As we understand things, this entry was rather a skills maintaining effort from the team rather than any full season entry with Letlaka also being listed on the timing results under a Dragon Racing entry – presumably with one of their Ferrari’s.

This was the first time in two years that their Vantage GT3 had been raced so maybe we will get to see it again if any further rounds are entered into in advance of an early start to 2026 with the Dubai 24 and 6H Creventic races in early January.

Photo credits – Team / social media

After that, we were aware of the car running in unrestricted format, the team then progressed back to the Lamborghini or Ferrari GT3 package in other series.

This weekend’s format will see the #120 car compete in two twenty-five-minute sprint races on Saturday with Letlaka already showing his pace being fastest in Friday practice.

Photo credits – Team / social media

Running in a two-car class, the #47 car featuring Tatsuya Hoshino, Max Orido, Kenji Hama and Jake Parsons are again in the business of trying to limit the so far dominant KTM crew from clinching the ST-1 class Championship.

With just two rounds remaining, the #47 crew really do need to beat the #2 KS Frontier KTM crew to have any championship potential at the season finale around the teams home track of Fuji at the end of November.

The weekend also sees the next round of the South African G&H Extreme Supercar Series run at the Zwartkops Raceway with Into Africa Racing again fielding their mighty AMR Vantage GT3 in the hands of Stuart White.

Last time out at Killarney, White managed to secure not just a race win but also the lap record around the circuit thanks to adjustments made to the car by the team and attending race engineers.

Finally, we have the final round of the British Endurance Championship at Donington Park this weekend which will now see two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 teams do their thing.

The MKH Racing AMR crew of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall will be looking to round off their 2023 season in style whilst the Newbridge Motorsport team will debut within the Championship with AMR factory driver Tom Canning and Indian racer Humaira Mushtaq.

The #50 MKH Racing crew need to overcome a seventeen-point deficit to the #21 Venture Innovations Mercedes AMG GT4 crew at the end if they are to lift the GT4 crown.

Photo credits – Steve Jackman / social media

Two Pole positions, two race wins and a lap record came there way after the latest round of the G&H Extreme Supercar Series from the Killarney Racetrack near Cape Town at the weekend.

Meanwhile in Austria, their now close friends at Street Art Racing were involved in their latest round of the GT Open Championship from the Red Bull Ring where drivers Pascal Bachman and Jahid Fazal-Karim were racing their Vantage GT3 amongst the Am class runners again. Whilst a P8 in class would be taken as a decent finish for the Am/novice pairing after race one on Saturday, another DNF on Sunday sets the tone for the rest of this review of the weekends activities.

Being otherwise preoccupied at Brands Hatch on Sunday, the early hours of Sunday for us in Europe also saw the running of the penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship from the Fuji Speedway circuit in Japan.

Whilst the preliminary track sessions had seen problems with the #25 ORT with TF Sport AMR Vantage GTE of Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood, there would be a robust Qualifying run from both the #777 D’Station Racing and #98 Northwest (Heart of Racing) AMR Vantage GTE crews of Satoshi Hoshino/Tomonobu Fujii/Casper Stevenson and Ian James/Alex Riberas/Daniel Mancinelli respectively to attain a second row start each ahead of that six-hour race.

With the locally based #777 soon taking the class lead on pace, there could have been a snipped of possibility that the AMR Vantage GTE’s poor run to date within the championship could have allowed then to continue with its podium winning form at the circuit over recent years especially with that class lead extending into the second hour.

However bad luck would again prevail as issues within the #25 car continued to blight and the #777 slumped down to P10 in class after contact with the #98 Northwest crew then running as the highest Aston in P4 before they too struggled against the superior pace of those around them – and we are especially confused as to the blistering pace of the new championship winning Corvette considering its maximum ballast weight – for all three to eventually finish in the lower half of the thirteen strong class again.

With the Championship already won long before the long trip to Japan and with the GTE platform being mothballed at the end of the season, it’s hard to see just where any motivation can come from within the three AMR powered teams as they now look forward to the finale in Bahrain at the start of November. At least there's a decent party afterwards!!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media / D Gibson / A Lofthouse

Tied through their previous mutual co-operation that has seen some of their European based engineering staff travel to South Africa to assist with their first runs out in the new AMR Vantage GT3 in return for Xolile Letlaka filling the race seat gaps within the Street Art teams own European racing commitment has seen a firm bond develop between the two teams.

Whilst the #007 Street Art Racing AMR Vantage GT3 is back to its scheduled two driver line up of Pascal Bachman and Jahid Fazal Karim for this weekend’s fifth round of their seven-round season in Austria, just co-driver Stuart White will be action with the South African outfit as they compete at Cape Town this weekend after a previously disappointing run out in their AMR last time out at the Kyalami Festival of Motorsport.

Two Free Practice sessions completed already in Austria sees the #007 still with some work to do being the last of the twenty-five runners during those two sessions, but not within the Bronze Driver test that ended track activity this afternoon.

Both races will be streamed live as usual via the series website.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

This time taking place around the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria, this opening round should see the presence of both generations of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 with the Kalex team again supporting the Paul Hill V12 AMR entry within the Endurance Class and the Into Africa Racing again supporting the Xolile Letlaka/Stuart White driven V8 Vantage GT3.

Whilst the Kalex V12 car has been raced within the South African domestic series for some years now after having been run by the Stradale Motorsport team, the newer generation of race car only made its series debut at the final round of last season at Cape Town when Letlaka and White went on to take both a Pro-Am class win and second place during their debut event.

Again being run with the help of members of various European based GT teams, the driving duo will obviously be looking to continue with that performance throughout the season.

Photo credits - Series