Two AMR Vantage GT3s with GT World Challenge Asias opener at Sepang this weekend
Amongst that number, we welcome two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered teams as not only do the Japanese based D’Station Racing team return but we also welcome the Earl Bamber Motorsport team back with their new Vantage GT3 but with a new driver line up of their own.
It’s not the first time that Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii have contested a season of the GTWC Asia Series obviously, but they will be hoping for better things as they field one of their new 2024 Vantage GT3’s on a same weekend as their team competes within the second round of the World Endurance Championship from Imola in Italy.
Fortunately, neither driver are this year tied into the demands of the WEC as team owner Hoshino has taken something of a racing back step whilst Fujii has returned to the team manager role on the pit wall alongside his Super GT and GTWC Asia racing commitments.
Then, looking at the EBM entry, we were hoping for the return of the FHK Racing team who contested the Sepang 12hr with the EBM prepared Vantage GT3, but later news has confirmed that it is one of their own former Porsche clients who now takes up the AMR mantel within the series as Indonesian driver Setiawan Santosa takes the reigns of the #8 car within the Am class.
No idea yet if there is any co-driver within the #8 EBM but looking at last year’s results, he did appear to chop and change between drivers as the series progressed – so it’s a wait and see.
Track action begins Thursday with the first of two private testing sessions before track activity becomes a little more formal on Friday with Official Practice before Qualifying sessions 1 and 2 on Saturday morning ahead of the opening one-hour race before rounding off the season opening weekend with race 2 on Sunday.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
Track action begins Thursday with the first of two private testing sessions before track activity becomes a little more formal on Friday with Official Practice before Qualifying sessions 1 and 2 on Saturday morning ahead of the opening one-hour race before rounding off the season opening weekend with race 2 on Sunday.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
Tuesday, April 16, 2024 |
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P2 first time out of the box for FHK Racing at the Sepang 12hr
Usually associated with Porsche racing hard wear, the New Zealand based team continued this new AMR/Earl Bamber Motorsport association seen of late within the GT4 class to help the Franco/Kiwi driving trio of Francois Beziac, Heremana Malmezac and Jono Lester to claim an overall seventh placed finish as well as second within their own GT3 AM Class.
Only confirmed to the world just over a week ago, the crew arrived in Malaysia full of hope and trepidation having never ran a full specification GT3 car before but with the professionalism of the EBM team around them, their combined qualifying times placed the #71 car in for a P11 start out of the seventeen listed runners having started the race weekend down at the tail end of the timing screen and nearly five seconds off the pace.
As the race began and the track temperatures rose, some others fell by the wayside but the #71 quickly elevated itself up the running order to be within the top three in class.
Eventually finishing P7 overall and P2 in class, the #71 completed their inaugural (and twelve hour long) account with Aston Martin Racing twelve laps down to the eventual race and GT3 Am class winners.
Question is now – what’s next for this EBM prepared AMR Vantage GT3?
Well done team!
Photo credits – Team / social media / Reso Works
Sunday, March 17, 2024 |
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In other news this week
Starting in France, the Ultimate Cup Series opens their 2024 account within their opening race weekend from the Circuit Paul Ricard which also hosts the opening salvo’s of their new AMR Trophy class.
Incorporated into the existing Sprint GT Touring rounds, this opening round has attracted two such AMR Vantage GT4 cars from the Portuguese Racar Motorsport team and their driving crews of Ruben Vaquinhas and Roberto Faria aboard the #777 car and Mathieu Martins and Antonio Lopes aboard the #09 car.
This weekend will bring the twenty-two strong mixed class grid four twenty-five-minute races around the Mistral circuit.
Then over in Japan, we have Tomonobu Fujii and Marco Sorensen pairing up for the first time within D’Station Racing’s new Vantage GT3 as they embark upon their first full Super GT Official test together at the Okayama circuit before the opening round of the season there this time next month.
Previous tests have meant for Fujii to test alone due to Sorensen’s extremely busy 2024 schedule.
Not too far away from then in Sepang, the latest AMR Partner team in FHK Racing are about to embark upon their first ever race within tehir new AMR Vantage GT3 as drivers Francois Beziac, Heremana Malmezac and Jono Lester continue to ready themselves for this weekend’s event.
Usually associated with Porsche machinery, questions of where this New Zealand based squad will compete next or whether this was a one-off event with the Aston Martin are at the forefront of our minds. Only time will tell there!!
And finally, midweek testing for many teams has just come to an end as notably, the Racing Spirit of Leman team were out at Nogaro this week with at least one of tehir new 2024 40A specification Vantage GT4’s whilst young lady racer Logan Hannah was out testing with the GPA Racing team and Baudouin Detout in their older 17A version of the Vantage GT4 at the same venue.
Then at Misano in Italy, the Comtoyou Racing team were back out with one of their new AMR Vantage GT3’s with their diverse driver squad expected to take part within the GT World Challenge Endurance and Sprint Cup rounds this year.
Photo credits – Teams / social media
Friday, March 15, 2024 |
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FHK Racing get in some pre-event testing at Sepang
Only confirmed last week sees the team convert from their usual Porsche powered entries to compete in this month’s upcoming Sepang 12Hrs event, testing with the car for the first time today at the Sepang International Circuit earned the car the comment of “I love this car” in between track sessions.
Lester will be joined by both Francois Beziac and Heremana Malmezac within the car.
Photo credits – Social Media
Monday, March 11, 2024 |
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And now it starts to get busy in #TeamAMR (UPDATED)
Down at the Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France has the SRO’s flagship GT World Challenge Europe Series conduct their annual Prologue official test with over fifty-three cars in attendance over both today and tomorrow.
Representing the Aston Martin Racing brand there this week we have both the Belgium based Comtoyou Racing and German based Walkenhorst Motorsport teams, fielding two new 2024 AMR Vantage GT3’s apiece for what will be a split Endurance and Sprint Series commitment between them.
We sadly miss the presence of the Danish GMB Motorsport team from the proceedings after they confirmed a cessation of their operational activities soon after confirming their commitment to the SRO series after their final round within the ACO rules European Le Mans Series.
No drivers have been listed as running within any of the four cars entered but both teams have split their two cars between their already defined full Pro entries and that of a mixed class of drivers for the other.
Then around in Japan, we have the D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Tomonobu Fujii and Marco Sorensen run at the weeks Super GT official test in Motegi.
With other programmes getting in the way of this and subsequents test, this will be the first time that the two will have shared a car together although Fujii does manage the teams World Endurance Championship entered LMGT3 car in Qatar just last weekend with Sorensen aboard when the team claimed their first podium of the new ruleset.
The team also revealed today a slight change to their usual car livery for their return to the GT300 class.
Finally, we saw early news today of a new AMR powered team due to enter a 2024 Vantage GT3 into this year’s Sepang 12hrs.
New Zealand based FHK Racing Prime Speed Sport posted a render of their new car (with drivers confirmed as being Francois Beziac, Heremana Malmezac and Jono Lester) that will enter into this year’s event later in just a couple of weeks’ time.
And then later today – there could be some more news!!
UPDATE
On top of that information, French based GPA Racing have also today confirmed that drivers Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud will be returning to the GT4 European Series with their restyled Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4.
Proficient within the sister FFSA GT4 Series, this will be the team and crews second full season start within the larger European series which will start with the pairing within their existing 17A chassis before possibly transferring to the new 2024 40A version as and when one becomes available to them.
Speaking to us after the launch of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at Silverstone just a few weeks ago, Grizaud confirmed that their car of last season had not yet sold and that they would be reliant upon it again before the new car can be built. The team and crew have already been busy pre-season testing this week.
Photo credits – Teams / social media / GTWCE
Photo credits – Teams / social media / GTWCE
Tuesday, March 05, 2024 |
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