coming in cold for his first series involvement whilst a returning Anderson Tanoto was P19 out of a starting class of twenty nine cars.

 

With the Asian Le Mans Series paddock having now moved the hour’s drive down the coast from the Dubai Autodrome to the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, we can now look forward to the final two races of the season incorporating THREE Aston Martin Racing powered entries.

Whilst we were expecting changes within the #19 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 Evo entry between venues, we now have a familiar sounding second entry from the Earl Bamber Motorsport team for the final two four-hour races after their superb P3 in class at the end of Sunday’s race in Dubai.