Final official test for D'Station Racing ahead of a Super GT start at Okayama
Having tested solo before with Tomonobu Fujii behind the wheel of their #777 AMR Vantage GT3 Evo, this weekend’s two-day test also sees co-driver Charlie Fagg behind the wheel for the first time this season as the young Brit looks forward to a full season within the topflight Japanese series having stepped in with great effect after the opening couple of rounds last season.
The team also showed off their revised anniversary livery to celebrate the 30th anniversary of team boss’s Satoshi Hoshino’s Nexus Group of companies although the familiar green is still there to be seen.
The team has already been busy pre-season testing ahead of a busy 2025 as they embark upon GT3 participation within Super GT, Super Taikyu and GT world Challenge Asia Series with varying driver line ups.
After the four available sessions this weekend, the opening round of the season will be from Okayama later in April.
Photo credits - Team
Friday, March 14, 2025 |
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Back to familiar grounds for a new look D'Station Racing Vantage STX classed Vantage GT3
With their previous World Endurance Championship efforts taking both time and resources from other endeavours, the team had to step away from the second tier, multi-classed series in 2024 having ran both a Vantage GT3 and Vantage GT8R the year before.
Although last night’s announcement is for two cars, only one will be an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 for a realignment of their 2022 WEC campaign with Charlie Fagg joining the usual Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii within the #777 car whilst their previous GT8R runners will now be within a Porsche having sampled the Vantage GT3 within a couple of rounds of last season’s GT world Challenge Asia Japan Cup.
This season’s seven round season starts at the end of March and runs through to mid-November.
Photo credits – Team / social media
Monday, February 17, 2025 |
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Santosa bows out a credible fourth in Am within the GT World Challenge Series this weekend
Again racing the Earl Bamber Motorsport prepared car as a solo driver within his own Am class, the Indonesian driver claimed another P8 and P6 in class this weekend as global racing finally returned to the Chinese mainland for the first time since the pandemic.
What happens next season for him is obviously news for another day but the team remain in the racing spotlight over the winter months after their entry was recently confirmed within the Asian Le Mans Series with their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo – but with yet, an undefined driver trio.
Photo credits - Series
Sunday, September 15, 2024 |
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Just the EBM Aston Martin at this weekend GTWC Asia finale from Shanghai
Having competed at Sepang International in Malaysia and Chang International in Thailand before moving on to Japan for their co-joined Japan Cup rounds at Fuji Speedway, Suzuka and most recently at Okayama, the series has moved overseas to China for their final round which still attracts a thirty-two strong GT3 only field.
Amongst those thirty-two cars we will only see the #8 Earl Bamber Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Setiawan Santosa take part as the D’Station Racing team have elected not to travel – mainly because the World Endurance Championship is in attendance at their home circuit of Fuji this weekend as well.
Santosa runs as a solo driver within the Am Class and sits a very credible fourth within his drivers championship table going into this final event and with fifty points still available, he could move up as high as second come the end of the season on Sunday.
The EBM team has been in the news today for other reasons as the New Zealand based team has been awarded a lucrative GT3 entry within this year’s Asian Le Mans Series over the New Year.
Photo credits – Team / series
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 |
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Two Vantage GT3 entries confirmed for Asian Le Mans Series 2024-25
With its entry window having closed at the end of August, the Asian Le Mans Series today posted news of a capacity forty-four car entry for its 2024-2025 season which will again see its winter series based around the three circuits of Sepang International, the Dubai Autodrome and the Yas Marina circuits.
Within that capacity of entry of eleven LMP2 cars, six LMP3 cars and (most importantly) twenty-seven GT3 based cars will be two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 cars from both the Blackthorn AMR and Earl Bamber Motorsport (EBM) teams.
So far, the entry list is just team based and does not make any indication upon possible drivers. The Blackthorn AMR team are fully season entrants within the Michelin Le Mans Cup and will presumably be using this pathway to a full season European Le Mans Series entry next season whilst the EBM team have only aligned themselves to the AMR platform for their customer drivers earlier this season with exploits into the 12Hrs of Sepang, a full season within the GT World Challenge Asia Series and most recently within the Thailand Super Series.
With so much news still to come from the series, eyes will be turned to the season opener at the Sepang International at the beginning of December before progressing to both Dubai and Abu Dhabi later in February 2025.
The future is bright in ACO rules racing.
Photo credits – Le Mans Cup / teams / TSS / social media
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 |
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Champions made after final round of Japan Cup from Okayama
Whilst the #777 crew of Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii’s endeavours within the main Championship again proved fraught within incident and accident resulting with another DNF on the opening lap of the first race and a distant P11 in Pro-Am finish at the end of race 2, it was the #47 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entry of Hoshino and Hama who eventually secured all the headlines.
Like any championship in any discipline – to win it, first you must finish it and that is precisely what the duo did within the four event – eight race format after the pair swapped from the Vantage GT3 platform in favour of their more usual GT4 format after the second round from Fuji International.
Not counting any championship points from those four opening races, their very inclusion and the omission of the other three crews within the Am class for the two remaining events all but secured the GT4 Am Drivers Championship having finished each of those four races with maximum points.
We just wonder what may have happened had they stayed within the GT3 Am Class?
The final Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 from the Earl Bamber Motorsport team saw Setiawan Santosa follow up his recent podium run with a pair of P4 finishes within his Am Class within the main series as that now moves onto Shanghai to round off another successful year in three weeks time.
Photo credits – Team / series
Photo credits – Team / series
Sunday, August 25, 2024 |
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Four Aston Martins also keep us occupied in the Australasia theatre of motorsport this weekend
For the Asian side of the equation, this weekend will be their penultimate round of their seven round overall season but also the final round of their Japan Cup sub-Championship.
Within both races, the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team will again be entering one Vantage GT3 within the main body of the event for the #777 Pro-Am pairing Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii as well as a Vantage GT4 within the Japan Cup side of things for the #47 Am class drivers Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama. Joining the #777 car will again be the solo driver #8 Earl Bamber Motorsport Vantage GT3 entry of Setiawan Santosa.
Championship wise, the Japan Cup Series will conclude this weekend and whilst mathematically possible for the #47 D’Station Racing crew to win the overall GT4 Drivers title, the odds of overcoming the thirty-six-point deficit are slim but the pairing do still rest joint second within the drivers table as well as still fifth within the GT3 Am Drivers Championship having started the four-round season with a new Vantage GT4. The pair have certainly been steadier since reverting back to the GT4 based platform.
For the overall Championship, there is still Okayama and a season finale from Shanghai later in September but sadly performances to date for the Fuji Speedway based team sees the #47 pairing languishing down in P11 within the Pro-Am class whilst as steady and consistent points haul for Santosa sees him in sixth place within the GT3 Am class, sixty two points behind the leader but with one hundred points still on offer from the four remaining races of the season.
Then over at Phillip Island, the GT world Challenge Australia Series will be running its fifth round of a seven-round season at the GT Festival event.
This time of course, two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s are entered – one being the season long Trophy class entry for the V12 Vantage #38 KMB Motorsport entry of Valentin Astuti alongside an as yet TBC co-driver for this event.
It’s a similar case for the #14 Volante Rosso AMR Vantage GT3 entry of Alex Gardner who this week has Spiros Poulakis alongside him in his new car as Ben Porter is already otherwise engaged within the GT World Challenge Asia Series in Japan. Poulakis joins the #14 car from the other side of the team garage as his usual co-driver is this time partnered by a one David Brabham in their Mercedes AMG GT3.
For the Volante Rosso team, the previous round from Queensland was certainly a true baptism of fire for the young Radical driver and their just acquired AMR Vantage GT3 from the States after an unfortunate incident at the end of Q2 saw the car impact the tyre wall and sustain damage that could not be rectified at the circuit. Hopefully this time, they will get to race their car for the first time!
Both series and both venues will operate a Q1, Q2 and race 1 format on Saturday with race 2 on Sunday.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Tuesday, August 20, 2024 |
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D'Station Racing double success within GT World Challenge Asias Japan Cup
Full season entrants D’Station Racing were of course again in attendance with their #777 Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii but it was their sister #47 car of Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama who would again grab the headlines.
Having opened the Japan Cup sub class of the series within one of the team’s Vantage GT3’s, the ‘more senior’ drivers this time elected to run the third round of the Japan Cup within a Vantage GT4 having struggled last time out at Fuji Speedway, ending with a DNF.
Whilst the #777 car did do better than last time out with a P5 GT3 Pro-Am class finish at the end of race one on Saturday and a P9 finish at the end of Sunday’s closing GTWCAsia event, it was the separately running Japan Cup entry of the #47 car who scooped a pair of GT4 Am Class wins who grabbed the headlines for the AMR Partner team.
As far as Championship standings are concerned, the #777 GT3 Pro-Am crew now sit P13 in class with the #8 EMB car in P6 whilst in the Japan Cup, the #47 crew share both a fifth within GT3 Am and eleventh within GT4 Am.
Next round is at Okayama, Japan at the end of August.
Photo credits – Team / Series / Social media
Sunday, July 07, 2024 |
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Multi podium success for Earl Bamber Motorsport and their global Aston Martins
Furthest from their native home of New Zealand saw the team enter the 24H Series twelve hours of Misano event for the first time under the name of Prime Speed Racing with drivers Heremana Malmezac, Liam Talbot and Earl Bamber behind the wheel of their new #42 Vantage GT3.
Having Qualified third within their elected Pro-Am class, the #42 car suffered from multiple punctures as well as technical issues and race time penalties that otherwise blighted a decent run. Their perseverance paid off however as they eventually came home P14 overall but more importantly P3 in class.
Then over in Suzuka in Japan, their #8 GT World Challenge Asia solo race of Setiawan Santosa enjoyed the best weekend yet within the series fifth round of the season by claiming a P3 in GT3 Am double for his efforts.
Finally, the team also had dealings with the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 efforts of the #7 Team NZ as drivers Graham Dowsett and Ananthorn Tangniannatchi also delivered the goods within the GT4 class of the Thailand Super Series visit to Bangsaen.
Competing within the GT4 Pro class, the #7 car would come home for a podium winning double with a P3 after race 1 and P2 after race 2.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Sunday, July 07, 2024 |
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Three Astons back for the next round of GT World Challenge Asia and Japan Cup at Suzuka
Three Aston Martin Racing Vantage teams are again listed upon the entry with the Earl Bamber Motorsport team double teaming this weekend with a car in Suzuka for their solo driver Setiawan Santosa in the #8 car as well as another AMR at the 24H Series visit to Misano in Italy.
They will again be joined by the pair of D’Station Racing AMR’s – the #777 for full season entrants of Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii as well as their #47 Japan Cup (this time) Vantage GT4 entry for Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama.
Whilst it was a surprise podium finish (P3 in Am) for the #8 car in the second race of the Fuji Speedway round last time out, their local track of Fuji was to be more challenging for D’Station Racing team with a P7 in class the best result the #777 could offer in race one before early contact lead to a DNF in race two whilst the #47 crew could not repeat their successes of the opening round at Sugo to finish with a P4 and P5 within the Japan Cup Am Class.
Track action for all runners begins this Thursday with private testing before official sessions on Friday and Qualifying on Saturday morning. Race one of each GTWC Asia and Japan Cup grids will be at later on Saturday afternoon before their second races across midday on Sunday.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Tuesday, July 02, 2024 |
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Three Vantage GT3 powered crews at GT World Challenge Asias visit to Fuji
With Le Mans 24Hours otherwise keeping them from their GTWC Asia duties, the #777 D’Station Racing Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii returns after both Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama doubled for them at the opening round of the Japan Cup Sugo two weeks ago.
Despite being first time out within one of the teams new 2024 Vantage GT3’s, the Am class pairing did secure a P3 in class finish at the end of race 1 although that was countered with a DNF in race 2.
Whilst the #777 crew run again within the main body of the GT World Challenge Asia Series, the sister #47 Vantage GT3 for Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama will run within the sub-Japan Cup class alongside sixteen other GT3 and GT4 entries. There will be thirty-three cars running within the main GTWCAsia grid making for a very busy racetrack.
Completing the AMR trilogy at the event will be the return of the #8 Earl Bamber Motorsport prepared Vantage GT3 for solo racer Setiawan Santosa.
Photo credits – Teams / series
Wednesday, June 19, 2024 |
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D'Station Racing secure class podium win at first round of Japan Cup from Sumo
Around the world at Sportsland Sugo in Japan, there was a similar story unravelling for the solo D’Station Racing team running within the opening round of the GT World Challenge Asia Japan Cup.
With the teams usual pairing of Tomonobu Fujii and Satoshi Hoshino otherwise indisposed at Test Day at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this weekend’s undertakings was left to part of the teams former Super Taikyu Series runners in Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama to operate the #47 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 over the course of this weekend’s two one-hour races.
Undertaking a qualifying session apiece, the #47 Am Class entry would be starting the races from P6 and P7 respectively out of an entry list of fourteen GT3 and GT4 runners.
Whilst the pairing were able to start Sunday with a Class P3 podium win (P7 overall), they were not able to replicate that in race 2 as Hama pitted the car during the allotted pit window but the car was not seen out again.
The next round of the Japan Cup will be from the teams home track of Fuji Speedway in just two weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Team / GTWC Asia
Sunday, June 09, 2024 |
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GT Masters and GT world Challenge Asia Japan Cup to battle the airwaves against LM Test Day news
First over in Japan, there will be the opening round of the GT World Challenge Asia Japan Cup from Sugo as a carry on from what was started towards the end of lockdown when the series looked to help their Japanese race teams by limiting the need to travel outside of the country when they could do just as well from within the Japanese racing arena.
This weekend sees just fourteen GT3 and GT4 powered crews take part within the two-hour long races with the full season D’Station Racing Vantage GT3 team again represented – albeit with a Le Mans necessary adjustment.
With team boss Satoshi Hoshino this weekend and next on Le Mans 24 Hour duties within his team over in France, their #47 Vantage GT3 car (usually driven by Hoshino and Team Manager, Tomonobu Fujii) will this weekend be driven by last years Super Taikyu runners Tatsuya Hoshino and Kenji Hama within their appropriately classed Am entry.
Well versed of course to their national circuits and somewhat experienced with the Vantage GT3 having piloted one last season, this weekend’s two races will again be - eventful!!
Then, way back over in Holland will see the German ADAC GT Masters Series run their second round of the season from renowned coastal circuit of Zandvoort.
Sadly, featuring another entry list of just sixteen cars, the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 cars from the Walkenhorst Motorsport team have been cleaned up and prepared for their new crews having been on race duty last weekend at the fog shorted ADAC Ravenol N24 from the Nordschliefe.
No changes to report within either car as Mike David Ortmann and Denis Bulatov return in their black liveried #34 car whilst Nico Hantke and Chandler Hull also return within their brighter liveried #35 car.
Both crews will be looking to improve having finished no higher than seventh in either race.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
Wednesday, June 05, 2024 |
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Last weekends final roundup of events
At Chang, it was the return of the #777 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii as well as the solo driven #8 Earl Bamber Motorsport of Setiawan Santosa amongst the thirty-three runners.
The opening races to the season at Sepang gave some hope that the new 2024 Vantage GT3 was a competitive package within the multi-national field as the #777 scored a P4 finish in race 1 before a P8 finish in class in race 2.
Two arduous races within the heat of Thailand saw the Japanese crew eventually finish their two races with a best result of P7 in class at the end of race two whilst Santosa again finished at the rear of his four strong Am Class.
The series now moves onto three consecutive rounds within Japan as part of their Japan Cup series before seeing out the season in China in September.
Then over in California, the IMSA sanctioned Michelin Pilot Challenge ran was running its third round of their 2024 season after rounds at both Daytona and Sebring.
This time featuring six Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s amongst its thirty-seven GS and TCR based entry list, this round saw the return of the #16 Skip Barber Racing AMR Ken Fukuda and Will Lambros for the first time since their ill-fated race debut together at the season opener at Daytona.
Other than that, we welcomed back the usual full season protagonists from each of the Van Der Steur, Team TGM, Rebel Rock and Archangel racing stables with still the #71 Rebel Rock car of Robin Liddell and Frank DePew being the only runners of the new 2024 Vantage GT4.
Thanks also to Valentin Hasse-Clot otherwise engaged in Europe on World Endurance Championship duties with the D’Station Racing team, his seat within the #19 Van Der Steur car alongside that of Rory Van Der Steur was taken up by the talented Alex Premat. That new partnership helped the #19 car to qualify the highest Aston Martin in P5 for Saturday’s two-hour race.
By the end of that, we had sadly seen an early demise again of the #16 Skip Barber car but both the #19 and #46 Team TGM car of Paul Bolton (again deputising for the recuperating Owen Trinkler) and Matt Plumb came home line astern in GS to claim P5 and P6 respectively for some more valuable championship points.
The #71 Rebel Rock crew recovered from their P24 qualifying position to finish P12 whilst the #88 Archangel car of Todd Coleman and Aaron Telitz eventually finished this time in tenth and the #64 Team TGM of Ted Giovanis and High Plumb in P20.
The Michelin Pilot Challenge now have another break before their next round at Mid-Ohio in early June.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 |
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