Four rounds and thirty six hours of the most competitive GT3 racing later and Aston Martin Racing Partner team Oman Racing with TF Sport will go into this weekend's final round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona looking to secure both the Pro-Am Drivers and Pro-Am Team's Championships.

With the three full Pro line up AMR cars sadly already out of any title contention, this weekend sees the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood seeking to maintain their slender points lead by the end of Sundays three hour race to claim these titles whilst the #188 Garage 59 Am Class car of Alex West, Chris Goodwin (with Chris Harris again along side) look to secure a further runners up position in their class after another difficult outing for the team last time out at Spa Francorchamps effectively ended their Championship aspirations.


This year is of course the first competitive season of the new AMR Vantage GT3 and already this year we have seen significant race and Championship accolades roll in from around the world with most recently TF Sport and Optimum Motorsport winning the ultimate overall and Silver Cup class honours in the British GT Championship giving the new turbo charged platform an early race pedigree to match that of the older normally aspirated V12 platform that it replaced.

As with every Championship, you have to be 'in it to win it' and that is precisely what both the #97 car has done throughout the season, sometimes in some very challenging track conditions (particularly at Monza at the opening round to the season back in April and most lately at the Spa 24) where the #97 car overcame early adversity to finally claim a class victory at the end of another weather affected event.

The #97 goes into the race with a 16 points lead in the Driver's title hunt and is also ahead by 14 points in the Teams championship and with up to 34 points being available everything is far from secure.

The 2019 TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa will feature the strongest ever Aston Martin partner team entry as the British luxury sportscar manufacturer bids to secure its first outright victory in the legendary Belgian race this weekend.

With no less than six Vantage GT3s in the race, it is the largest frontline Aston Martin contingent entered in the event - the blue riband round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Series. The cars will be run by some of AMR's most valued partner teams Garage 59, R-Motorsport and TF Sport, and they will be buoyed by Optimum Motorsport's impressive win with the car at Spa in the domestic British GT Championship last weekend.

Moreover, spread among the three teams will be five of Aston Martin Racing's works drivers -
Alex Lynn (GB), Maxime Martin (BEL), Nicki Thiim (DEN), Jonny Adam (GB) and Ross Gunn (GB) - as well as Aston Martin High Performance Test driver Chris Goodwin and BBC Top Gear presenter Chris Harris.

Series front-runner R-Motorsport will contest the race with a bumper three-car entry. The Swiss team enters their two regular Blancpain GT Vantage GT3s in the Pro class; the #62 for Matthieu Vaxiviére (F), Matt Parry (GB) and Martin, and the #76 for Marvin Kirkhhöfer (D), Jake Dennis (GB) and Lynn (GB). Then it will run a third car in the Silver Cup class for Ricky Collard (GB), Hugo de Sadeleer (CHE), Ferdinand von Habsburg (A) and Aaro Vainio (I).

Garage 59 have entered their two regular Blancpain GT line-ups of Cóme Ledogar (F), Andrew Watson (GB) and Adam in the Pro #59 entry, while Alexander West (SWE), Harris and Goodwin, who lie second the Am class championship standings after their victory in the last round at Paul Ricard, will race the #188 car along with works driver Gunn.

TF Sport Racing With Oman, whose drivers Salih Yoluc (TUR), Ahmad Al Harthy (UAE) and AMR Junior driver Charlie Eastwood (IRL) lead the Pro-Am standings after three consecutive podium finishes and two pole positions, will be joined in the #97 car by Thiim who also races for the team in British GTs.

David King, President, Aston Martin Racing, said: “You only have to cast your eyes over the 72-car entry for the TOTAL Hours of Spa to realise the quality of the field and the importance of the event in the international GT calendar, so for Aston Martin's partner teams to going there in such numbers and strength in depth is a true testament to the Vantage GT3's qualities as a customer racing package. Optimum Motorsport’s dominant win in the British GT Championship last weekend, and the consistent level of competitive performances around the world, suggests that the car is on the brink of a breakthrough result halfway through its first season. We have every reason to expect the Vantage GT3 to be in contention for honours this weekend, and wish our partner teams the best of luck.”

The TOTAL 24 Hours of Spa begins at 1630 CET on Saturday, 27 July with qualifying taking place at 2000 CET on Thursday 25 July. The event can be followed around the world on the Blancpain GT Series official livestream YouTube.


Source material - Aston Martin Racing

Aston Martin takes on its second 24-hour race in as many weekends when it contests another landmark GT racing event in the 2019 calendar – the ADAC TOTAL 24 Hours (N24) – staged on the world famous Nürburgring Nordschleife (22-23 June), with four Vantage GT4 machines.

Straight off the back of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the Aston Martin Vantage GTE completed its first season in the top-flight FIA World Endurance Championship, the Vantage GT4 will make its international 24-hour race debut in the N24 – perhaps the world’s toughest long distance race.


The works AMR Performance Centre will run a two-car entry in the SP8T class for close-to-production cars, featuring an all-star driver line-up that includes three-time Le Mans class winner Darren Turner (GB), Aston Martin High Performance test driver Chris Goodwin (GB), who join Christian Gebhardt (D) in the #36. Meanwhile AMR Junior driver and W-Series championship leader Jamie Chadwick and former ELMS champion Alex Brundle team-up with N24 veteran Peter Cate in all British line-up in the #37 GT4.

A further two Vantage GT4s will be run by the Nürburgring-based Aston Martin Racing partner team PROsport Performance in the SP10 class. An all-German crew of Christoph Breuer, Kay van Berlo, Alexander Mies and Peter Scharmach will drive the #86. Meanwhile in the #76 will be Jörg Viebahn (D), Nicolaj Moller-Madsen (DEN) and Jonas Lappeleinen (FIN).

BBC Top Gear presenter and Blancpain GT Endurance Series Pro-Am champion Chris Harris was due to participate with the AMR Performance Centre team this weekend but had to withdraw due to filming commitments.


Darren Turner said: “I love racing in the N24. It’s the toughest circuit on the planet and one of the most challenging events of the year, no matter what class you are racing in. Last year we finished fourth in the final race for the V12 Vantage GT3; ‘The Old Lady’, in the top SP9 class. This time around we have the privilege of giving the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 it’s N24 debut. The SP8T class is well balanced, and because of the way the rules work, we have access to more power than would normally be available in a GT4 so it’s really fun to drive it hard. During the recent VLN qualifier, the car performed exceptionally well so I have high hopes of another strong result.”



David King, President, Aston Martin Racing, added: “Two 24-hour races in two weekends featuring significant four-car Aston Martin entries, underlines the strength in depth of our current contingent. With more than 60 Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars now in active service and competition around the world, there is no place on Earth more appropriate than the Nürburgring for the GT4 to make its international 24-hour race debut. The car performed exceptionally well in both its VLN debut and the recent six-hour Qualifier race on the Nordschleife, so our sights are trained firmly on earning a podium finish for both cars in the SP8T class.”



The Aston Martin Performance Centre will also run a prior generation Vantage GT8 in the SP8 class for customer drivers Marco Müller (D), Tony Richards (NZ), David Thilenius (USA) and Heinz Jürgen Kroner (D).


In the build-up to the race which starts at 1530 CET, there will also be an Aston Martin Festival parade lap, featuring a cavalcade of road going examples from the British luxury sportscar maker on Saturday 22 June.


Source material - Aston Martin Racing
Photo credits - Aston Martin Racing / Frozenspeed

This weekend saw the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup take to the home circuit of the Stephane Ratel Organisation for their now customary double length, third round of the 2019 season with the 1000km of Paul Ricard.

For the five full season Aston Matin Racing Partner Team entries from Garage 59, R-Motorsport and Oman Racing with TF Sport all spread across three of the available four driver classes of racing, this race race would also see the need of important preparatory work ahead of the banner 24Hr event at Spa Francorchamps at the end of July as well as the extended points that the 6hr would offer.


It was consecutive podiums in the Pro-Am and Am Classes for the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport car as well as the #188 car from Garage 59. For the three Pro class cars, Silverstone was another one to forget with the #59 Garage 59 car of Come Ledogar, Jonny Adam and Andrew Watson being taken out of the race on the opening lap with significant frontal damage, unfortunate driver sickness within the R-Motorsport camp forcing double driving duties for AMR factory driver Maxime Martin for whom their first decent finish of the season so far looked on the cards before a bizarre incident with track debris forced the untimely release of the #76 cars internal fire extinguisher.

With many of the fifteen drivers associated with these five Aston Martin Race cars also required for driving duties at the Le Mans 24Hour Official Test day the next morning, this weekend was always going to be a little frantic. With cars rebuilt and drivers well again where applicable, the Pre-Qualifying Race on Friday and Qualifying itself on Saturday morning went relatively well across the board withe the #62 R-Motorsport car of Mathieu Vaxivierre heading the group on the early evening grid in P6 overall with the #59 Garage 59 of Jonny Adam right behind. Jake Dennis and his #76 car completed the AMR Pro grid in P13 whilst the #97 Oman Racing and #188 Garage 59 cars started the race from pole position in their classes - P23 and P34 out of the starting number of 49 cars respectively.


Racing from early evening and up until midnight, the thunderous grid took the green light at the stroke of 18:00hrs leading to an understandable large number of avoiding manoeuvres through the first sequence of corners to avoid any inevitable contact. Whilst that chaos worked well for Adam on the lap (gaining two places) it didnt work our quite so well for Salih Yoluc in the #97 Oman car who lost seven places on the opening lap alone. Restraint would soon be called for as three cars were involved in a high speed incident at the end of the Mistral Straight that would require an early use of the Safety Car.

Later confirmed as an incident that caused no significant injury to any driver or marshal, twenty five minutes of race time was lost and then on the (again) congested restart another incident at the final corner would lead to further 10minutes of lost racing. For some, these periods allowed teams to split their fuel/driver strategies but only time would tell who had made the right choices!


By the end of the first hour, Adam was pushing hard against both Rowe Racing Porsche's for P3 in his #59 car sure that he was faster than them as the leader scampered off into the distance. For those who didn't pit under the Safety Car, sixty five minutes was the maximum stint time per driver (which could be reset by passing through the pit lane) as it was time for their first stop. Due to the now split strategies down the pit lane, by the time the starting drivers of Adam (#59), Dennis (#76) and Vaxivierre (#62) had all pitted their positions relative to the leader had dropped although both the #97 and #188 cars were still in podium claiming positions in Pro-Am and Am.

As the laps and hours ticked by, the AMR Pro class cars slowly hauled themselves up the timing board although the #62 R-Motorsport car would take a hard hit with a drive through penalty for an unsafe release - at first contested but later confirmed. At the two hour mark of racing all would pit for a full service and driver change.


Alex Lynn was now aboard the #76 car for his first racing experience of the Blancpain GT Series and was pushing his way up the timing screen from his inherited P11 position. Andrew Watson, now in the #59 car would become involved in a dice with Christian Englehart and his Lamborghini that would keep those two far too occupied to notice the large group back markers in front that, in defending their positions, lead to another car bumping into the #97 Oman Racing car of Ahmad Al Harthy to send him spinning off towards the tyre wall. With only the smallest of touches at either end of his car, the Omani racer would relinquish control of his Pro-Am class as a result as he was forced to seek further assistance from the team with two unscheduled stops. It wasn't his fault but they were certainly paying a high price for someone else incident.

As the half way point car and went, Lynn was now up to P5 in Pro and Alex West was maintaining the Am Class lead that Chris Harris had earlier established in the #188 car. Trouble was obviously haunting Watson as he and his #59 car suddenly started to plummet down the order, down from P3 to 23 in only a matter of a couple of laps - sadly he had to pit from which we would see the blue and white #59 car no more. An electrical issue apparently - gutting for them all.


Going into the final two hours, the third and final driver for each car would be racing in total darkness with only the headlight of them and others to light the way.

Lynn would pit and hand the #76 car over to Marvin Kirchhofer from an overall P2 position whilst team mate matt Parry would hand his #62 car to Maxime Martin. Chris Goodwin would inherit the Am class lead in the #188 whilst Charlie Eastwood had a little work to do to recover their #97 car back to a podium position after Al Harthy's earlier and externally influence spin.


Kirchhofer would soon come within the sights of Marco Mapelli's Lamborghini, the German would be able to fend off the Italian for a couple of laps but the inevitable was there to be seen before the disjoined final stops between the two cars set up a final hour of cat and mouse between them for the final step of the podium. Goodwin meanwhile would be enjoying the benefit of being the Am Class leader that also headed all of the remaining Pro-Am Class runners as well!!

Unfortunately for Kirchhofer and the R-Motorsport team, Mapelli's Lamborghini was finally able to pass the #76 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 with just five minutes remaining with a move that he simple had no answer to with the clearly faster Lambo.


Despite losing that final step of the podium at the end of 5 hours 55 minutes of racing, the #76 still claimed an admirable P4 finish (just 1.1 seconds behind P3) after what had been a fairly disappointing Blancpain season so far. Well done to them.

For the #188 Garage 59 car, Paul Ricard meant a third consecutive podium for them in the Am Class but this time on the top step with the first win of the season so far for Alex West, Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin and it was the same sense of achievement for the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood as they recovered to a P3 finish in Pro-Am.


These results take the #97 car to P2 in the Pro-Am drivers Championship and P3 in the Pro-Am Teams Championship - a similar position for the #188 crew who now stand P2 in both Drivers and Teams listings.

The next round of the season for these guys will be at Spa and the Total 24 Hours of Spa at the end of July.

Photo credits - Garage 59 / TF Sport / R-Motorsport / Blancpain

Today sees 160 cars confirmed for this years ADAC Total 24H race from the Nordschleife in just over three weeks time, this year featuring four examples of the new 2109 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 as well as the venerable and former class winning Aston Martin Vantage GT8.

The two AMR Vantage GT4's being entered and supported by the local AMR Performance Centre in the SP8T class includes those who undertook the events Qualifying Race at the circuit two weeks ago and again includes double driving duties for AMR factory driver Darren Turner aboard both of them.

The other two AMR Vantage GT4 cars are being entered by the PROsport Performance AMR Partner team and will compete within the SP10 class, a move that Aston Martin have often utilised in to avoid the factory competing directly against its customer cars.


Despite previous communications, it sadly appears that AMR factory reserve driver Ross Gunn will now not be involved with either of the two factory supported GT4's with his place now being taken by Turner as he will switch between cars just like he did at the Qualifying Race. The GT8 and the two PROsport Performance entered cars will be strictly customer based but the names with the GT8 car being very familiar to those who follow the VLN Series.

Driver line up are confirmed as being

#35 Aston Martin Vantage GT8 SP8 Class
Marco Muller
Tony Richards
David Thilenius
Heinz Jurgen Kroner

#36 AMR Performance Centre Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP8T Class
Darren Turner
Chris Goodwin
Chris Harris
Christian Gebhardt

#37 AMR Performance Centre Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP8T Class
Darren Turner
Jamie Chadwick
Peter Cate
Alex Brundle

#68 PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP10 Class 
Christoph Breuer
Kay van Berlo
Alexander Mies
Mike David Ortmann


#76 PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 SP10 Class
Jorg Viebahn
Nicolaj Moller-Madson
Jonas Lappeleinen




The race takes place over the weekend of 22-23rd June - the weekend after Le Mans 24.


Photo credits - AMR / GT4 European Series

After the successes of the Pro-Am and Am class entries from both Oman Racing and Garage 59 at the previous two rounds of the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup, those crews will be looking to continue that path of success whilst the three remaining Pro class Aston Martin entries will be looking to finally establish a foot hold within that class as the Blancpain GT Series ventures back over to Paul Ricard for the extended 1000km event this weekend.

Swiss based R-Motorpsort certainly had the most mis-fortune last time out at Silverstone earlier this month with their #76 car first being hit with a bout of unexpected sickness just after Qualifying leaving Marvin Kirchhofer unable to race before a double stinting Maxime Martin had his race to the flag aboard the #76 car curtailed by a piece of track debris setting off the cars internal fire extinguisher. Till then a decent (possible podium) finish looked highly likely after a text book run from Jake Dennis and another scintillating hour behind the wheel from Nicki Thiim.


Also referring to the #76 car, the continued driving duties from Thiim have now sadly come to an end as Aston Martin Racing factory team mate Alex Lynn now becomes free from his prior Formula E commitments to make his series debut at Paul Ricard where he will join co-drivers Dennis and Kirchhofer. The sister #62 car remains unchanged with Martin, Matt Parry and Mathieu Vaxivierre all behind the wheel.

That was certainly all very unfortunate for them but very luckily for Come Ledogar, a high speed impact on the opening lap at Silverstone thankfully resulted in no serious harm to the Frenchman despite significant - immediate race ending damage to the front of his #59 Garage 59 AMR Vantage GT3 leaving his co-drivers Andrew Watson and Jonny Adam with no home race opportunities. That car has now been repaired and has had a shakedown before being transported down along with it sister #188 Am class car that won its drivers Alex West, Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin their second consecutive P3 finish of the season so far.


Finally but certainly by no means least is the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport entry of Ahmad Al Harthy, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood. Also having enjoyed two podium finishes so far in the Series, having stepped up from P3 to P2 after a post race penalty was applied to the Ram racing Mercedes AMG in the Pro Am class at Silverstone, this has certainly wetting their appetite for more success in this Saturdays six hour marathon.

“We have had the pace to win races this year and we head to Paul Ricard as we have to both Monza and Silverstone with the same mindset. We were unfortunate at Monza with the punctures and showed our pace again at Silverstone. This is a very tough event - anything can happen in a six hour race, but as ever the aim is to stay in the championship hunt with another podium position” said TF Sport Principle Tom Ferrier.

A productive weekend was had by Aston Martin Racing and their two V8 Vantage GT4's at Sundays Qualification Race ahead of the main ADAC Zurich 24H event later in June.


Having already ran their new 2019 specification at a VLN Series event earlier in the year, this was the first time that the team had run two new chassis with most of the members of their driver line up that shall compete in the N24 as part of a full factory effort in the SP8T (GT4) class.




Due to prior commitments from others and contrary to previous entry lists, AMR factory driver Darren Turner would end up on double driving duties aboard each of the #36 and #37 cars amongst the ninety eight cars that started the race's own qualifying process on Saturday morning. Joining Turner aboard the #36 car would be customer team Garage 59 racers Chris Harris and Chris Goodwin whilst in the #37 car would be Peter Cate and Alex Brundle.


Starting Sundays six hour race from rows 21 and 22 of the first group of starters, both cars cycled through their stints to end up with the #37 finishing just ahead of the #36 in 31st and 32nd positions overall and P2 and P3 in class out of six runners. No prizes to be won here this time but some valuable experience and data to be had by all as their attention no turns to the main event.




The full N24 event itself takes place over the weekend after Le Mans 24!


Photo credits - AMR

This afternoon saw the conclusion of another bizarrely dramatic and entertaining round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from Silverstone.

With the five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 runners taking a podium apiece in both the Pro-Am and Am classes first time out at a rain swept Monza, the three Pro class cars were obviously looking to open their podium accounts for round 2 at Silverstone.


In the first Free Practice session of the meeting on Saturday morning, a rather jumbled order of hierarchy was soon established with the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport entry of Ahmad Al Harthy, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc heading the AMR timing board with a P3 finish. In the later ninety minute Pre Qualifying race, normal service was resumed when the #76 R-Motorsport car of Nicki Thiim,  Jake Dennis and Marvin Kirchhofer showed a piece of their ultimate pace to finish P5 ahead of their sister #62 car of Maxime Martin, Matt Parry and Mathieu Vaxivierre in P11.

In the general topsy-turvy world of SRO GT3 racing, everything was setting itself up nicely for another epic three hour race on Sunday - but then things started to go a little bit 'off piste' for some of the Aston runners.


Three drivers - three Qualifying sessions means that each driver sets their own time in the permitted track window with the combination of the three determining their aggregated position on the starting grid. For the #59 Garage 59 Pro car entry of Come Ledogar, Andrew Watson and Jonny Adam, repeated red flags in Q1 meant that their car (amongst others) was unable to enter any time so would automatically be starting out of position towards the rear of the grid.

That all meant that again the #97 Oman Racing car would head the AMR runners at the start of Sundays race in P19 (1st in class), followed by the #76 in P29, #188 P31 (P4 in class), #62 in P35 and finally the #59 starting in P42. That was not where all the incident ended either as R-Motorsports driver Marvin Kirchhofer was taken ill at the circuit immediately after Qualifying - ailments from which he would later be declared unfit to race with and team mate Maxime Martin being allowed to deputise in the #76 car as well as his own driving duties in the #62 car.


Drama continued into the opening lap of the race as a spinning Audi at Maggots caused a cascade effect through the majority of the pack that lead to at least four other cars making heavy contact with other - one of them being the #59 Garage 59 car of Come Ledogar that would see an immediate end to his race with extensive front end damage. Fortunately, all drivers involved were uninjured but nearly thirty minutes were lost to the resulting clear up along the Hanger Straight.

More racing time was soon lost to a beached Ferrari in the gravel trap at Luffield which required the employment of the Full Course Yellow and latter Safety Car procedures. Nicki Thiim was flying in the #76 car having just taken over from Dennis and used the processional start of the Safety Car to his advantage gaining three positions in just two laps. Drama was soon to literally hit the #97 Oman car however, as a pit lane exiting Lamborghini appeared to side slam into Salih Yoluc (who was on his own racing line at the time of impact) and to spear off onto the grass to impact heavily into the armco barrier. Another FCY and Safety Car period but importantly an uninjured driver.

As the race went green again just ahead of the second hour, Yoluc had climbed his way back into a Pro-Am podium position in P3 and Thiim up to P5 overall.


With less than an hour remaining, Martin took control of the #76 car for the first time in place of the unwell Kirchhofer and for a time was enjoying a battle with the #19 Lamborghini and the #4 Mercedes AMG. Unseen by the camera, the #76 hit technical issues out on track that would cause its track position to plummet before Martin arrived back in pit lane with about thirty minutes remaining and into eventually retirement.

With the final minutes of the race ticking by without further incident, it was again the two Pro-Am and Am class runners that would stand tall and take the silverware for the Aston Martin Racing runners as the #97 Oman Racing and #188 Garage 59 car of Alex West, Chris Goodwin and Chris Harris each secured consecutive P3 class podium finishes of the season.



The next race of the season will be the 1000kms 'into the night race' from Paul Ricard in early June.


UPDATE - We understand that as a result of a post race penalty applied to the Pro Am winning Mercedes AMG, the #97 Oman Racing Vantage GT3 has been promoted to P2 in class and now lies second overall in the Championship

Photo credits - R-Motorsport / Oman Racing / Garage 59 / Blancpain GT

Two of Aston Martin Racings latest V8, turbo charged Vantage GT4's have today been confirmed as participants within next weekend's Qualification Race at the Nordschleife ahead of the full ADAC Zurich 24 hour race later in June.

As expected, AMR Factory driver Darren Turner has been scheduled to race alongside Garage 59's Chris Goodwin and Chris Harris in the #36 car whilst the sister #37 car has been scheduled to include newly appointed AMR Junior driver Jamie Chadwick along with Peter Cate and Alex Brundle. Both cars have been entered by and will be run by the AMR Performance Centre which is located at the circuit.


Having first run the new iteration of Vantage GT4 at the infamous 'Green Hell' at the last round of the VLN Series last month where the then #156 car finished 5th in Class, it was assumed that both cars would be running with their full contingent of four drivers each.

Aston Martin customer driver Christian Gebhardt was originally announced to be included within the #36 and AMR Reserve driver Ross Gunn within the #37 car. All chatter on social media and indeed the formal announcement of this project from the factory team back in April have indicated that Gunn would be present at the Qualifying Race. We shall wait and see what happens as he is presently busy with Beechdean AMR at the second round of the Le Mans Cup from Monza!!


The Qualifying Race weekend over the 18/19 May will allow the teams up to 3 x1 hour sessions around the Nurburgring Grand Prix loop ahead of a Free Practice and then evening Qualifying around the full Nordschliefe itself.

Sunday morning will see a further Qualifying period ahead of the start of the six hour race that is due to start at noon (local).


The ADAC Zurich 24Hr event itself starts on Thursday 20th June with the race being over the Saturday and Sunday 22/23rd June - the weekend after Le Mans!

Photo credits - Aston Martin Racing

Silverstone is the destination for the five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's of R-Motorsport, Garage 59 and Oman Racing with TF Sport as their Pro Class cars look to take another step forward and for their amateur drivers to consolidate on what was achieved last time out at a rain soaked Monza.

With both R-Motorsport having just completed the opening round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe with one podium success at Brands Hatch last weekend, it will be a quick turn around for their Arden/Jota crew with their #62 and #76 cars in time for tomorrows private testing sessions.


For the #76 car, Nicki Thiim again deputises for Aston Martin Racing WEC factory driver team mate Alex Lynn due to his prior Formula E Commitments with the Dane again joining Jake Dennis and Marvin Kirchhofer in the car. This trio will be hoping to avoid any repeat of Monza after untimely punctures and a drive through penalty robbed the car of car chance of any championship points.

The same would apply to the #62 car which maintains the line up of Maxime Martin, Matt Parry and Mattieu Vaxivierre. Having just driven one of the best races of his career to win the WEC 6Hrs of Spa Francorchamps last weekend in atrocious weather conditions (far worse than what was endured at Monza) we can bet that the Belgium remains fired out and will arrive at the circuit fresh from some Vantage GT3 testing with his ADAC GT Masters team in the Czech Republic this week.


Garage 59, convertees from McLaren GT to Aston Martin over the winter months had a thoroughly eventful but still productive return to the Blancpain GT Series with their two new Vantage GT3's that are entered into both the Pro and Am classes.

Team co-owner Alexander West drove a remarkable double stint in the race as the car's third driver (TV's Chris Harris) was absent from the race due to his prior commitments. His first stint included having to sit in a gravel trap waiting to be extracted for over two laps having been tapped off the circuit by another car behind, an incident which first appeared to have destroyed any chance of a result for them. In motor racing stance things do occasionally happen and once second driver Chris Goodwin was behind the wheel a final hour of quick laps elevated their #188 car to P4 at the chequered flag. That would then be changed to P3 in Class after a post race penalty was served to a car that finished above them.


The team's full Pro car of AMR's Jonny Adam, AMR junior driver Andrew Watson and former McLaren GT factory driver Come Ledagar, Monza saw their race car 'hobbled' with damage early in the race - not enough to force repairs but enough to hinder any expected progress up the leader board. Gambling by the team on tyre strategy first saw that paying off as Adam passed over to Watson but a Safety Car period saw that progress negated. The final hour saw Ledogar take his first competitive race aboard an Aston and his pace and the teams decision to return to full wets just as the rains began to fall again allowed him to finish in P9 in the #59 car - the top finish of any of the AMR runners.


Finally but certainly no means least is the #97 Oman Racing with TF Sport car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood. First time out together in Monza was another of those 'character building' races for the now Pro-Am crew as punctures (like the many there were throughout the grid) slowed their ultimate pace. Despite this the crew still came through to claim P3 in class.

Add to that the positive benefits of both Yoluc and Eastwood coming away from the WEC at Spa with both a class pole and P2 finish in the wet/snowy and wild conditions of last week then the #97 will be another podium contender at Silverstone.


With the weather predicted to remain cool with a small chance of some isolated showers between now and Saturday evening at least race day on Sunday is looking both brighter and warmer.

Good luck to them all!

Photo credits - Blancpain / Garage 59 / R-Motorsport / TF Sport

Garage 59 complete the final gaps in the 2019 Blancpain GT Series campaign puzzle this morning with confirmation of their driver line up for their Pro and Pro-Am entered Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's.

Within the Pro class entered #59 will be the teams former McLaren men of Come Ledogar and Andrew Watson who will now be joined with AMR Factory driver Jonny Adam whilst the Pro-Am #188 entry is again the trio of Alexander West, Aston Martin High Performance Test Driver Chris Goodwin and TV Personality and racer Chris Harris.


“We were pleased to earn the runner up spot last year but we’re all very competitive people so of course we want the title,” said West. “The new Garage 59 is just as focused on winning titles as the old one and we believe we have the right partner in Aston Martin to do so. It’s going to take a lot of hard work from Garage 59 and Aston Martin Racing but testing has gone well so far and we are all fired up for the challenge and looking forward to getting stuck in at the first race at Monza.”

“I’m pleased with the driver line-ups we have secured,” said Team Principal Andrew Kirkaldy. “We worked with Andrew and Côme for many years on the McLaren GT programme. I’ve always been impressed with them and it is great to welcome Jonny to the team as an Aston Martin works driver who has been involved in the development of the new car. The AM squad was a case of getting the band back together so they can go after the title again.”

Todays news also shows off the teams new blue and while livery having only previously tested with their two Vantage GT3's in their base white finish.

The Garage 59 team will complete pre-season testing at the end of running tomorrow at Silverstone. The next stop for the team will be Monza in Italy for Round 1 of the Blancpain GT Series on 14 April.


Source material and photo credits - Garage 59