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

Having temporally parted company as a supporting act for the Blancpain GT Series at their respective second rounds of the season earlier this month, the GT4 European Series again rejoins the headline Blancpain acts at Paul Ricard this weekend for races five and six of the season.

With the seven - now all new 2019 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's now competing at Paul Ricard, the last round at Brands Hatch will be very difficult for the four AMR teams to replicate with Brands Hatch and Paul Ricard being polar opposites in track types and characteristics now possible favouring the faster McLaren 570's.


Brands Hatch saw PROsport Performance and Academy Motorsport finally open their GT4 European Series podium accounts with Pro Am drivers Tom Wood and Fiona James taking successive P3 finishes over the weekend in their #61 car with Akhil Rabindra and Florian Thoma finally making the flag in race 1 to secure a P2 finish for those guys. In the AM class, the Street Art Racing Car of Clement Seyler and Pascal Bachmann continued to lift the silverware albeit with a reduced field to the other classes and post race penalties and there were notable finishes from the other Street Art Racing and PROsport cars.

For the #62 Academy car of Will Moore and Matt Cowley, track limits in race 1 and accident damage in race 2 blighted their home event into something to forget despite their obvious speed together.


Forty two GT4 cars will grace the grid in southern France for each of the two - one hour races spread across both Saturday and Sunday. The Am class for Paul Ricard more than doubles to seven cars so that will determine just how good class front runners Seyler and Bachmann are in their Street Art Racing Vantage.

'Coming in from the cold' will be the #44 Generation AMR SuperRacing crew of Matt George and James Holder who will finally stop competing solo in the INV class by reason of their out of homologation 2016 specification AMR Vantage GT4 to race one of their two brand new 2019 specification cars that they finally took delivery off after the Brands Hatch weekend.


Track action for these guys begins on Friday morning with the first of two Free Practice sessions before Qualifying and race on each of Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits - GT4 European Series / Generation AMR

Whilst Optimum Motorsport made some pretty significant steps forwards with their new Pro class podium finish at the second round of their International GT Open Series endeavours at the weekend, for two other Aston Martin Racing Partner teams, this weekends results continued their distinctly split path of results that they have enjoyed so far this season.

Starting in Europe - Friday and Saturday saw the third round of Creventic's 24H Series and the 12Hours of Brno take place from the small but technically challenging circuit in the Czech Republic. Back supporting the series again but first time visitors to Brno with their new 2019 AMR Vantage GT4 was the German based PROsport Performance team (again racing under their PROpeak Performance banner) and their trio of drivers - Rodrique Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Rabindra.


Having already enjoyed a brace of podium finishes in the Series including a GT4 class win last time out at Spa, the team were certainly hoping of maintaining that momentum gained within their this and their other GT4 programmes this season to help offset the frustration that must be building from their (to date) unsuccessful ventures into the ADAC GT Masters Series with their other AMR Vantage GT3's.

This time competing within a slightly larger GT4 field of six cars, the #1 car Qualified P3 for the start of the race which would begin soon afterwards on Friday afternoon before concluding later of Saturday. By the end of the opening three hour part of the race the #1 car was laying in P4 in class but already a couple of laps down to the lead car.

The next nine hours of racing would see the car compete with both of the M4 BMW's for the second two steps of the podium what with the #224 KTM X-bow being dominant from the start of the meeting with their more Brno experienced driver base. At the end of the nine hour stint of Saturday the #1 car would again be podium bound with a P3 finish at their first visit to the track.


Congratulations to them.


Then over in Japan there was the third round of their national Super GT weekend where another of this years Aston Martin Racing convertees, D'Station Racing AMR were competing in the GT300 class with a new AMR V8 Vantage GT3.

Also competing with a similar GT3 chassis in the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series, the team have already enjoyed several podium finishes (including race wins) in that series but had been distinctly unlucky so far in the coveted GT300 series after significant damage was sustained in the wet that was the opening round at Okayama before technical issues blighted round two at Fuji.


Looking to make amends for the poor start to the season, drivers JP Oliveira and Tomonobu Fujii had been working hard in between events to move their svelte liveried #7 car forward. Also enjoying a dry race weekend for the first time this season the #7 car finished P18 during Free Practice (just 1.235 seconds off the lead pace) before having their Qualifying affected by a red flag to finish P19 for the start of Sundays race.

Unfortunately for the team, everything again 'went south' just after the pit stops when Oliveira had to retire the car due to an electrical issue that was effecting its performance. Obviously bitterly disappointed, the team have vowed to continue fighting on looking for that change in circumstance that will allow them to race their competitors on equal levels.


Next round of the Super GT - GT300 will be in Thailand at the end of June.

Photo credits - 24H Series / PROpeak Performance / D'Station Racing AMR

The third round of the 24H Series European GT Championship takes place this weekend from Brno in the Czech Republic and its a return of the PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 of Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Ranbindra.

Having enjoyed something of a blessed campaign so far, the #1 car gained their first podium of the season at Mugello (having only just received the car from Prodrive the week before) where they secured a P2 class finish despite stopping out on track and having to have work carried out on the car during the overnight sabbatical. Then at the next round at Spa just over a month ago, the trio went one better to secure their first class win.


As with all Creventic organised events, track action begins with private testing on Thursday before the start of official business later on Friday with Free Practice and Qualifying before the first three hours of the twelve hour race later on Friday afternoon.

The balance of the race will be completed at 10:00hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits - 24H / PROsport Performance

Despite the smiles and hopeful anticipation from the drivers and team, the second round of the German ADAC GT Masters Series from the Most Autodrom in the Czech Republic brought German team PROsport Performance back down to the ground for another reality check after another difficult double header at the weekend.

Despite finishing the races at the opening round at Oschersleben, continuing technical infringements of one description or another left the team's two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 cars with zero points heading into the weekend. Testing at the Czech circuit earlier in the month had left the team certainly hopeful of a good showing at the second round as performance gains had been made.


Slow compared to their peers during Fee Practice on Saturday, the team's two cars Qualified even lower down the grid for race 1 - down in P23 for the Daniel Keilwitz/Maxime Martin #99 car and P29 for the Hugo de Sadeleer/Valentin Hasse-Clot #98 car.

A thirty one car grid and a very tight left-right chicane acting as turn 1 and 2 would always going to lead to incident on the opening lap and that was certainly the case as over half a dozen cars took to the shortest route across the gravel trap to avoid a stranded car on track. A Safety Car was immediately deployed costing the hour long race nearly 10 minutes of running around what was commented to be a very technical - balance critical circuit. Opening drivers, Keilwitz (#99) and de Sadeleer (#98) had very little running time before they handed over to their respective co-drivers as the pit window opening after just 26 minutes.


For the #99 car, now with AMR Factory driver Martin behind the wheel, the steady progress of cars in front getting penalties or suffering from early tyre degradation allowed him to slowly pick off cars to finish P10 by the end of the hour albeit 26 seconds behind the leader but six points is six points at the end of the day. The #98 car of Hasse-Clot was unable to replicate this and finished P23.

With the two cars again Qualifying down in P24 for the #98 and P28 for the #99, there was still an optimistic chance that some opportunist points could come their way again for Sundays race.

Another T1 incident on the opening lap again produced another Safety Car to recover another stranded car but the restart quickly lead to an early red flag as a spinning Porsche caused barrier damage on the outside of a fast swapping corner that needed repairing. By the time repairs were made and the remaining pack was let go by the controlling Safety car only 38 minutes remained.


The trouble was, just like whats being seen in other ACO and SRO sanctioned series, the new V8 Vantage GT3's simply couldn't get out of the slower, more technical corners quick enough and were losing seconds per lap to that problem. In race 2, there was to be no repeat of Martins rise through the field at the end and both cars would finish P19 and P20 respectively - some 40 seconds down - even after a fragmented red flag influenced race.

Martin put on his social media that the results were 'embarrassing' and in some regards he is right - the fact that AMR's new fleet of race cars are not seemingly able to compete on the world stage consistently is something to be concerned about. The teams and the drivers are all doing what they can but it just looks as if AMR have taken a massive backward step which clearly they haven't as nobody would release a new product obviously slower than the one its replacing. It must be a case of BoP?!?


Hopefully the series can do something to help out before the next round at the Rd Bull Ring in three weeks time.

Photo credits - PROpeak Performance / ADAC GT Masters

After something close to a total disaster for them at the opening meeting of the ADAC GT Masters Series at Oschersleben circuit at the end of April, German based PROsport Performance (running their Aston Martin Racing based programmes under the PROpeak Performance banner) will be looking to improve their 'game' as the next round of the series from Most in the Czech Republic this weekend.

In the German national GT3 only series, the team did managed to take the chequered flag in both races with the Maxime Martin/Daniel Kielwitz #99 AMR Vantage GT3 only to have the car later removed from the official results on the grounds of individual technical infringements after each race. Race 1 was with a non connected fire extinguisher and race 2 was with being found to have over boosted the engine beyond that of it homologation at some point during the race.


The sister #98 car of Hugo de Sadeleer and Valentin Hasse Clot faired no better really, stopping on the start/finish line with a technical issue in race 1 (and being declared as finishing 1 lap down to the race winners) before also being non classified in race 2 for the same reason above.

During the running of each race, it was clear that their two new Vantage GT3's were struggling with pace compared to their more established rivals and the team will be hoping that their tireless work behind the scenes both at base and at Prodrive, together with some testing at the circuit two weeks ago will help them make up for this performance shortfall.


"The track at Most is quite interesting, it is very technical. There are some really nice and above all fast corners. However, as in Oschersleben on this track it will be very difficult to overtake. The Vantage GT3 has a lot of potential, but we need to work it out step by step. It's a new car, the team is new to the championship, so we have to work and make steady progress. The test went well. We've learned a few things, so I think we can take a step forward on race weekend" he said.

Brands Hatch will be the place to be at this weekend if it is quantity of Aston Martin Racing cars that you are after with the GT4 European Series racing holding their second event of the year as the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe only starts theirs.

With all being well, that equates to about nine AMR Vantage race cars being at the Kent circuit in both GT3 and GT4 form as teams like R-Motorsport, Academy, Street Art Racing, PROsport Performance and Generation AMR SuperRacing go abut their business in the SRO sanction series.

Having morphed from the former Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, this World Challenge Europe opener will feature a grid of 26 cars with two new generation Vantage GT3's being entered by the Swiss based R-Motorsport team with help from their Jota and Arden Partners. Using the cars that the team also race in the main Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, only one driver in Marvin Krchhofer makes the jump with the team from the Endurance Cup leaving new drivers Hugo de Sadeleer, Aaro Vainio and Ricky Collard to make their series debut with the team around the full 3.9km Grand Prix circuit.


Vainio and de Sadeleer will compete aboard the #62 car in the Silver Cup class whilst the young Collard and Kirchhofer go for glory in the Pro class aboard the #76 car.

With two Free Practice sessions and Qualifying taking place on Saturday, both one hour races will takes place either side of lunch on Sunday.


Joining the two AMR Vantage GT3's will be the seven AMR Vantage GT4's that are contesting the 2019 GT4 European Series for their second event of the season after their two race opener at Monza earlier this month.

Six of these cars will be the new 2019 version as raced by Belgium team Street Art Racing, German based PROsport Performance and UK based Academy Motorsport. The remainder will be the 2016 specification car from Generation AMR SuperRacing that will again race in the INV class due to its non homologated status - we believe that this will be the last time that drivers Matt George and James Holder will race this car before later acquiring one of the new 2019 models for the third round of the series.


PROsport Performance will have had a busy time repairing and maintaining their two cars after have them race at the opening round of the German ADAC GT4 Series last weekend from Oschersleben - an event where their #18 car sustained serious front end damage in the opening laps of race 1 when a tyre failed at a critical moment. Fortunately the driver Florian Thoma, who is also due to race at Brands Hatch, was not seriously injured although the car was unable to contest the second race of that event.

Also, we hope that the #7 Street Art Racing car has also been successfully repaired after its sizeable collision at the opening round at Monza when it was collected by an out of control KTM X Bow going into the first chicane after the pit stop. For the teams other car, Monza was very productive having scooped two podiums in the Am Class for drivers Clement Seyler and Pascal Bachmann.


That leaves the two new Vantage GT4's of Worcester based Academy Motorsport who will rock up to their 'home' circuit of Brands Hatch in confidence after two good opening rounds in Italy. A few repairs have been needed to the #62 Will Moore/Matt Cowley car after Moore experienced a dramatic off in the second race of the opening round of the British GT Championship two weeks ago but thankfully hitting a tyre wall at Oulton Park, the damage shouldn't have been too severe. Their sister #61 car of Tom Wood and Fiona James also enjoyed two good opening races despite the treacherous conditions which leaves then in P10 in the Pro Am table.

There is still very much everything to race for!!

The schedule for Brands Hatch is available HERE

Photo credits - GT4 European / Blancpain

Having spent consecutive weekends away at a racetrack somewhere in Europe either testing or racing in the ADAC GT4 Germany or GT4 European Series, its back to another race track again this weekend for German based PROsport Performance for the second round of the 24H Series European GT Championship from Spa Francorchamps.

Despite suffering from technical issues in the first part of the 12 hours of Mugello opener at the end of March, the trio of drivers (Nico Verdonck / Rodrique Gillion and the late entry of Akhil Rabindra) went on to secure the new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's first podium of its 2019 racing career with a P2 finish.


The entry list for Spa shows just the original two drivers of Verdonck and Gillion for another 12 hours of racing around one of the toughest race tracks the world has to offer so we won't be surprised if another name falls into the equation before the start of the race on Friday afternoon. We also do not yet know which chassis they will be using - its just a choice of red or white!!

PROsport Performance spent last weekend racing at a very wet Monza so that will be hoping for no repetition of anything that Spa is renown for!

Photo credits - 24H Series / GT4 European Series

Supporting the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup opener at the Autodromo National di Monza at the weekend was the SRO sanctioned GT4 European Series and their first two - one hour races of the season.

With no less than seven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's being entered into the sizeable thirty seven car grid, decent racing and incident was always going to be inevitable but to then add persistent rain over the time of one of those two hours of racing and multi class abilities simply added to the mix.


With the exception of the Generation AMR SuperRacing, Street Art Racing (Belgium), Academy Motorsports (UK) and PROpeak Performance (Germany) were all be competing for the first time with the new 2019 turbo charged AMR Vantage GT4. With the factory having burned the midnight oil in getting all of these new cars out all of these three teams, some had only received their second GT4 chassis about a week prior to the race meeting.

With limited track time leading into the event it was important for all drivers to get as much knowledge and understanding of both their new cars and indeed the race track with many drivers racing it for the first time and the constantly changing conditions certainly added to that learning curve. By the end of the meeting there would be some real 'winners and losers' even within the #TeamAMR field.


Race 1 on Saturday was with the most favourable track conditions of the weekend with incident still never far away as the #19 Propeak Performance car of Jeremy Sarhy sustained sizeable front end damage to his car in the opening sequence of corners. The young Frenchmans race would then go bad to worse with a drive through penalty for an incorrect starting procedure before ultimate retirement from the race!

With two McLaren 570s's charging away at the front of the pack, individuals behind soon began making their own way up through the grid from the starting position with the likes of Matt George (in the older normally aspirated engined Vantage) and the two Academy Motorsport drivers of Tom Wood and Matt Cowley all improving their track position as they became more comfortable wit their surroundings.


Just prior to the opening pit stop window, Wood was the highest placed AMR runner in the #62 Academy car having moved up from P17 at the start with the #18 Propeak Performance car of Florian Thoma not too far behind on track in P15.

Driver changes at the half way stage meant for some frantic activity in a very congested pit lane

Sadly for the #7 Street Art Racing car of Jamie Vandenbalck, his first experiences of the opening round of the GT4 European Series didn't last too long as his car was 'taken out' by an uncontrolled a KTM X Bow going into the first chiccane at the end of the pit straight - both cars were out the race on the spot and another Safety car intervention was required.


At the time of the chequered flag for race 1 all had changed within the timing board for the AMR runners. The biggest winner out of this was the #17 Street Art Racing car of Pascal Bachmann and a very race inexperienced Clement Seyler who between them secured a podium P3 finish in their AM class.

Ahead of them in the Silver Cup and Pro-Am classes respectively was the #19 Propeak Performance car of Akhil Rabindra and Florian Thoma who finished P13 and impressively the #61 Academy car of Will Moore and Matt Cowley to finish P15 overall - up from P28 on the grid.


Race 2 on Sunday morning who however a wholly different matter as the rains had returned around the forested circuit necessitating a Safety Car start for the grid.

Missing from the starting grid would however be the #44 Generation AMR SuperRacing car of Matt George and James Holder (a tactical decision by the team we understand to withdraw the car considering the track conditions and only car in the INV class) as well as the #7 Street Art Racing car of Julien Darras and Jamie Vandenbalck. Front end damage sustained to their car in Race 1 was too severe for the team to undertake at the circuit and in fact will have to be returned to the AMR Prodrive factory for repairs hopefully in time for the next round at Brands Hatch in May.


As a starting driver reversal of race 1 it would be both Propeak Performance cars that started highest of the now five remaining Astons with David Griessner highest in P6 in his repaired #19 car ahead of Akhil Rabindra in P13.

Ten minutes of racing time was lost to the opening Safety Car sequence but with so much water upon the track and spray hanging in the air it was absolutely worth it as Griessner soon found out going into T1 and up the escape road and for team mate Rabindra, it looked like his preferred wet line was through the car in front with multiple contacts being made with the Mercedes ahead.

Will Moore in the #61 Academy got himself a drive through penalty for straight lining a chiccane that would drop him down from his then P22 position just ahead of the opening of the pit stop window.


By the end of the pit stop window track conditions had not improved and indeed visibility was getting worse. Thoma was again the leading AMR runner in his #18 car in P10 with team mate Sarhy now down to P19 in his #19 Propeak car. Cowley, Seyler, Wood and Sarhy (in that order) were all having to try to recover their track positions after errors/slower lap times from their respective co-drivers in the atrocious conditions.

By the time the cars had almost 'swam' their way around the alotted hour and away from the viewpoint of the overall leading cars it was another class podium for the #17 Street Art Racing car of Bachmann and Seyler - this time at the next step up in P2 - great results for them.


Thoma was again the lead AMR in P11 and a brilliant drive from Cowley had recovered their situation (following the drive through for Moore) with a P18 finish - how much higher would that have been without the penalty? Academy team mates Tom Wood and Fiona James finished in P21 which for James was a good result considering the conditions.

Whilst some still have some work to do upon their cars after this bruiser of an opening round, at least the three week gap to the next round at Brands Hatch will allow for some degree of calm contemplation to see just what needs addressing to move these new AMR charioted teams forward in the Series.


The speed is there, the ability is there within the teams and the drivers - its just needs a little more direction forward!

Brands Hatch in over 4-5th May

Photo credits - GT4 European Series

With six brand new Aston Martin Racing V8 turbo charged Vantage GT4's already out with their teams (and another still on order for delivery later this year) these seven cars from the AMR stable will represent one fifth of this years sizeable 37 car entry for the opening round of the GT4 European Series that kicks off at Monza later this week that will run in support of the Blancpain GT Series event at the Italian circuit.

The only anomaly to a clean sweep for the new 2019 iterations AMR race car is with the Generation AMR SuperRacing team who will have to wait until the third round of the series before receiving their new Vantage from the Prodrive factory.


Due to the lengthy order books for both the new Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars, the SRO has given the team special dispensation to run the older, normally aspirated V8 Vantage at the opening rounds of the series as the homologation detail for the AMR Vantage GT4 now lies with the new turbo charged car. Despite that delay, drivers James Holder and Matt George return for another full season of GT4 racing in the headline European SRO GT4 Series having only had ad-hoc races together last year and a season in the French FFSA Series before that. They will compete in the Pro-Am class.


Belgium based Street Art Racing also return to the series again - this time with another two car entry for the two returning drivers and two team debutants. With the team receiving their second car from Prodrive only last week, the team had been restricted to limited testing with their brightly coloured car (above), a car that will be driven by Pascal Bachman and GT new recruit Clement Seyler in the Am Class.

The team's second car will be raced by a returning Julien Darras alongside Jamie Vandenbalck in the Silver Cup and this is the team that will have the coaching support of AMR factory driver Maxime Martin throughout the season.


Matt Nichol-Jones' Academy Motorsport team are also returning to the GT4 European Series with two confirmed full season entries, competing in two classes after a disappointing 2018 season that saw one of their cars drop out at an early stage.

The lady behind the Walero race wear company (Fiona James) obviously liked what she saw last year in the Series by returning to the team she went to having swapped over from the Dutch Supercar Challenge Series. The Worcester based team have certainly been putting in the testing mileage with all their drivers who are entered into the European Series as well as the British GT Championship and for Will Moore, that means another double header season - a surprise to all considering he wasnt going to be racing at all in 2019.

Having raced with Nichol-Jones last year, James will this year be partnered by the much younger Tom Wood who raced with Jan Jonck last year in British GT in the Pro-Am Class whilst Moore will be partnered by the teams speedy new recruit Matt Cowley in the Silver Cup.


One of the new recruits to the #TeamAMR family is German based Prosport Performance team who have also acquired two AMR Vantage GT4's for multiple race programme in GT4 European Series, ADAC GT4 Germany and the 24H Series.

Having only received their first GT4 car at the end of last month, a couple of their drivers have only had limited track time - mainly within the AMR GT4 development car. One car has already been raced by the team (and one of their GT4 Series drivers - Akhil Rabindra) in the opening race of the 24H Series in Mugello where they secured the cars first race podium. Rabindra will race with Florian Thoma in the #18 car with Jeremy Sarhy and David Griessner in the sister #19 car. Both will race in the Silver Cup.


For the team, who will compete under the PROpeak Performance banner, the first round of the GT4 European Series will be something of a frantic one as they are in the midst of a three day official test ready for the start of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series at Oschersleben.

Track action at Monza starts Thursday with Private Testing before starting in earnest on Friday morning with the first of two Free Practice sessions with Qualifying taking place on Saturday Morning. Two, one hour races will be held over the weekend on both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

All drivers listed above except for Fiona James, James Holder and Pascal Bachmann are part of the Aston Martin Drivers Academy that was announced last month.

Photo credits - ADAC GT4 Germany / Street Art Racing / SRO

Another busy week in #TeamAMR world with many teams making their final preparations and testing opportunities before they prepare to ship out for their first races of the year around the world.


Academy Motorsport finally concluded their extensive tour of around the UK circuits seeing out their preseason testing at Donington today before their transporter pulled out of the paddock for its long journey down to Monza, Italy in time for their first races with their new machinery in the GT4 European Series.

Picking up their second GT4 chassis from the Prodrive factory only earlier this week, today has also seen Will Moore confirmed as a full season co-driver to Matt Cowley instead of Team Principle Matt Nichol-Jones who had earlier offered his services so that the teams latest customer driver could fulfil his aspirational dreams of GT racing in Europe. Moore and Cowley will be partnered in the Series with fellow team members Fiona James and Tom Wood.


The two Academy AMR's will be joined in the Series with two further AMR Vantage GT4's each from Belgium team Street Art Racing and German team PROpeak Performance and a single (2016 specification car) from Generation AMR SuperDry Racing.

The GT4 European Series will be supporting the Blancpain GT Series at Monza and in the main event we will of course be lucky enough to see the Aston Martin Racing contingent raise from the three cars of 2018 to the five cars of 2019 with the addition of two Garage 59 Vantage GT3's to the two of R-Motorsport and the one of long time series supporter Oman Racing by TF Sport.


Garage 59 were testing at Silverstone this week with their Pro and Pro-Am cars bedecked in their stunning new liveries. The only news ahead of this opening round appears to revolve around the availability (or not in this case) of Alex Lynn within one of the R-Motorsport cars (due to Formula E duties apparently) and his seat is reported to be replaced with that of team returnee Nicki Thiim.


Swapping over to the other side of the world, the Japanese national Super GT Series starts next weekend and the two drivers and D'Station AMR Racing will be looking to emulate the performances of their sister car in the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series where their #777 car won the opening round of that series at Suzuka a couple of weeks ago.

Competing in the opening round of the GT300 side of the Super GT Series, drivers JP de Oliviero and  Tomonobu Fujii will be hoping that their progressive testing regime will put them into good stead against the 28 rival cars for the opening races at Okayama this weekend.