Shamefully having to catch up again with the weekends news again leads us straight into offering our congratulations to the Century Motorsport team and crew for their tremendous class pole through to class win at the inaugural 24H Series Kuwait 12hrs event at the weekend.

Racing their distinctive black, orange and gold liveried Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 usually seen within the GT Cup and British GT paddocks of late saw their gentleman driver David Holloway return to the desert for another extended race format event having competed previously within the Gulf 12hrs event.

 

With both the Gulf 12Hrs and 24H Series putting up four events between them within the Middle Eastern racing theatre throughout both December and early January next year, its somewhat sad to see that only one Aston Martin Racing powered team has made that long journey for any of those events.

Having competed in both the British GT Championship and GT Cup Series in recent seasons back home, Century Motorsport has again paved the way back east for gentleman driver David Holloway to go racing with his AMR Vantage GT4 in the forthcoming and inaugural 24H Series event in Kuwait after his last continental adventure with them at the rescheduled Gulf 12hrs event at the start of the year.

Never letting up in the race diary comes the fourth round of the GT Cup Championship this weekend from Oulton Park with another packed grid of multi-class GT cars.

Looking through the provisional entry list of over thirty cars, there again features two Aston Martin Racing GT4 cars from each of the Feathers Motorsport and Century Motorsport teams as the third expected car this time features on the entry list for the next round of the Britcar Endurance Championship from Silverstone on the same day.

The #15 Century car continues with their line up of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis as they have done all season so far after Adam Hatfield was unable to race from the opening round at Donington Park. Having claimed an opening P3 podium at Donington Park in early April, they have been tantalisingly close for further silverware at all of the subsequent rounds at Brands Hatch and Snetterton so they will be looking for something more in Cheshire.

They will be joined by the #82 Feathers Motorsport Aston of James Guess and a returning Tom Canning who again deputises for Darren Turner who won his first British GT race at the weekend with another customer team of his.

These guys had to wait nearly a week for their P2 finish in the final race at Snetterton at the start of the month to be changed to a class win after the original winner was found to be ‘contrary to Regulations’ but at least that helped to keep Guess’s trophy haul per round alive.

There still appears to be no sight or sound either from the Deranged AMR team after their dramatic arrival and achievements at the opening round from Donington Park!

This weekend features just two races on Saturday – a one hour race before lunch followed by a 40-minute race in the afternoon.

Photo credits - Teams

The third round of the GT Cup Championship visits our local circuit at Snetterton this weekend coming with four Aston Martin Racing cars scheduled to be present, and some with an adjusted driver line up from last time out.

Mike Brown and Matt Manderson return with their AMR Vantage GT3 after a relatively successful season debut in the opening round of the British GT Championship at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, having skipped the opening round of the GT Cup at Donington earlier in April. The team did race at the adapted second round of the season at Brands Hatch at the start of May, but the team do appear to be using the GT Cup calendar as an active race/test scenario before their selected round entry into British GT but their participation is welcome none the less.

This weekend also saw the second meeting of the GT Cup Championship from Brands Hatch on Saturday, this time featuring just two 50-minute pit stop punctuated races for its very impressive starting grid of 45 cars.

Like the Donington round before it, Brands Hatch was again being run from behind closed doors so once again, we all had to revert to their new live stream for our appreciation of the four Aston Martin Racing runners. 

The second round of the GT Cup Championship comes from the Grand Prix circuit of Brands Hatch this weekend with an increased Aston Martin Racing contingent to that who featured so well at the opening round at Donington Park two weeks ago.

The #52 Deranged Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of Oli Brown and Matt Lewis make a return after suffering terminal issues that scuppered their earlier pace and podium success at Donington park as well does Chris Murphy (again running solo) aboard his older generation #72 Whitebridge Motorsport ran car who enjoyed equal class success last time out.

Also running the new turbo charged version of the Vantage GT4 like Deranged, sees both the #82 Feathers Motorsport Aston of James Guess and Darren Turner as well as the #15 Century Motorsport Aston of David Holloway and Adam Hatfield return to the tracks having secured four class podium positions between them.

Joining them on track this time around is the #47 Ultimate Speed AMR Vantage GT3 of Mike Brown and Matt Anderson as they get their latest race car out for the first time for a mixed bunch of GT Cup and British GT action. This weekend features just two pit stop punctuated races as it was due to run in support of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Series that moved its race date in Kent back to the summer.

Unfortunately running again behind closed doors, the Championship has already proven that its live stream is very effective.

Photo credits – GT Cup / Teams

It was great to see the first UK based GT Championship kick off their 2021 season on time this weekend as the GT Cup Championship starting their seven-round season off this weekend from Donington Park with another large, multi-class field.

Where we first thought that we would have three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s competing within that grid, we in fact ended up with four AMR’s after the Deranged Motorsport Team switched to the AMR GT4 platform having been first linked to a Bentley GT3 entry over the winter. Their 2019 Vantage GT4 joined those from Feathers Motorsport and Century Motorsport as well as the 2016 iteration run by the Whitebridge team.

 

With GT racing now underway in many regions around the world now, the GT Cup Championship kick starts the UK’s 2021 motor racing campaign with their opening event of the season from Donington Park this weekend.

Always an entertaining arena for multi-class GT racing in the UK, the Championship has always been a stepping-stone between club racing to those at the higher end of the spectrum – like with what we learned of Newbridge Motorsport with Matt Topham and Darren Turner progressing up to the British GT Championship today.

Every race has two potential outcomes to it - one favourable and one not so.

That was certainly the case today as Wakefield based Optimum Motorsport returned to the race track for the second time this week but this time (having tested at Donington Park earlier this week) as part of a two pronged attack on both the International GT Open Series for their GT3 car and the GT Open Cup for one of their GT4 cars.


Firstly the good news, and that belonged fair and squarely with both Connor O'Brien and Charlie Eastwood who took their #35 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 to the season regulars and came so close to securing a maiden win in the series at the very first time of asking.

TF Sport World Endurance Championship driver, Charlie Eastwood took the start of the race from P9 having set his first ever Qualifying time within a GT4 car and after that it dint take him too long to make his own mark during the todays first race. Halfway round the first lap of the 55 minute race Eastwood was already up to P5 and by the time that that lap had been completed the #35 car was sitting a comfortable P4.


By the time the young Irishman came into pit lane to hand over to the other young Irishman, the #35 car had already been duelling for second place in the race. The second and older specification AMR Vantage GT4 from the Whitebridge AMR garage of Chris Murphy and Adam Hatfield had been keeping themselves busy towards the rear of the pack claiming P7 by the time Hatfield had to pit.

Completing their minimum time of 70 seconds in pit lane O'Brien was to move up to P2 overall by the time others had completed their pit stop cycles and it was only a matter of time before he took the race lead with an audacious move around the outside of the then race leading Lamborghini at Club.


Things were looking good for O'Brien as the race clock counted down to 15 minutes remaining - that was before the speed of the chasing #35 Lamborghini came into tview of the rearview mirror of the #35 car as multiple GT Open Cup winner Liberati took seconds per lap out of O'Briens lead.

With just four minutes remaining, the inevitable happened as Liberati took the race lead from O'Brien as the Irishman stumbled out of Village onto the Wellington Straight to accelerate away and claim the race win by over four seconds.

None the less this was a special moment for O'Brien as he rightfully celebrated his first GT4 podium since stepping up from Ginetta GT5's last season. Huge congratulations to him, Eastwood and the team and here's hoping for more tomorrow.


For the #72 Whitebridge AMR car, a P14 finishing position one lap down two the winner was a very credible effort in very much the oldest car on the grid for the reigning GT Cup Champions.

The other kind of news as they say from the GT Open came in the form of a relatively short race for the team's GT3 crew of Ollie Wilkinson and Darren Turner.


Setting a combined Qualifying time under the Series new rules earlier today saw the #96 grey and blue liveried AMR Vantage GT3 start from P8 on the grid with the young lad from Leeds (Wilkinson) taking the start with the ever mindful and experienced duo of AMR factory driver Turner and team engineer Bas Leinders present on the radio.

Twenty current examples of various GT3 cars raced off at the start with Wilkinson soon having to take avoiding action coming out of the Becketts/Maggots complex as a Teo Martin McLaren and Spirit of Race Ferrari tangled meters earlier leaving the #16 McLaren crumpled in the wall.

Getting back onto the track and back up to speed along the Hanger Straight, the #96 was last seen going to one one side of a mid pack Lamborghini before next being seen spinning in unison with the same Lamborghini as both cars entered Stowe. Unfortunately for Wilkinson, another car tried to pass to the rear of the now stricken AMR but collected the rear wing - almost ripping it off completely before it came to a halt against the outer circuit concrete wall. Very much a racing incident (we think) rather than the fault of any one individual.


Wilkinson did limp the car back to pit lane and during the intervening twenty minutes of the resulting Safety Car period, the team went about their work replacing damaged components and the vain attempt of getting the car back out again - they succeeded in that but the damage was already done with eight laps lost to the leaders.

The team did send Wilkinson back out for a couple of laps before he pitted and swapped over to Turner who conducted some further shakedown laps to make sure that the car was 100% ahead of tomorrows Qualifying and second race of the weekend. With that, the car again pitted and was retired from the race.


Not quite 'hero to zero' in two races of the series but lessons there to be learned from Wilkinson as he strives to emulate the racing credentials of the man who shares the driving seat of his car this weekend.

Photo credits - GT Open / Optimum

As you may have seen from social media is that Optimum Motorsport have today announced a two car line up for this weekends fifth round of the international GT Open Series from Silverstone.

For the Shaun Goff's Wakefield based team that means the return of newly appointed BRDC Rising Star driver Ollie Wilkinson who will be joined again by Aston Martin Racing factory driver Darren Turner aboard their #96 AMR Vantage GT3 together with an unexpected duo from the team who will race in the supporting GT Open Cup races.


Not to be outdone, there will actually be two debuting examples of both recent iterations of AMR Vantage GT4 as Connor O'Brien pairs up with Charlie Eastwood in his #35 AMR Vantage that O'Brien uses in the British GT Championship as well as 2018 UK based GT Cup Champions Chris Murphy and Adam Hatfield aboard their older, normally aspirated V8.

At the last round of the GT Open Series before the summer break, Wilkinson was joined by AMR factory driver Jonny Adam for the two races from the Red Bull Ring in mid June where the pair secured outright victory in the series 200th race having taken the brave step of moving up from Pro-Am into the ultra competitive Pro class earlier in the year.


That is not the only podium that Wilkinson has enjoyed this year in the series with an AMR factory driver alongside as he and Turner also secured a P3 finish in race two at Hockenheim earlier in the season.

Back to the two GT4 crews, this race will actually be Eastwood's first ever GT4 racing experience so hopefully the young O'Brien will be able to teach his elder Irishman and AMR Driver Academy coach a thing or two albeit both Eastwood (and Turner) should have a decent racing knowledge of the circuit having raced at Silverstone in eta World Endurance Championship only last week where Eastwood secured GTE Am Class pole position and Turner GTE Am Class podium at the end for their respective crews.


For the Whitedbridge AMR duo of Murphy and Hadfield, this will be the first time that they will have raced together having secured both the GTH class and overall win in last years GT Cup Championship although Hadfield is still usually on hand within the team as part of his coaching duties with them this season.

“Main expectation is to have fun and compete in a series completely the ones that different from the ones we are used to”, explains Chris Murphy, who is also the team principal of the team, “We are based only a few kms from the track and it seemed a very nice opportunity. Adam, who is much younger than me, and I are both amateurs, we had a great season together last year winning the GT Cup but haven’t yet raced together this season.”
“I had a good run at Silverstone in British GT earlier in the year and enjoy the circuit, so I’m really looking forward to the event as a whole. I will be adapting to the Michelin tyres which will be interesting as they have very good life and performance. It is an excellent opportunity to work with Charlie – an all Irish pairing – as he is very experienced and has just completed his second WEC race at Silverstone so I’m really excited to get started" said O'Brien.

One lot of news coming from last weekend's Autosport Show was confirmation of the first 2019 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 to run within the national GT Cup Championship.

Championship returnees David Holloway and Piers Johnson confirmed at the weekend that they would be swapping their Ginetta G55 GT4 car for a brand new turbo charged Vantage GT4 to spearhead their 2019 assault on primarily the GTH Class title but also the Overall title just like what Whitebridge AMR drivers Chris Murphy and Adam Hatfield achieved in 2018.


We understand that their new car will again be prepared for by them by Nathan Freke's Century Motorsport team (same as who the duo raced with in their Ginetta last year) for this year's revised seven event - 28 race format. We understand that the team expect to receive their car just before the start of the season in mid April such is the present demand for the latest line of AMR race cars.

Reigning Champion Chris Murphy has already confirmed that he will also return to defend his crown but this time as a solo driver aboard one of his Whitebridge AMR's Vantage GT4's. We do not presently know whether he will also be upgrading to the latest AMR platform or not.

Photo credits - AMR / GT Cup

Stars from Aston Martin Racing again take centre stage at this year’s Autosport Show from the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

Having attending the first of the Trade Days yesterday you will find this year’s showcase in differing halls to previous years with what can only be described as a reduced format. Despite this, GT racing and the AMR brand are again well represented with an example of the team’s new V8 Vantage GTE (albeit a show car) sitting proud just left of the main Autosport stage in the lower hall.


Joining the varied range of guest speaking on this stage will be AMR factory drivers Darren Turner and Jonny Adam who will discussing everything WEC as well as the large expected presence of the factory’s new Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars within the British GT Championship.

Literally next door to the main stage sits the GT Cup display where you will find one of the V8 Vantage GT4 cars of Chris Murphy and his Whitebridge AMR team. Murphy and his co-driver Adam Hatfield secures not only their GTH Class title this year but also the overall Championship win. A Desmond Smail GT4 from his AMOC days rounds off the static displays.


As far as we are aware, rounding things off for TeamAMR will be factory reserve driver Ross Gunn driving a number of stunning road cars from Aston Martin in the Live Arena. If previous years are anything to go by he will probably be joined by at least one of the others!

Public days for the Autosport Show are on both Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credit - Motorsport Images (stage interview)