2022 ASTON MARTIN RACING DRIVER ACADEMY CANDIDATES

Most of these above drivers will require no further introduction from us as all the series/championships listed have already started their 2022 season, with great success to for many. The only name that is new to us is that of Clemence Rouceau – stated as competing with the Street Art Racing team in the GT Open Cup series but was not present at the opening round of the season at Paul Ricard last weekend.

Again, not necessarily dependent upon race results, the AMR Drivers Academy process will again have a judging panel comprising of drivers Darren Turner and Hasse-Clot, AMR Managing Director John Gaw, Head of Customer Racing Hugh Tusker and Head of Performance Engineer Gus Beteli to ‘interrogate’ the seventeen- to twenty-six-year-olds for the lucrative prize of funding towards their 2023 programme as well as the technical and developmental improvements a direct connection with the AMR factory will provide.

“The Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy is an excellent tool for assessing the level of talent within our partner ranks and is the ideal way for the brand to give back to the sport in a constructive and meaningful way. As our former winners have proven, and I’m sure Roman will too, this initiative holds enormous value to us, to the drivers who participate and the wider sport in general. We hope to continue this tradition as we look to support our partners across the GT racing around the world” said Tusker with today’s announcement.

Photo credits - AMR

There was however a slight driver line-up change within the #9 Racing One Pro-Am entry going into the race weekend as Christian Gisy shared a team Aston with son Vincent rather than the stated Ralf Kelleners – why, we are not quite sure yet!

Anyway, and after the wet/damp test session at the circuit that Thursday allowed them and Two Free Practice sessions later on Friday, Saturday morning gave us the two Qualifying sessions for each of the weekends two, one-hour races with each driver mandated to run and start the race in one of them.

With both track and air temperature still low, each Qualifying session was a battle to warm up the tyres and brakes and with further incidents on track made for shorter sessions than usual as the 48 cars battled for space around the tight Italian circuit.

By the end, it was the #10 Spirit of Lemans and #5 Racing One Aston Martins of Konstantin Lachenauer and Kenton Kock respectively that secured the highest starting places for the AMR contingent with their P5 and P6 places as the cars thundered around the curved start grid and into the opening chicane for the first time.

Expecting absolute carnage, only a spinning Audi blotted an otherwise clean start in the opening half of the lap – that was before the #7 AGS Events Racing Aston of Noah Andy got heaved off the tarmac, missed his braking point to end up in the gravel on the opening lap! Luckily for his and co-driver Hugo Conde, Andy was able to remove himself from the gravel trap and continue although the GT4 rookie would then be pinged for speeding in the pit lane.

An interesting battle quickly played itself out up front as Koch and Lachenauer battled it out for fourth on track as the three race leading Pro-Am class cars made their escape ahead whilst the #89 AGS Events and #18 Racing One Am class runners of Julien Lambert and Markus Lungstrass did similar in the midfield.

Tom Canning was also battling to defend his P14 overall/P6 Silver Cup position from a whole gaggle of cars behind including the #25 Prosport Racing entry of Nico Verdonck/Rodrigue Gillion as the Belgian duo embarked upon their first full season in the Series together.

With just over twenty minutes gone, the #7 AGS Events Aston Martin of Andy finally came to a halt on track bringing out the first FCY – an event however that caught many, including the #24 Prosport Racing Aston of Hugo Sasse off guard. Rapidly coming up behind a slowing Alpine and Mercedes, the #24 Aston slammed into the rear of both cars, climbed up over the back of them and nearly rolled, losing one wheel in the process.

Fortunately, all drivers were OK although all would be out of the race as marshals worked hard to clear the debris.

By this time Lachenauer was now P3 overall and first in Silver Cup whilst Koch was seventh overall and fourth in class. Verdonck headed the AMR Pro-Am field fifth in class and the #89 and #18 cars maintained the front two positions in the Am class as the race went back to green (with the pit lane opening) with twenty-nine minutes remaining.

By the end of the ten-minute pit stop window, the #10 Spirit of Lemans Aston Martin of now Gus Bowers had assumed the overall race lead with the #5 Racing One car of Thijmen Nabuurs in fourth overall.

Looking for a clean finale to the opening race, a stranded Toyota and a suspension damaged Aston Martin again mandated another FCY – replays showed the #7 AGS Events Aston Martin of Tom Verdier hitting some kerbs hard and breaking his rear quarter suspension in the process putting the car he shares with Ruben Del Sarte out of the race.

Going back to green with just five minutes remaining, a move from Nabuurs into the first chicane caught the rear of the Mercedes ahead, taking them both off track and into the gravel and retirement with just two laps remaining. Words were had by both drivers as they exited the scene on foot with a possible first podium now lost to the Nabuurs/Koch car.

That event was enough to see the season opening race finish under the FCY was Bowers/Lachenauer claiming their first and the team’s first race win together under Aston Martin power. The sister #19 car of Canning and Akhil Rabindra had recovered enough to come home P7 overall and P4 in Silver Cup whilst the #89 AGS Events Am car of Julien Lambert and Wilfried Cazalbon completed their class podium with a P3 finish.

Gillion and Verdonck would finish the race P16 overall and P8 in Pro-Am whilst the Gisy family partnership would end up P29 overall and P16 in Pro-Am. The #18 Racing One Am car on Henrik Lyngbye Pederson and Marcus Lungstrass would complete the remaining Aston Martin runners in P32 overall, P8 in class.

Tomorrow morning, they do it all again with Bowers again heading the field after his pole position Qualifying earlier today.

We get the feeling that tomorrows race will be equally exciting – especially if the expected rain arrives!!

Photo credits – GT4 European / Teams

Today’s news sees this pairing confirm a dual full season effort into both the ADAC GT4 Germany Series as well as the GT4 European Series that will both start later in April.

This announcement will be part of another multifaceted season for the Christoph Esser ran team and his AMR Vantage GT3 and GT4 machinery.

Photo credits – GT4 Germany

Last season running with Andrew Watson as their silver driver, this announcement marks a serious career progression for Fagg as last having raced in GT4, winning the GT4 European Series Silver Cup Championship alongside Bailey Voisin.

“I’m delighted to announce that I will be racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with D’station Racing. To be able to compete at this level is something I have always dreamt of doing and to do it with such a fantastic team is more than I could have hoped for! Whilst it’s a big step up, I am honoured to be able to learn from my fantastic teammates, Hoshino-san and Fujii-san and being able to make my 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with them, is the icing on the cake. I cannot thank everyone at D’station Racing, TF Sport and EDGE Management enough, for this unbelievable opportunity. I am so excited to get started next month at Sebring!” said Fagg with todays announcement.

This news confirms the quartet of series/championships that the Fuji based team will be entering this season with their fleet (and others) of AMR Vantage race cars. This weekend of course opens their ACO account with the Asian Le Mans Series from Dubai alongside their recently confirmed entries into the domestic Super Taikyu Series and well as the Japan Cup legs of the revitalised GT World Challenge Asia Series this year.

Photo credits – TF Sport

The team has already conducted a test with their new platform over at Valencia earlier this month and their purchases represent just two more of an expected twenty plus increase in the global AMR Vantage GT4 fleet going into the 2022 season.

Some we are already aware of but there are still many more to come!

Photo credits – Team Racing Monkeys.

A productive round last time out in Holland for the Aston Martin runners from both the AGS Events Racing Team and the Street Art Racing crew who claimed podium positions in both Silver Cup and the Am Class respectively with a further podium in race two for the #27 AGS car.

After their success at Spa for the French AGS Events team in the FFSA GT4 Series will be keen to make use of their prior circuit knowledge of last week ahead of their marque stable mates from the Mirage Racing (who were also at the FFSA meeting) and the Street Art Racing teams. The #18 Racing One AMR of Marcus Lungstrass and Henrick Lyngbye Pedersen is NOT listed on the entry list we understand for personal reasons, but their place is taken by a cameo appearance again from the PROsport Racing team.

Having raced at the Lausitzring in the German DTM Trophy Series at the weekend, PROsport will have some preparatory work to undertake after having one car damaged in a high-speed accident during yesterday’s race and the other massively underpowered. Their #63 car will again be crewed by Rodrigue Gillion and Nico Verdonck in the Pro-Am Class.

A decent result for any Aston crew will be vitally important moving onto the fifth round at the next round (? Nurburgring under threat due to ongoing flood relief efforts in that part of Germany) as no AMR crew sits higher than forth in their table and more than fifty points behind.

Like the FFSA GT4 races before it last weekend, we expect the two GT4 European Series races to be equally entertaining and eventful.

Photo credits – GT4 European / Teams

This weekend sees the first really busy weekends of motorsport for this seasons expanded #TeamAMR family around the world with European campaigns hitting the track for the first time in Spain and Italy and with the progression of seasons already started both in Germany and Japan.