In a simple post upon his social media earlier, Aston Martin Racing factory today confirmed that he will be leaving #TeamAMR for pastures new at the end of the season.

Brought in to support the AMR factory effort within the World Endurance Championship in 2018, the Belgium has also become a recognisable figure for various AMR customer teams within many paddocks including the British GT, GT World Challenge Europe and most reacently IMSA.

Always the gentleman, we understand the reasons for his departure and wish him all the best for the future. His social media post read:-

After an incredible five-year journey, it's time to say goodbye to the Aston Martin Racing family. It's impossible for me to count the challenges we have overcome. We have competed in many different championships, always sharing the same goals: to win and to do our best, as we have proven again this season 👊🏻

With AMR I achieved one of the greatest results of my entire career: winning the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans was simply incredible, and I will never forget the sweet taste of that wonderful victory 🏆

For me it's time to move on, aiming for the start of a new and exciting chapter in my career. 👀 

Thank you very much Aston Martin Racing: I wish you all the best for the future, and I look forward to meet you again in one of the many paddocks next year! 🍀

Maxime.

Photo credits - Social media

 

After previous visits to the racetracks at Le Castellet in France and then Imola, Italy sees the European Le Mans Series stay in Italy for their third round of their 2022 season and a scheduled four-hour spectacular at the “Temple of Speed”.

Forty-two cars spread across the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE classes again grab our attention as the two Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE’s punctuate the otherwise ‘stereotypical’ hoard of Ferrari 488 GTE’s along with the two Porsche 911 RSR’s amongst a GTE grid of twelve cars.

 

Congratulations to the D’Station Racing AMR team who yesterday confirmed another race series for their Aston Martin racing fleet of cars to go alongside their already declared baptism into the World Endurance Championship this season.

Long term supporter and participant within the (then) Pirelli Super Taikyu Series in Japan, D’Station Racing confirmed a continuation of their race programme within the series for both its #777 AMR Vantage GT3 and #47 AMR Vantage GT4.

Success in most things can be measured in many ways and that's the same in motor racing as Aston Martin Racing came away on track empty handed from the opening round of the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit Paul Ricard is southern France today.

Having had their new Gold rated driver Ross Gunn qualify their #98 AMR Vantage GTE at the front row of the GTE grid yesterday having missed out on Pole by just fractions of one second, the race start was left to Gentleman driver Paul Dalla Lana ahead of todays four hour race.


This time under partly cloudy skies but still with a higher track temperature, the Canadian found himself quickly being mugged by the plethora of Ferrari 488 GTE's that make up the majority of the full season GTE entry this year on the opening lap to drop back to P5 in class before heavy traffic at the final corner of the opening lap caught him out allowing the front corner of his car to strike and damage the rear of an LMP3 car.

That incident was immediately placed under investigation by Race Control and just a few laps later the car would be served with a drive through penalty for causing a collision. Their race then went from bad to worse on the in-lap to serve that penalty when Dalla Lana drifted wide and onto the marbles that already existing off the racing line even at that stage of the race to spin out off onto the infield but thankfully undamaged before continuing a few seconds later.


Both the spin and the drive through dropped the #98 to plumb last in class and it would then always be an uphill battle to salvage anything from the race but then, they were only there as a training exercise for the resumption of their World Endurance Championship duties later next month in the first place so any decent finish would just be a bonus!!

Then, their predicament was helped by the misfortune of two cars ahead as first a Proton Porsche got spooked by a passing LMP2 car to spin off into the tyre wall before a more serious looking incident with another LMP2 car saw the then race leading Spirit of Race Ferrari collected into another tyre wall and into immediate retirement. Fortunately neither drivers were injured beyond that of their pride.


Dalla Lana would also undertake a double stint aboard his #98 car, driving for nearly two hours before he finally passed the car to former WEC team mate Mathias Lauda and soon the Austrian Silver ranked driver had clocked up the cars best lap so far. Not before too long, the experience of Lauda had worked its magic as he hauled the #98 onto the rear of the JMW Ferrari for position and ultimately forced the error to take P4 in class before he handed over to Gunn for the final charge to the flag.

Strangely exiting pit lane behind the JMW Ferrari, after they managed a quicker stop, it didn’t take the AMR factory driver more than half a lap before he swept past Jody Fannin's yellow Ferrari to retake that position, but then that was the easy bit as the then third placed Iron Lynx Ferrari was over twenty five seconds ahead!!


With just under an hour remaining, that was a gap even the mighty Gunn could not recover so all was looking good for a P4 finish for the #98 crew before a puncture late on the penultimate lap forced Gunn to stop just as the leading LMP2 took the chequered flag. We believe that it is this that has listed the car as a non finisher as the #98 clearly left pit lane after the stop?

None the less, it was a racing exercise well undertaken as the team looked to refocus themselves after the extraordinary long COVID induced sabbatical. Next stop for the car and some of the team is a multi day Michelin test elsewhere in Southern Europe ahead of a double weekend in Belgium with the second round of the ELMS ahead of the next round of the WEC from Spa Francorchamps.


Racing is back and its great!!

Photo credits - ELMS / AMR

Returning to the series for the first time with their new turbo charged GTE race car, Aston Martin Racing nearly came away with a class pole with their GTE after a pair of flying laps from their new Gold rated factory driver Ross Gunn.

Joining the feeder series for the sole purpose of lifting the race craft of their long term customer and gentleman driver Paul Dalla Lana before the return of the World Endurance Championship later in August, it has been the work of both Gunn and Mathias Lauda to set up the #98 AMR Vantage for the Canadian businessman throughout the week at the official Prologue before his arrival at the circuit on Friday.


Over the five session of the Prologue earlier in the week, the #98 car ran with a best lap time of 1:52:959 before Gunn elevated that time to be quickest of the nine GTE runners with a 1:51:507  in the second and final Free Practice session yesterday. Dalla Lana also pushed his comfort zone from is Bronze Driver test time of 1:55:350 down to 1:53:912 in the same session as the team and drivers became more used to the spec Goodyear tyres around the Le Castellet circuit.

Running with Gunn in the car against some formidable factory driver opposition in this afternoon ten minute Qualifying session, Gunn literally went off with bang to claim the top slot on the timing board by the halfway stage. Setting a fastest time of 1:51:745 over this two flying laps, the #98 car was finale pipped at the line by the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari as the third from last car to take the chequered flag by just 0.0163 of a second.


Sundays four hour race begins at 11:00hrs local

Photo credits - ELMS / AMR

Another good job done for Aston Martin after four days of terrific display of both road and race cars to die for and all demonstrated with vigour up the legendary hill of Goodwood House at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

For 2018, emphasis was very much upon the new road cars being released out of the Gaydon factory including the  all new DBS Superleggera, the extremely exclusive V12 Vantage V600 as well as various models from the AMR Performance range including the Rapide and DB11.


Aston Martin Racing factory drivers Darren Turner and Nicki Thiim have been on hand throughout the weekend to run demonstration laps aboard the Vulcan AMR Pro and the new V8 Vantage GTE. The teams yet to be finalised V8 Vantage GT3 was there but surprisingly only as a static display.

An Aston Martin of old grabbed the news headlines earlier this weekend by becoming the most expensive car ever sold in a European auction room when a 1961 DB4 GT Zagato was sold for over £10 million to an undisclosed European buyer.


Finally and in a totally outlandish display of technical ability, we saw the 'ultimate city car' get fitted with a V8 engine from a Vantage S as a bespoke commission from a customer with Aston Martin's Q service to race up the hill in a time its smaller engined 'cousin' could only dream!


This weekend also draws the early summer break to an end with many national, European and World championships resuming over the coming weeks. For many of the factory AMR drivers, that resumption of customer team duty starts just next weekend as the British GT Championship returns with their annual excursion to Spa Francorchamps before many stay behind for the Blancpain GT Endurance Spa 24 headline event just the week later.

As for the World Endurance Championship - that resumes at Silverstone in just four weeks time! Its all going to get rather busy - very quickly!!

#TeamAMR

Photo credits - Drew Gibson / Aston Martin / Goodwood FOS

This weekend sees the final round of the 2017 European Le Mans Series from the Portimao circuit  in the southern Portuguese Algarve with the GTE titles still wide open for any to grab.

After five, already super competitive rounds, TF Sport with their V8 Vantage and driver line up of Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Nicki Thiim maintain the slenderest of leads over the JMW Ferrari 488 by just a single point behind in second at the eagerly anticipated finale.


Having suffered the hardship and disappointment of early front end damage last time out at Spa Francorchamps, Sundays race will need to be a fault free performance for both the drivers and pit crew in order for them to have the best chances of inheriting the GTE crown over the super quick Ferrari based teams. It is still mathematical possible however, for any of the GTE runners to secure the championship should something dramatic happen to the front three teams.

Beechdean AMR meanwhile, turn up with a revised driver line up as the team look forward to 2018 and their a possibly more diverse racing programme by having silver rated German racer Immanuel Vinke in the #99 car instead of Ross Gunn alongside Andrew Howard and Darren Turner.

Vinke had his first significant test aboard the #99 car at the series sanctioned test at the Portimao circuit earlier this week with the wise, young head of Ross Gunn on hand for assistance.

Darren Turner, and indeed Nicki Thiim arrive in Portugal straight off the back of a multiple day test with the AMR factory team's new for 2018 GTE car at the Navarra circuit in Spain which again is straight off the back of the last round of the World Endurance Championship at a very wet Fuji circuit in Japan.

Todays circuit running has seen the completion of the Bronze driver test as well as the first Free Practice session of the meeting where the #90 car ended the third in class, unfortunately from a physiological point of view, behind their two nearest rivals!!


Another Free Practice session takes place tomorrow tomorrow before the all too important Qualifying Session later in the afternoon. The start of Sunday's four hour race begins at 13:00hrs local.

We do of course wish both teams well.

Photo credits - ELMS / Beechdean

With both Beechdean AMR and TF Sport having endured accident and technical issues during the final Free Practice session at the Red Bull Ring yesterday, their Qualifying performance shall unfortunately see them starting at the back of the GTE grid for todays race.

Whilst it was Andrew Howard who had a small 'off' early on in his stint in the #99 car yesterday which lead to a loss of at least half of that session, it was a front end suspension issue that then cut short the test programme for the #90 TF Sport car with it accruing just four laps in that session!

With both teams metaphorically on the 'back foot' through circumstance it came as no real surprise that their qualifying runs were slightly compromised with Nicki Thiim just pipping Darren Turner to the TeamAMR honours by less than 0.1 of a second. Turner was latter docked a lap time for exceeding track limits during Qualifying as well!


Despite sum glum faces within the teams it is reassuring however that the six car GTE grid was still split by just 0.6 of a second (a continuation of performance seen across the race weekend so far) indicating that the race shall be decided upon who makes the least number of mistakes and reacts best to circumstance upon the track.

The race begins at 13:00Hrs local (Noon UK) and is streamed via the ELMS website.

Good luck guys!!

Photo credits - TF Sport / Beechdean

Reigning European Le Mans Series GTE Champions Beechdean Aston Martin Racing (AMR) are set to take on their title defence campaign in just under two weeks time at Silverstone GP.

The European Le Mans Series annual ‘Prologue’ took place at the fast and historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Beechdean AMR drivers Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Ross Gunn gained valuable experience of the circuits mixture of high speed straights and slow speed chicanes. Aston Martin Racing Factory Driver Darren Turner, continues to support Howard and Gunn in their understanding of the upgraded GTE car, that is new to the Beechdean AMR stable for 2017.

With the majority of the European Le Mans Series GTE competitors not expected to show their true performance until the first championship round at Silverstone (15th April), the field proved to be closely matched in all prologue sessions. The 99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE car clocked the fastest time in 2 out of the 5 sessions, and was placed 2nd in two other sessions.

“It was great to be back with the European Le Mans Series in our updated Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE car at Monza.” Said an reigning European Le Mans Series Champion Andrew Howard. “The test was all about learning for us, and we gained valuable information before Silverstone in two weeks and the Monza round in May."

Beechdean AMR are looking forward to an action packed European Le Mans Series season.

Over the last couple of days Aston Martin Racing and some of their Customer Teams have had themselves their very own 'convoy' with seven transporter lorries carrying 10 cars travelling all the way down to the Portimao circuit in Portugal - a journey of nearly 2,500km for a collective winter test.

GTE cars known to have made the long journey include the #97 car of Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke and the #99 Valero sponsored Bruno Senna car.

On top the 'works' cars you can add the Beechdean GT3 of Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam together with their brand new GT4 car for Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings, the two new Motorbase GT3's (no drivers currently published), one  GT3 car for the renamed MP-AMR squad of Mark Poole and Richard Abra, a single car for Paul White of Strata21, the Bilstein sponsored GT3 from N24 and a further V8 GT4.



Besides the names listed above additional drivers known to have made the trip include ex JRM LMP1 driver Karun Chandock, AMR Pro/AM stalwart Stuart Hall, members of the BTCC fraternity including Tom Onslow-Cole and reigning champion Andrew Jordan and WTCC driver Alex McDowall (amongst others). All in all that is quite a pool of motor racing knowledge and experience.

Tom Onslow-Cole is there for yet more AMR experience following on from what he had testing at Snetterton and race at Brands Hatch last year and this year it seems that it is the turn of the reigning BTCC Champion Andrew Jordan to be given a coveted AMR invite to test the Beechdean Vantage.



WTCC driver Alex McDowall also makes a return visit to the AMR paddock following a successful shakedown test with the Beechdean team at Snetterton last year prior to the teams Blancpain Endurance Series campaign.



The two day test is due to conclude on Saturday and it will be interesting to see if any further drivers make the trip as both Motorbase cars are both driverless despite being officially entered into the British GT Championship that kicks off at Oulton Park on Easter weekend. It is understood that at least one pair are due to test again in the UK early next week.



At stage it is unlikely that any data will be released by the team as the test is only being used for both shakedown and familiarisation purposes together with a degree of corporate media activity to boot.

For anyone living close to the circuit public access will not be permitted for this private test but @AMR_Official shall be updating the situation over the Friday and Saturday test.

Photo credit - AMR

Ahead of today’s official announcement by the ACO of entrants for the European Le Mans Series, Gulf Racing confirmed their return to the European Le Mans Series with an Aston Martin Vantage GTE and Porsche 911.

Team Co-owner Roald Goethe who car narrowly missed the GT-AM championship title last year in the WEC  said “I’m really excited to be back racing with my guys in the ELMS, with the Aston having the latest upgrade package I’m sure we will be in contention in what I think will be a very competitive Championship this year.”

Team Manager Matt Beers added “It really does promise to be a great season in the ELMS, it is always challenging to run two different marques in one garage but we have a team that is capable and I’m sure it will be of great interest to see the differences in the cars on level ground.”

The European Le Mans Series gets underway at Silverstone April 18th

Image Richard Leach