"After racing in Mexico and Texas for the 6 Hours of Mexico & COTA, I am happy to auction my racing suit to help the families affected by the recent natural disasters in these areas. I want to give to those who still need support" says Thiim on his website.

If you were to cast your mind back to this time last year you would be correct in identifying performance similarities between then and now for the Aston Martin Racing squad in the World Endurance Championship.

As with both this season and last, the two GTE Pro entries have up until now had to be contented with picking up the scraps as the faster, newer GTE Pro machinery from Ford, Ferrari and now Porsche as each disappeared into the distance at each of the preceding rounds to Mexico.

Then, and for the first of the 2017 'fly away' races of the 2017 season the fifth (including LM24) consecutive Balance of Performance adjustment made by the FIA this time targeted all the GTE Pro platforms and with the Mexican circuit being at altitude it was that that helped turn the pendulum back towards the V8 Vantage again.


With the Porsche 911's and the Ford GT's seemly struggling for a constant performance window the #95 Nicki Thiim/Marco Sorensen car qualified in second place to the ever so slightly faster #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon - its highest position to date this year with its sister #97 slightly further back in P5.

A clean start from the whole grid yesterday allowed for some early passing and jockeying for position before the 6Hrs of Mexico began to settle into its cyclic rhythm of racing. The #98 GTE Am car of Pedro Lamy was one such early mover, picking off the pole setting #77 Dempsey Proton entry within the first couple of laps.

Whilst Sorensen was content to sit on the rare bumper of the #71 Ferrari for the opening stint, team mate Darren Turner in the #97 would begin the suffer the effects an undiagnosed and continuing brake issue that would quickly see that car in and out of the pit lane and garage and effectively out of the race within the first hour of racing. The car would periodically rejoin the race but would end the up being unclassified from the results despite the best of efforts from the mechanics and engineers.


Just after that first hour, a bold determined move from Sorensen saw the #95 muscle its way past the #71 for the class lead before going onto to establishing a slight lead going into their next round of full service pit stops. Likewise, the #98 Lamy car had established itself a lead of nearly 25 seconds as he eventually swapped over with Mathias Lauda.

A shorter time in pit lane however would re-establish the lead for the #71 car in GTE Pro.

For the next two hours of racing the #95 and #71 cars appeared to be tethered by some elastic as the gap between then closed before it widened before closing again - great GT racing of the highest order from all concerned!


Just before the half way mark and for a reason not quite established yet, the opening stint from Lauda was marginally slow enough each lap to have allowed the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche to have caught and passed the #98 by the time Lauda had himself handed the car to Bronze driver Paul Dalla Lana for his his first stint of the race. Whether or not there was an issue with the car or its Dunlop tyres remains unclear.

Speaking with us at the half way mark, Thiim was confident that the then 7 second deficit to the #71 would be made up through better fuel and tyre management also believing that rain was imminent before the end of the 6 hours.


Dalla Lana was obviously starting to push himself and his car just a little too far as track limit warning and final warnings were issued by Race Control. With the #77 car now over a minute ahead the #98 was becoming in danger of being caught by the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche as well!

With two hours remaining the #51 AF Corse Ferrari was shown limping around the track with apparent gearbox/electrical issues - worrying for the #71 but inspirational for Thiim as he pounded round closing the gap again prior to handing the reigns back to Sorensen. As the two had again pitted on differing laps Sorensen was again able to overtake the #71 for position as he had the benefit of warmer tyres going into the sequence of slower corners after Turn 1.

At the 90 minute mark the most decisive moment (perhaps) of the race occurred as the first Full Course Yellow was thrown by Race Control due to a baseball ball being spotted just off the racing line at Turn 4!! That allowed the #95 to dive back into the pits for another full service with the race under yellows leaving it with just one more planned stop before the chequered flag - the Ferrari however elected to stay out and would might have to pit under green!


At the top of the final hour another brief FCY ultimately allow both the #71 and #95 to make their final stops under yellow but importantly, and in order to retain the lead the #71 did not change tyres unlike the Aston as Rigon and Thiim would duel it out to the end.

Any aspirations of a higher finish evaporated for the #98 at the final hour mark as it was awarded a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane during its last stop - at best it would be P2 despite all of their early efforts for the higher step.

Forty five minutes remained and the AF Corse crew would have been shell shocked to read that a 10 second time penalty would be awarded against its #71 car for failing to reduce its speed quick enough during the last FCY period - as the car didn't need to stop again that penalty time would be added to its race time and with the #95 loitering just three seconds back that meant they had already lost the class lead.


The final 30 minutes were left with everyone having one eye on the sky as dark clouds circum- navigated the circuit, teams were warning their drivers of imminent torrential rain but luckily for all that did not appear during the remainder of the race leaving Thiim to finally taking the flag having tried his utmost to overtake the #71 on track right to the last.

This was a monumental win for not just the crew but also for the team having not been 'allowed' through their allotted technical governance to race the other marques until now. Indeed it was this race last year that catapulted the AMR team up through the GTE pro ranks and allowed the #95 to ultimately claim the class title by the end of the year.


The WEC circus now quickly uproots and moves due North to the Circuit of the Americas in Hurricane Harvey affected Texas for the next round of the WEC where the team hope that the momentum from this very well deserved victory for the #95 and the P2 for the #98 car takes their championship aspirations still further.

Photo credits - WEC / AMR

The fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship – the 6 Hours of Mexico – turned into a test session for Aston Martin Racing driver Darren Turner on Sunday. In stark contrast to Turner’s victory in Mexico last year, the Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE the British racer shares with Jonny Adam (UK) and Daniel Serra (BRA) was beset with braking issues from the start of the race.

The squad struggled with a minor brake issue during the practice sessions and in qualifying, where they came in fifth, but this was rectified before the start of the race.

Turner was at the wheel of the #97 Aston Martin when the race began and despite making a good start it soon became apparent that all wasn’t well.

“Even on the run into Turn One I didn’t have full confidence in the brakes,” explained Turner. “Then after two or three laps the problem started to get worse. I tried to keep going as long as I could but unfortunately the pedal ended up going to the floor.



“That’s when we boxed for the first time, to give the team chance to find the source of the problem,” he continued. “Nothing was obviously wrong so we tried changing certain elements of the braking system and working through to to solve the issue.”

With so many trips to the pits the 6 Hours of Mexico quickly turned into test session for the #97 crew but there was some good news at the end of the race.

“The brake problem was unfortunate as we had the pace to be on the podium in Mexico,” said Turner. “Although it wasn’t a good weekend for us the #95 crew had a great weekend and took their first win of the season so that was a great result for the team.”


Source material - Darren Turner PR

Aston Martin Racing is ready to kick off the second half of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, as the premier racing series touches down in Mexico City.

After taking a GTE Pro double podium in 2016 - scoring a victory and third place - Aston Martin Racing will be hoping to claim yet another strong points-haul 12 months on. While the intense heat and 2,250m altitude of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez challenged both the drivers and V8 Vantage GTE last year, it will be the severe weather and temperamental thunderstorms that will provide the team with a serious test this weekend.

Paul Howarth, Team Principal Aston Martin Racing said, “Our drivers have focused hard on ensuring that they are in peak physical shape for this weekend. We know that the climate of Mexico City is normally very tough with its thin air and high humidity, but we anticipate that the recent storms will add another element of complexity to the weekend. This will be a tough race to call from a strategical perspective, but we’re confident that our Dunlop tyres will prove as strong here in the wet as they did in the exceptionally hot conditions of 2016”.

The team’s driver line-ups remain unchanged this weekend, with Nicki Thiim (DN) and Marco Sorensen (DN) occupying the #95 V8 Vantage GTE and Darren Turner (GB), Jonny Adam (GB) and Daniel Serra (BR) continuing in the #97 in GTE Pro.



  Winner of last year’s race in the #97 V8 Vantage GTE, Darren Turner said, “This is a circuit that proved to be the turning point in Aston Martin Racing’s season last year and we’ll be looking to ensure the same again. We’re well in the hunt for the championship right now and Daniel (Serra), Jonny (Adam) and I are only 15 points from the overall lead. I really hope we can close that gap this weekend and make sure we get the flyaway races off to a good start”.

The #98 V8 Vantage GTE of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda (A) and Pedro Lamy (P) will also line up for this weekend’s race in the GTE Am class.

The 6 Hours of Mexico begins at 12:00 local time on Sunday 3 September.


Source material - AMR

This time last year Aston Martin Racing enjoyed probably one of their best racing successes of the 2016 World Endurance Championship season with a double podium in the GTE Pro class, a race that established itself as the catalyst to the #95 securing the GTE Pro titles at the final race of the year thanks mainly to the progress made by Dunlop.

This weekend sees the three full season WEC entries from AMR return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodrguez near Mexico City for the fifth round of the WEC season in a situation similar to where the team found themselves last year completely, dependant upon the series technical officials allowing them to run with a competitive Balance of performance.


Despite the adoption of an automatic, computer interpreted BoP system for the 2017 WEC season, this race will see two GTE Pro cars run with their fifth different BoP setting of the season (Le Mans 24Hr has been included in that although they run with a separate BoP system to that of the WEC). In a break to previous rounds where the Ferrari 488 GTE has been used as a benchmark for the remaining three marques, the BoP adjustment made for Mexico alters each marque slightly differently and includes (for the first time) a reduction in power performance for the Ferrari so Mexico should see some tighter racing than previously seen.

The BIG topic of the race weekend at the moment however is the terrible weather conditions being experienced in Mexico as a whole with torrential storms forcing the closure of Mexico City airport and countless domestic and international flights in and out of the country being diverted or cancelled stranding many who should be, by now at the circuit.

This report from Dailysportscar.com describes the situation.


Other from that, there is no change to the driver line ups in any of the cars with Daniel Serra again bucking the trend and making up as third driver in the #97 car alongside Darren Turner and Jonny Adam.

Weather dependant, track action is scheduled to start tomorrow with the first of the Free Practice sessions before Qualifying on Saturday afternoon before the start of the race at midday on Sunday. For those in the UK, the time difference to Mexico is 6 hours behind BST.


Fingers crossed all works out for the race.

Photo credits - Aston Martin Racing

Last week, a certain young man from Denmark asked if fans could send him their photos from this seasons World Endurance Championship of his prized #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE so that he could wallpaper his bedroom (or something) with them.

Photos should be uploaded via wetransfer.com to danskyjr@gmail.com so that they can be enjoyed by all HERE

We can only oblige!

Young Driver AMR leads the GTE Pro teams championship of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) after five of nine rounds. Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim took the championship lead for Young Driver AMR with a third place finish the inaugural 6 hours of Mexico in the Aston Martin Racing entered #95 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage V8. The Danish Duo of Sørensen/Thiim started from Pole Position, lead 125 of 202 laps and took the fastest lap of the race before they eventually finished third in a rain-affected end of the race. Thanks to the third podium finish this season, Young Driver AMR took the lead in the GTE Pro Endurance Trophy for teams, while Sørensen/Thiim are now second in the GT drivers world championship.

Darren Turner and his Aston Martin team-mate Richie Stanaway won the inaugural ‘6 Hours of Mexico’ on Saturday after a dominant display at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. This result rockets Turner into the lead of the GT Drivers Championship standings.

The duo qualified the #97 Aston Martin on the front row of the grid for Round 5 of the FIA World Endurance Championship, just one-tenth of a second shy of the #95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen.

It was Stanaway who took the start and after the first hour the #97 Aston Martin was running a few seconds behind the race-leading #95 of Nicki Thiim. Turner then jumped in for his first stint, going head to head with Sørensen who was now behind the wheel of the #95 car.

“My stint against Marco was good, apart from the traffic,” said Turner. “It can be really frustrating where you catch traffic. Sometimes it goes in your favour and you get a free pass on the straights and other times you can get in a jam and lose time.”

Whilst Aston Martin Racing have been performing hard on the track so far this week they are also working hard to raise the profile of low blood bank stocks in the United Kingdom by supporting the Give Blood NHS 'Missing A and O campaign' their full and obvious support on their #97 GTE Pro car.

By simply omitting the A's and the O's (obviously representing those particular blood groups) from the cars sun strip and rear wing the team are hoping that they will increase public awareness of the decreasing levels of stock of this precious commodity not just in the UK but around the world as well so please give your local blood bank service a look.

All there GTE cars from the Aston Martin Racing stable rounded off their domination off Free Practice by earlier taking both GTE class pole positions for tomorrow's inaugural World Endurance Championship race in Mexico.

With the race being their first time the series has been to the circuit they were permitted an additional "collective test' session before the first and second Free Practice sessions yesterday with the third and final Free Practice and later qualifying being held today. Across all three FP sessions both the #97 and #95 GTE Pro cars have displayed a dominatory performance across the first two positions compared to their mainly turbo charged competitors whilst the #98 GTE Am car progressively moved up through the timing tables.


With Qualifying having just finished that continuing performance has been transferred into GTE Pro pole position for the #95 Young Driver AMR car of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim with the #97 car of Richie Stanaway and Darren Turner a very close second. Indeed it was the #97 car that held the class lead in the early stages of the session but the #95 soon swapped places with the #97 as soon as the second driver times were aggregated.

Meanwhile and despite a spin on track for Pedro Lamy with the #98 car he shares with Paul Dalla Lana and Mathia Lauda (who didn't drive in qualifying) they also progressed and secured the GTE Am class pole.


With the Ferrari 488 and Ford GT obviously struggling for absolute power at the high altitude circuit should these qualifying results transfer into an end result then the Mexican round will really put the 2016 GTE Pro and Am championships on their heads!!

Game On - Go #TeamAMR

Photo credits - AMR

It’s back to school for Young Driver AMR, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim in the FIA World Endurance Championship. After a brief summer break, the FIA WEC starts into the second half of the season, which starts in Mexico and finally ends in Bahrain after stops in the United States, Japan and China. The FIA WEC visits Mexico for the first time and for the debut race of Young Driver AMR in Central America, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim will the share the Aston Martin Racing entered #95 Young Driver AMR-Aston Martin Vantage in the fifth round of the World Championship.

Young Driver AMR finished the first part of the season with a strong performance and claimed a podium finish at the most recent round at Nürburgring after starting from Pole Position. For the Mexican round, Young Driver AMR hopes to continue this strong performance. „We saw a tight and very exciting race at the Nürburgring and I hope it will be the same again in Mexico. The track is new to everybody and the high altitude makes this track very interesting. While our Aston Martin V8 engine is naturally aspirated, some of our competitors use turbo charged engines. With the track some 2300 metres above sea level, this can make a difference and I hope both concepts will be evenly matched. We are well prepared and our two drivers come straight from their summer vacation to Mexico, so we are really looking forward for the second part of the season.”

After four of nice rounds, Sørensen/Thiim are third in the driver’s championship, five points behind the leaders thanks to three top five finishes in the last four races. Young Driver AMR is equally third in the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Pro teams.

The 6 hours of Mexico are due to start Saturday at 13.30 hours local time (20.30 hours CET)

Source material - Young Driver AMR

Aston Martin Racing returns to the track this week, as the FIA World Endurance Championship heads to Mexico for its inaugural visit to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City.

Despite stormy conditions forecast for this week’s round of the WEC, the team will be hoping for smooth sailing following its double podium success last time out at the Nürburgring.

The team sit just 8 points behind the lead in the FIA WEC GT Manufacturers trophy and both GTE Pro entries will be looking for strong results to close and surpass that gap.

Last month’s third place finish and pole position for the #95 Danish pairing of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen sees the entry poised just five points from the lead in the GTE Pro championship ahead of this week’s race.

The team’s #98 GTE Am entry of Paul Dalla Lana (C), Mathias Lauda (A) and Pedro Lamy (P) will also hope to achieve back-to-back victories, after taking the chequered flag in first place in Germany following a commanding performance.

Paul Howarth, Aston Martin Racing Team Principal commented, “Mexico is a new track to both us and the series and we’ll have plenty to learn throughout the first sessions of the race weekend. Our drivers have been busy preparing themselves both mentally and physically ahead of the second half of the season, which is particularly important here in Mexico City due to the heat and higher altitudes. We’ll be expecting a strong performance from each of them to ensure we remain in the championship hunt and continue to score strong points”.

He added, “I’ve personally been looking forward to returning to Mexico. Having competed in motorsport events here earlier in my career, I’ve always found the Mexican fans to be incredibly knowledgeable and the atmosphere unrivalled. It’s great that this round is part of the 2016 WEC calendar and we hope we put on a good show for the crowds”.

Driver Line-up - FIA WEC - 6 Hours of Mexico

GTE Pro
#95 - Nicki Thiim (DN) & Marco Sørensen
#97 - Darren Turner (GB) & Richie Stanaway (NZ)

GTE Am
#98 - Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) & Mathias Lauda (A)

The 6 Hours of Mexico begins at 13:30 (local time) on Saturday 3 September.

Source material Aston Martin Racing

With a trio of its customer teams having collected a trio of podium finishes last weekend, this weekend sees the return of the Aston Martin Racing factory team to the track as they compete for the first time at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Making up the fifth round of the 2016 WEC championship, Mexico is also the first 'fly away' race of the mainly European based field and is another one of these race weekends that culminate with the 6 hours race taking place on the Saturday.

Aston Martin Racing return with both of their V8 Vantage GTE Pro cars as well as their single GTE Am car. The race will also be only the second time this year that both Pro cars will field a twin driver line up after #95 Dane Train secured a third place finish last time out in Germany in that format.

No driver changes are expected across any of the cars at this race although something may be held up the teams sleeve as they ready themselves to loose Richie Stanaway at the next round at the Circuit of the Americas due to his Aussie V8 commitments with the Prodrive team. With both Fernando Rees and Jonny Adam being dropped prior to the Nurburgring event over six weeks ago both will have lost out on car experience if either are later called upon for CoTA.


The #98 GTE Am car of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathia Lauda remains unchanged although there have been some reports of the car switching away from Dunlop tyres and back to Michelins. Photos posted on social media following the customary shakedown of all the cars prior to them be freighted off to Mexico still had them tagged in and liveried up with Dunlop?

As the teams prepare for the Mexico round the #95 of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen presently sits in third position on the teams championship just five points behind the leading #66 Ford GT with the #97 Darren Turner/Richie Stanaway car a further twelve points behind them in fifth.

In GTE Am the #98 Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda sits in second position in there team championship but a massive 41 points behind the leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari.

Full programme timings for the Mexico event can be found HERE

Photo credits - Adrenal Media / AMR