Aston Martin crews seal the remaining Iberian and CPV Class titles at Supercars finale
Featuring two final fifty minute races within the series season concluding Estoril Endurance Festival saw both the #77 Racar Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of Mathieu Martins and the #777 Gianfranco AMR Vantage GT4 of Rubens Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende chase the Iberian and Espana Series double within their respective GT4 Pro and GT4 Am classes.
With Martins claiming pole position ahead of race one on Sunday, that lead was short lived going into the first corner whilst the #777 Gianfranco machine of Vaquinhas was the meat in a three-car sandwich as many took avoiding action from a spinning BMW on the opening lap.
From then on in, it was to be a frustrating chase to the pit stop window for the #77 car before most of the field pitted at the earliest opportunity. With the younger Henrique Oliveira now aboard the #77, he too went into an immediate racing dice with at least three other cars in class which extended until the chequered flag with the #77 claiming a P4 finish and the #777 another P1 in class.
Race two later in the day had much the same franticness about it as cars squabbled for early track position but with a reversal on starting drivers of course. As the race seemed to be going through its motions, an off for a championship contesting Am Class Mercedes saw the Safety Car brought out with just four minutes remaining.
Seventh at the restart, the #77 was on something of a charge that saw them move up to P4 overall at the end with a last corner switch for position on track for Martins to lay claim to both the Iberian and CPV Portuguese drivers championships to go with his already claimed Espana title.
Vaquinhas and Rezende also added both the Iberian GT4 Am Championship title with that of the CPV Class title to also go alongside their previous Espana Championship win from a few weeks ago.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Monday, December 01, 2025 |
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Podiums and Championships won by two AMR crews in Jerez
Originally listed a showing six such Vantage GT4 crews as participating within these two races, it appears that only four may have showed up and with one significant pairing this time not running as how they previously have.
That came in the form of the #77 Racar Motorsport GT4 Pro entry of what should have been Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria where in fact Martins was this time joined by the younger Henrique Olivera for these two races. Why? – we’re not sure!
A pole position and two P3 podium finishes were enough for the #77 car of Martins to claim both the Overall and GT4 Pro Championship classes with just the two final races of the endurance series from Estoril still to come. This surely makes up for him being runner up in class last season.
Then, a pair of class wins for the #777 Gianfranco Motorsport Am classed AMR Vantage GT4 entry of Ruben Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende was also enough for the pairing to claim top honours within that class
The #79 Racar Motorsport AMR Bronze class entry of Vasco Oliveira and Francisco Carvalho finished just short of a similar milestone – ultimately finishing third in class overall for their troubles.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Monday, November 03, 2025 |
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Racar Motorsport dominate in Iberian Supercars visit to Jarama
Although three of four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews entered amongst the thirty-three strong, multi-classed field, it was sadly not the same for the NGT Classic entered GTX car of Miguel Ferreira after his freshly re-liveried #700 car failed to finish within Sunday’s opener and for it not to appear within the second race of the weekend.
That said, that didn’t stop the Racar crews and in particularly the two Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy entered Roberto Faria and Mathieu Martins from almost continually leading from the front within their #77 entry as they embraced two second row starts for each of the two, hour long races to bring back an overall P2 at the end of race one before winning race two later in the day within their GT4 Pro class.
The #79 Racar crew of Vasco Oliviera and Francisco Carvalho did similar within their Bronze classed entry as they rewarded their new car service provider with an improving P3 in race one to a P2 in race 2 for their efforts.
Likewise, the #707 Racar entry of Philipe Videira and Antonio Lopes also enjoyed this weekend’s rich vein of AMR powered success within their GT4 Am class as they cemented another weekend with a straight set of P2 finishes within both qualifying and both races.
The series will now get a month off before returning at Vila Real in Portugal.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
The series will now get a month off before returning at Vila Real in Portugal.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Sunday, June 01, 2025 |
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More AMR Vantage GT4 success with the Iberian Supercar Series visit to Estoril
Like the season opener from Jerez at the end of May, their thirty-eight strong grid was well populated with both the new Evo and 17A variations of the Vantage GT4 workhorse.
Five cars from the Racar team, one from the Araujo Competicao team and a further solo runner from the Mirage Racing squad all their cars compete across the GT4 Pro, GT4 Am and GT4 Bronze classes over their two allotted races.
At the end of race one, there were strong performances from both the #2 and #3 Racar drivers of Manuel Giao and Francisco Cruz in GT4 Pro whilst young racer, Stephan Suslov took a spirited P5 in Bronze and Ruben Vaquinhas took a P3 in GT4 AM.
That improved later into race 2 of Sunday where Mathieu Martins secured the GT4 Pro class win, Suslov improved to take the bronze class win and Pedro Bastos Rezende secured the full set with a GT4 Am class win.
The series now takes an extended summer break before reconvening at Valencia in late September.
Photo credits – Teams / series
Monday, July 15, 2024 |
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Six Aston Martins to feature within opening round of Iberian Supercars at Jerez this weekend
Within the list we will also welcome an incredible SIX Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered teams amongst the entry as the Araujo Competicao AMR team is this time joined by both the Racar Motorsport team and the Mirage Racing team with their respective, and mainly all new for 2024 driver line ups.
Unfortunately, gone are Araujo’s reigning GTX Class Champions of Alvaro Ramos and Fernando Soares but the increased AMR line ups will help cater for that fact.
Earlier this week, we posted about how the French Mirage Racing team will be providing one of their cars to young Russian karter Stephan Suslov as he contests a GT4 race for the first time in which we would imagine will be one of their older 17A versions.
Then taking over the #007 Araujo car we have Bruno Pereira and Goncalo Araujo who will compete within the topflight GT4 Pro class as well as Vasco Oliveira and Guilherme Lemos aboard the #28 GT4 Pro entry for the Portuguese team.
The Portuguese Racar Motorsport team will also feature a two car GT4 Pro entry for both Manuel Giao and Mathieu Martins aboard their #2 car and Francisco Cruz and Roberto Faria aboard their #3 car.
Both Martins and Faria will be familiar names having been one of the few race rivals for the Forsetti Motorsport AMR of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day in the GT4 Winter Series as well as Faria also now competing within the #39 GPA Racing AMR within the GT4 European Series.
The final #777 Racar AMR of Ruben Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende concludes the six car Aston Martin Racing entry within the GT4 Am class.
Track action for these crews will start on Friday with Free Practice before Qualifying on Saturday with two forty-five-minute races on Sunday.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 |
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Three car Aston Martin Racing entry for Racar Motorsport in Iberian Supercars
In pursuit of this objective, the Portuguese team will field three competitive Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4s, with two competing in the GT4 Pro category and one in GT4 Am.
Manuel Gião, the 2022 Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade Champion and Supercars Endurance Champion, will join forces with Mathieu Martins, the Portuguese-French youngster and member of the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy, forming a partnership in one of the GT4 Pro cars.
Meanwhile, Francisco Cruz, the 2022 Porsche Sprint Challenge Iberia Am class Champion, will team up with Roberto Faria, a Brazilian driver also affiliated with the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy, in the other GT4 Pro entry.
Ruben Vaquinhas, who showed promising signs in his motorsport debut last year, will also compete in an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 in GT4 Am. He will be accompanied by Pedro Bastos Rezende, a driver who has been building his career in classic racing and participated in the Estoril round of the Iberian Supercars and Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade in 2022.
“Last year we showed that we can be very competitive in a squad that was already very strong. This season, the level will be even higher, but over the off-season we've been preparing and investing in our structure so that we can take on the competition. The team is ready and we have a very strong group of drivers and we're determined to fight for wins in our respective divisions and titles. We know it's going to be a huge challenge, but we're going to work hard to achieve our goals,” said Ricardo Antunes, the Team Principal of RACAR Motorsport.
Iberian Supercars and Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade will kick off at Circuito Jerez in Spain.
Source material - Iberian Supercar Series
Thursday, May 16, 2024 |
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Racar Motorsport claim the GT4 silverware as the Ultimate Cup Series starts at Paul Ricard
Having got themselves race ready with a few rounds within the now concluded GT4 Winter Series, the team entered both of their available 17A versions of the Vantage GT4 for the series opener from Circuit Paul Ricard in France for drivers Antonio Lopes/Matthieu Martins aboard the #09 car and Ruben Vaquinhas and Roberto Faria aboard the #777 car.
Racing within the GT Sprint races as well as within the new for 2024 AMR Trophy class (although they were the sole Aston Martins entered), that give each driver two twenty-five-minute races (approximately eleven laps for a GT4) around the long mistral circuit.
In Friday’s first races, the #09 car of Martins claimed a class win whilst the sister #777 car of Vaquinhas claimed third in class for a decent season opener. The second race saw the #777 car of Faria move up the order by also claiming a class win whilst the #09 car of Lopes finished fourth in class.
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Saturday wasn’t quite as successful however for the #777 as Vaquinhas suffered early issues of his second race to retire the car on only the third lap whilst Martins went on to claim his double with another class win – as did Faria in his final race of the weekend with Lopes again coming home in fourth.
The series now gets onto home turf for the Racar Motorsport team as the next round will be at Portimao at the end of May.
Photo credit - Team / social media
Monday, March 18, 2024 |
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Back to GT4 Winter Series business for Forsetti Motorsport
GT4 Winter Series Championship leaders Forsetti Motorsport will be continuing their preparatory works this week as they build up for the third round of the series this weekend from Jerez.
Having formed at the tail end of the last season, the Norfolk based team have been perhaps the busiest Aston Martin Racing Partner team so far with their testing and early season race programme for their (so far) sole AMR Vantage GT4 and crew.
With drivers Jamie Day and Mikey Porter having visited the Pro class podium in five out of the six races run so far at both Estoril and most late at Portimao, the team have already been back at Portimao earlier this week as driver coach Matt George again helps Porter (amongst others) get up to speed within a GT4 platform having stepped across from Ginetta’s last year.
Day and Porter presently hold a slender five-point lead over Joel Mesch but with four triple header rounds still remaining – all is still up in the air.
As per previous rounds, private testing at Jerez starts on Thursday before official timed sessions on Saturday. The provisional entry list issued by the series a few days ago lists a twelve-car entry but NOT the Racar Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 entry of Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria.
Photo credits – Daniel Burgin
Monday, February 05, 2024 |
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More Aston Martin success in GT4 Winter Series in Portimao
Having debuted together last weekend at Estoril, drivers Mikey Porter and Jamie Day carried on from where they had left off last week but with the Racar Motorsport AMRE pairing of Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria still pushing them hard along the way.
Thankfully, the rains had finally passed the venue by and all three races over the weekend were able to be run on a completely dry track. Like last time, the GT4 Winter Series would run Qualifying and the first 30minute solo driver race on Saturday before the second solo driver race and 60minute endurance race for both drivers later in the day.
Porter and Martins would be first out on Saturday with Porter having his first front row start in P2 with Martins close behind in P3. For Porter, the experience of Martins over the former Ginetta racer would see the two Aston Martins quickly change positions before Porter dropped to P4 overall and in Class.
A timely pass around the McLaren saw Porter move back up to P3 with still half the race remaining where Martins would enter the race’s fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the race as a slowing Mercedes up ahead gave him cause to chase. Unfortunately for him, time ran out as he came home a close second with Porter coming home in third for another AMR 2-3 in class.
For the opening race on Sunday, it was Day against Faria in the AMR stakes and again experience proved pivotable as Day ran another impressive lights to flag winning race whilst the young Faria again fell into the temptation on unnecessary contact early into his 30-minute race hampering his potential. The #9 Racar AMR would finish P5.
To round the second round of the season off, it was the hour-long pit stop and driver change punctuated endurance race where the #19 Forsetti car again outperformed in Qualifying the #9 Racar AMR with Porter starting from pole position and with Martins third on the grid.
Like race 1 earlier, Porter soon found himself being passed by the faster and more experienced around him to form another AMR 2-3 at the front of the pack but with the Racar Aston again in front.
Despite a prolonged Safety Car for a stranded car on track, that would be the running order into the pit window as Porter stopped first but with Martins hanging it out till later. As the available pit window came to an end, Day quickly established the race lead with Faria having dropped to P4 before he suffered a technical issue that saw him slow on track before retiring in pit lane for another DNF of his GT4 Winter Series campaign.
Despite a prolonged Safety Car for a stranded car on track, that would be the running order into the pit window as Porter stopped first but with Martins hanging it out till later. As the available pit window came to an end, Day quickly established the race lead with Faria having dropped to P4 before he suffered a technical issue that saw him slow on track before retiring in pit lane for another DNF of his GT4 Winter Series campaign.
For Day, he would maintain the gap from those chasing to complete another triple podium visiting race weekend that keeps his and Porter Championship hopes very much alive as the series moves onto Jerez in early February.
Photo credits – Daniel Buergin
Monday, January 22, 2024 |
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Round 2 of the GT4 Winter Series from an early wet Portimao circuit this weekend
After their stellar performances within the opening three races of the season at Estoril last weekend, Aston Martin Racing powered teams Forsetti Motorsport and Racar Motorsport will be obviously hoping to continue that trend after their crews visiting the class podium in all but one occasion for one team.
Despite those results, the #19 Forsetti Motorsport AMR of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day find themselves sitting second within the Pro Class, just 2.5 points behind whilst the #9 Racar Motorsport entry of Roberto Faria and Mathieu Martins sits in P4.
Mirroring the entry of the opening round with sixteen cars again entering the multi-class grid of the GT4 Winter Series, the framework of the weekend will again see each driver compete within a solo thirty-minute race before concluding the weekend with a sixty-minute, pit stop punctuated endurance race.
Now, let’s just see if it actually stops raining this time!!
Photo credits - Series
Friday, January 19, 2024 |
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Aston Martin Racing crews take opening round of GT4 Winter Series by storm
Having grown into a series with definite pre-season benefits for many teams destined to race within other series within Europe later this year, the GT4 class had grown sufficiently over their own closed season to offer them a series of their own (GT4 Winter Serries), and this drew both the locally based Racar Motorsport team as well as the new Forsetti Motorsport to the series with their Vantage GT4 crews.
Having already enjoyed of few days of winter sunshine testing around the Estoril circuit in Portugal, the opening weekend was unfortunately blighted with torrential rain but that (fortunately) only added to the excitement within their three allotted races.
Having been built up over the second half of last season, the Norfolk based Forsetti Motorsport team were still running along their huge learning curve, entering into what was tehir first ever competitive race meeting with their #19 AMR Vantage GT4 with drivers Mikey Porter and Jamie Day whilst the Portuguese Racar team came with more experience with drivers Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria within their #9 car.
Operating a system of class points only within the two thirty-minute alternate driver sprint races before a meeting concluding, pitstop and driver change hour long endurance race it was the Forsetti team who stole all the headlines in race 1 as Jamie Day secured the team’s first ever race win in the damp of Saturday afternoon after more torrential rain during Qualifying.
Early contact at turn 1 for Martins saw the #9 car drop back whilst Day benefitted from his front row start to hold onto P2 throughout the two ensuing Safety Car periods. With just over ten minutes remaining, claimed the race lead only for a charging Martins to steal that from the Englishman by the next corner leading to an AMR 1-2 as the top three cars broke free from the pack.
With less than five minutes remaining, Day used the presence of a backmarker to make his move for the race lead again to bring home that important first race win with the #9 Racar Aston coming home in P3.
On Sunday morning it was the chance of the team’s second driver and in his first GT4 Qualifying session of Saturday, Porter managed to secure a P7 start just behind that of Faria in the #9 car. This was to be both drivers first race in an Aston Martin!
Unfortunately for them, the track was still soaking wet with spray and grip an obvious issue for all and that was a clear factor in Faria’s opening lap issue when he understeered into a corner only to hit into another car. Whilst the Mercedes was able to continue, Faria was only able to limp back to the pit lane to register their first DNF of the Winter Series.
For Porter however, his was a little more cautious to start but grew in confidence as the laps and minutes passed by. Another Safety Car also helped to bring the pack back together again and that allowed him to pick off two cars on track to elevate his position to P5 overall but P3 within their Pro Class at the end. A fine debut effort.
The weekend rounded off with the hour-long pit stop race where Day and Martins again started the proceedings on track – again under wet conditions although one crew had elected to start on slicks (not either Aston) with the hope that the track would dry enough to make them beneficial.
Day quickly claimed the race lead in turn 1 whilst Martins also moved forward to P4 on the opening lap despite the tricky conditions before a Safety Car again brought the speeds and gaps back down. Going back to green, Day loses the lead to the #77 Porsche whilst the #9 car moved up close behind in P3 before swapping places soon after.
Just ahead of the pit stop window opening, the #77 Porsche slowed on track with technical issues allowing the #9 car to assume the race lead whilst the #19 Forsetti car elected to pit from second on track. They emerged P1 (#9) and P3 (#19), but Faria would have to return to pit lane soon after to serve a drive through penalty for being one second under their minimum pit stop time.
Despite changing the running order for the two Aston Martin crews, they both managed to hang on to claim another podium each with the Forsetti crew finishing P2 and the Racar crew P3.
The series now moves onto its next round at Portimao this weekend.
Photo credits - Daniel Buergin
Monday, January 15, 2024 |
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Iberian Supercars return at Jerez this weekend with another AMR Vantage GT4 within their midst
Two championship rounds completed and two still to go including this weekend’s visit to Jerez, Spain for two more races that will also the first running of the series latest Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crew amongst the twenty five strong entry.
Joining the so far dominant #007 GTX Araujo Competicao AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Alvaro Ramos and Fernando Soares who have scored maximum points so far this season, sees the new #777 Racar Motorsport GT4 Bronze class entry for Ruben Vaquinhas and Alexandre Martins joining the fun for the first time together.
With private testing on Friday and Qualifying on Saturday, both forty-five-minute races will be run at both ends of Sunday’s race programme and can be view live via the series social media channels.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
Thursday, October 19, 2023 |
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