TF Sport brought their European racing commitments to an end at the weekend as their two sets of clients completed their respective final rounds of the International GT Open Series and the European Le Mans Series but with the team split between up to three locations worldwide!

Whilst Michael Dinan and Robby Foley raced out their two last two races of their partnership with one of the team’s Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s at the Gt Open finale from the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in Spain, drivers John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and Ross Gunn were all at Portimao for the final round of the ELMS in the team’s AMR Vantage GTE.

Whereas Dinan and Foley were there for experience of both the European circuits visited by the series and the differences between the AMR Vantage GT3 and Ferrari 488 GT3 having now raced both with different teams this year, Hartshorne at al where there to see out their full season of running in their series in Portugal.

Having already seen out five prior races in the season as well as a racing visit to Le Mans during August for the 24Hr itself, the #95 crew finished off the final four race of the season in style with their best finish to date as well as having claimed another Class pole position beforehand courtesy of AMR factory driver Gunn.

Finishing the incident filled race eventually P7 in class (having had to serve an unwanted drive through penalty for track limits from P6), the race saw out Hartshorne’s ‘means to an end’ season as having started the year with the team in the Asian Le Mans Series, his application to the ACO to make a racing return to the 24Hours of Le Mans was later accepted and their participation in the ELMS used to hone that cause. Just where or if Harthorne does anymore racing with the team (or AMR at large) over the winter/next season is yet to be seen as with Dinan.

For the American duo in Spain, there was sadly to be no repeat of the success from their own series debut at Spa Francorchamps earlier in the year as again (like seen previously in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance finale there), the performance of the Aston Martin GT3 around the Catalunya circuit is not where the car wants/needs to be at and they were left with initially a P6 and a P7 finishes in their Pro Class for their efforts. That was however to change post-race as their race two result was to be penalised with an additional three seconds for causing a collision and that would drop them down to P9 overall.

Another weekend done and another two series done and dusted again for the year. For the team, they have the logistical problem of two remaining rounds of the World Endurance Championship that starts in Bahrain this weekend with the second and final round of that season just a week later!!

Busy busy!!

Photo credits – TF Sport / GT Open / ELMS / WEC

Five rounds of the Series done already, including a successful return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in between and the TF Sport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE crew of John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and Ross Gunn pair up for one last race in the European Le Man’s Series at Portimao this weekend.

An accomplished GT and prototype race car driver over the past two decades, Hartshorne made the decision to return to topflight GT racing for this season and embarked upon a vigorous re-learning curve with TF Sport in both the Asian Le Mans Series earlier this year (in which they drove an AMR Vantage GT3) before stepping up to the big time with an AMR Vantage GTE in the ELMS and at Le Mans.

Joining him on this journey was Ollie Hancock, a recent co-driver of his who had never raced at this level before as well as AMR factory driver Ross Gunn, who would show them both how it was done.

It has become clear at times that racing at this level has been tough on both the elder gentleman driver and a young silver ranked driver who must have felt at times like a rabbit staring into the car headlights but as the season progressed, so did they and their eighth in class result was certainly something to be proud of.

This weekend’s final four-hour round of the season will start at 13:00hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits – Adrenal Media / Team

Finally, but by no means least in this weekend’s large catalogue of Aston Martin Racing Partner and Customer team activity is the penultimate round of the European Le Mans Series from Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.

Featuring their season long crew of John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and AMR factory weapon Ross Gunn again reunite in their #95 TF Sport prepared Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE after a highly successful last outing together at the 24 Hours of Le Mans where they eventually finished P8 in that ultra-competitive GTE Am grid of twenty-three cars.

Back into the European series for this weekend, the previous four rounds of the season have been something of a baptism of fire for the returning Gentleman driver since his last racing experiences at this level of GT racing and as well for his silver co-driver Hancock.

This weekend’s round features an entry list of thirty-eight cars spread across the available LMP2, LMP3 and GTE classes with the #95 car again battling in a class of nine, mainly Ferrari 488 based cars with a couple of Porsche’s thrown in also for good measure.

As usual for this circuit, the association with rain is never too far away and that is something that the teams have already had to deal with having conducted their ‘private testing’ around the circuit yesterday as local planning laws prohibit events more than four consecutive days long at the circuit. During the morning session, caution was the better part of valour as the #95 featured as being the slowest on track to then gain confidence during the similarly wet afternoon session to finish second fastest in class.

Where this race goes for the team, nobody knows but any significant weather patterns will always influence the proceedings and coming out of Le Mans with a finish of that magnitude – confidence between Hartshorne and Hancock (Gunn is just like a rocket any day or night of the week despite his high workload these days) should still be high so we are hopeful of their best race result to date on Sunday especially as all the Ferrari’s have lost both fuel capacity and turbo boost since the last race at Monza.

The start of this four-hour race begins at 11:00hrs local.

Photo credits – ELMS / WEC / TF Sport

First this weekend, the final Le Mans 24hr dress rehearsal for the European Le Mans Series before next weekend, the same for the World Endurance Championship as both ACO series get in some last gasp racing in each before their collective annual visit to the Circuit de La Sarthe in August.

For the ELMS, this weekend’s trip to Monza in Italy is their fourth round out of six and will be the last track action for those also entered for the Le Mans 24hr for with Aston Martin Racing Partner team, TF Sport is one of them.

For this round, a grid of forty-four cars across the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE classes are expected with the #95 TF Sport AMR Vantage GTE of John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and Ross Gunn featuring again featuring within a class of eight other GTE’s.

For ‘gentleman driver’ Hartshorne, his Asian Le Mans Series and now European Le Mans Series commitments have been a pathway of securing a much anticipated top level racing return to Le Mans since his last race there in 2011.

Their ELMS season so far has been something of a steep learning curve for both Harthorne and Hancock with neither having raced a 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 or GTE until the turn of this year. Previous ELMS rounds at Catalunya, Red Bull Ring and most recently Le Castellet in France have seen the crew firstly complete every race so far and despite some challenging conditions in Austria for them to have their best race so far in France where Gunn even claimed the GTE pole position for them.

Track action begins on Friday with the first Free Practice session and Bronze driver test before FP2 and Qualifying on Saturday with the four hour race itself on Sunday.

If that was already busy enough for some, AMR factory driver Ross Gunn returns home this week from an IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship double header from Watkins Glen (where he and Roman de Angelis secured consecutive P3 GTD class podium finishes) to race in not only the ELMS race with TF Sport but also in the third round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Monza as well.

With TF Sport also furnishing two other AMR Vantage GTE’s within the WEC, Gunn will co-driver an AMR Vantage GT3 with their WEC entrant Ben Keating during that round so that the American can become accustomed to the circuit before the WEC round there next week. Their GT3 will be on of just six other GT3 cars racing amongst a combined grid of 33 cars.

Photo credits – Adrenal Media / TF Sport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the rain at the Red Bull Ring in Austria last time out in mid-May, the European Le Mans Series moves on to the south of France this weekend and a hopefully dry event that will mark the halfway point of the 2021 season by the end of this Sunday’s four-hour race.

First time out in a current GTE specification car after many years out of a car at the start of the season, this year is not about pretending to compete for overall Class titles for TF Sport’s latest Gentleman driver client John Hartshorne, rather than living the moment and the dream of competing again at the highest level of GT racing and (soon) at the home of endurance racing at Le Mans. 

It was a week of strong improvement for the TF Sport GTE gentleman driver, John Hartshorne, as he made great steps forward in his development with the Aston Martin GTE.

There was a change in line-up on the GT side of TF Sport’s garage too, for the same reasons. Ross Gunn was replaced by fellow factory Pro, Jonny Adam, whilst he was stateside for IMSA at Mid-Ohio.

A tough qualifying session was had for Adam and despite pushing all he could out of the Vantage, it was a challenge to compete with the pace of the Ferraris and #95 was positioned P6 for the second round of the ELMS.

Hartshorne kept his elbows out at the start and managed to fend off the pack of three behind him, for almost half of his stint. Hancock then took the reins from John and similarly to Eastwood, had to contest with the onslaught of rain. Ollie wrestled with the aquaplaning Vantage as the conditions worsened, but managed to close the gap to the class competitors ahead.

It was two-time Le Mans victor, Adam’s job to see how much further he could push forward, however, the changeable weather marred the end result for the #95 crew, but the team maximised their potential to finish P8 in the GTE class.

Round three of the 2021 European Le Mans Series will take place at Le Castellet, France, on June 5/6.


Source material - TF Sport

TF Sport’s return to the European Le Mans Series at the weekend marked itself as another new chapter for both the West Sussex based team and their latest Gentleman driver client as each looked to replicate their previous successes in GT racing.

Having raced in the then top-flight of European GT racing nearly two decades earlier, John Hartshorne had his birthday date to mark his return in today’s top-flight of GT racing in Europe with the TF Sport prepared Aston Martin Racing AMR Vantage GTE that he would share with Ollie Hancock and Ross Gunn.

An interesting start to the two, double header race weekends for the Asian Le Mans Series starting in Dubai earlier today with a record grid of thirty-six cars including five of the new turbo charged Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s from three Partner teams taking part in the Series for the first time.

Running with an already tight timetable of events for rounds one and two this weekend, this afternoon’s first four-hour race thankfully took part under clear and warm blue skies having had two days of early Free Practice and Qualifying delayed with fog over the Dubai Autodrome Circuit. 

Having qualified these five cars from TF Sport, Garage 59 and D’Station Racing with their respective Pro driver yesterday, the #95 TF Sport car of John Harthorne would take the start of today’s race (having had Charlie Eastwood qualify the car) whilst its sister #97 car from the team but running under the Oman Racing title for driver Ahmad Al Harthy, who would start P10 after the efforts of Jonny Adam yesterday.

The two TF Sport cars would be split by the two Garage 59 cars as the #88 car of Maxime Martin would take the start after having qualified the car in P6 whilst Mike Benham would start the #89 from P9 after the efforts of Marvin Kirchhofer. The single car from Japanese team D’Station Racing would start with team owner Satoshi Hoshino behind the wheel after Tomonobu Fujii Qualified their green machine in P17.

It must be said that even before Official proceedings started on Thursday, one driver within an AMR team commented to us that the Porsche’s were really quick with some extremely fast Bronze’s aboard to boot so it was interesting just how this race eventually panned out!!

Anyway, the start to today’s race started quietly with thankfully nobody trying to win the Series at turn one on lap 1. With the #88 car’s differing strategy on starting drivers, it saw Martin quickly move up to P2 in class by the end of opening laps to set up a chase with the then leading GPX Racing Porsche. Early gains were also made by both Al Harty in the #97 and Hoshino in the #77 but Hartshorne would drop back as he conducted his first race aboard the #95 car – testing is one thing but racing is completely another!

Tyre degradation quickly became an obvious issue for all three classes of car that compete within the Series and many Gentleman Drivers particularly, struggling to get their cars around the 5.4km circuit as the tarmac quickly ‘turned to ice’ and apexes were missed as they headed back after achieving their minimum drive time of 55 minutes within the first stint.

Tom Gamble was the first of the five to swap into his (#77) car as Tom Canning, Ollie Hancock and Yuki Nemoto quickly followed suit in their #97, #95 and #89 cars respectively as these three drivers also got their first racing experience of the ALMS. Several laps later did Martin finally pit from second in class to allow Alex West out for his stint just after the first hour of racing.

Like the Bronzes before them, any over egging of the Michelin rubber in their early laps also had these silver/ bronze drivers having to manage their tyre wear more than they normally would have to. West was doing well up front in class having only dropped one position down to P3 whilst Canning was slowly pulling his #97 car up to P7 by the halfway point.

A definitive point for the #88 car came after the halfway mark as the race endured its only full period of caution for a prototype that had come to stop on track. That upset their race strategy enough to force them to pit for full service much earlier than they otherwise needed as West handed over to the new AMR Drivers Academy winner Valentin Hasse-Clot but then, that’s is what endurance racing is all about – just how these teams deal with these eventualities!

Unfortunately for the #89 Garage 59 car, by then their race was already effectively over after having received a drive through penalty before later suffering a puncture picked up from debris on the racetrack. These two unexpected visits to pit lane would sadly see them coming in as the last of the Aston runners in P17 by the end of the race. The #77 D'Station car would also see pit lane more times than anticipated after coming back in to pit lane during the FCY to avoid a more costly penalty during the resumption of the race for a too short a pit stop in the mid segment of the race!

Despite the late drama in the closing stages of the race where the then leading GPX Porsche first spun and then got a converted time penalty added to their race time for exceeding track limits (after its spin), that additional thirty seconds was not enough (only just) to lift the #88 car from its P5 finishing position. The #97 Oman Racing car would eventually finish P7 and the 395 TF Sport car P10 in class whilst the #77 would come home P13 in class after some great battling on track – some for the first time behind the wheel of an AMR GT3.

Not necessarily the race results that we may have wanted but all the teams would now have more data and experience to crunch on overnight before the second round of the Series in Dubai tomorrow. It will be very interesting to see how strategy changes to offset the now known race performances of others, tyre degradation and with their own driver rotations.

Update - We understand from those at the circuit that the Porsche has already received a +20kg weight increase ahead of tomorrows race.

Photo credits - ALMS / AMR / TF Sport / Garage 59 / D'Station

It was great to see yet another iron that has been gently simmering in the fire that warms the Sussex based workshops of TF Sport emerge today with the confirmation of another full season programme, this time in the European Le Mans Series.

With the team (and indeed most of this new driver line up) presently in the deserts of Dubai competing in the heavily revised calendar of the Asian Le Mans Series, today saw gentleman driver John Hartshorne and silver driver Ollie Hancock confirmed in an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE entry within the 2021 ELMS with AMR factory driver Ross Gunn completing the trio of drivers as the resident gold.

TF Sport enters a second Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series, at the recently relocated venue of Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi. Established teammates John Hartshorne and Ollie Hancock, will be joined by factory driver and 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Charlie Eastwood.

Hartshorne and Hancock have raced Ferrari GT3s together for the past three seasons and have both previously competed in the Asian Le Mans Series, albeit in LMP machinery.
The duo have enjoyed some successful test days with the UK-based team, to prepare for the four, four-hour endurance events.

Both the Endurance Racing Legends and Masters Historic Racing Series have been busy, both this weekend as last as a whole collection of former Aston Martin Racing cars are still race competitively by their owners around the world in two the best historic series about.

Last weekend saw the Peter Auto 'Endurance racing Legends' Series compete a the Monza Historic event at the iconic Autodromo Nazionale Monza just north of Milan, Italy where a DBR9 from 2007 and a 2010 Vantage GT2 competed in that weekends double header.


The #009 DBR9 GT1 former Le Mans race winning car of David Graham, Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell was raced in Italy by Kriton Lendoudis and Rui Aguas where they were victorious in class for both events, after taking fourth overall in race 1 and being outright winners in race 2


The Vantage GT2 is more recognisable at the former JMW Motorsport car and now in the hands of Franz Wunderlich, he was to finish in 2nd and 3rd places on class over the weekend in his recent historical purchase.


Over at Spa Francorchamps this weekend, the concluded event of the 2019 Aston Martin sponsored Masters Endurance Legends season was taking place at that iconic race track and again we were blessed with the presence of fan favourite and local driver, the Lola Aston Martin DBR1-2 of Christophe D'Ansembourg as well as a DBR9 and a Vantage GT2 of their own.

Featuring their own 'race into the night' event as well on Friday, the Lola #008 took another podium finishing P2 in the top class whilst Nicolas Ditting and Sam Hancock took the class honours aboard their DBR9 with Albert Bloem doing likewise in his former Jota Sport GT2.


Race two on Saturday took a similar path for the trio of teams but this time D'Ansembourg went one better to claim the final top set of the year

We also found this rather exquisite in car footage taken at Spa this weekend. Credit goes to the uploader of this video on Youtube.


Whilst we wait for the series to update the Championship table after the conclusion of the second and final race at Spa, we believe that D'Ansembourg's P2 and P1 finishes at Spa should be enough for him to be declared the overall winner of the 2019 Series (STC)



Photo credits - Masters Series / Peter Auto