Forty cars of the Gt World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Series will be back again this weekend for a quick-fire return to the racetrack, this time from Magny-Cours in France after its last round from Misano just two weeks ago.

Within that expected entry list will be the same three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 cars from both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams but with one of those crews reverting to its original driver line up.

 

It’s another hellishly busy race week for the SRO organisation as they see both their European and North American arms of the business in full race mode this week at Spa, Zandvoort and Sebring.

Having already covered the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Prologue events at Spa Francorchamps with today's and tomorrow's Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa Prologue test days, their European Sprint Cup and GT4 European Series sees themselves back in business this weekend with their second rounds of the season from the Dutch coastal circuit.

 

The opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup from Brands Hatch at the weekend was something of the inevitable baptism of fire for most of the drivers aboard the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews, as the characteristics of the tight GP circuit at the Kent circuit made for some eventful racing.

Just the two AMR Vantage GT3 crews this time around, one from each of the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport stables as both cars carried at least one driver in their earlier stages of the GT3 racing career and with the Walkenhorst dipping their toe into the Sprint Cup scene for the first time amongst the thirty strong entry.

 

As with any racing season, the news of tomorrow soon covers off the news from yesterday as we now look forward to another busy weekend of global GT racing for the many Aston Martin Racing powered teams.

Starting off in the UK we will see the opening round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Series around the Grand Prix loop of Brands Hatch this weekend. With the Endurance side of the equation already underway, this weekend’s pair of races will see just two AMR Vantage GT3 Evo’s compete amongst an expected grid size of thirty cars.

 

It was something similar this weekend as the GT Winter Series also come to an end in Barcelona where we were fortunate enough to see both an Aston Martin Racing Vantage Evo from the Comtoyou Racing team and an older 16A variant from the Prosport Racing team.

Running the same calendar as the GT4 machinery before them, two thirty-minute sprint races would proceed the seasonal hour-long finale later on Sunday as both Kobe Pauwels and Matisse Lismont would be looking for much class winning success like last time out for them at Valencia in their #700 car whilst the #17 Prosport entry would see both Adrian Rziczny and Fabienne Wohlwend contest their first GT3 races.

 

Whilst talking about the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s due to compete within this weekend’s third round of the GT4 Winter Series from Valencia yesterday, it appears that we either overlooked or completely missed the fact that Comtoyou Racing would also be in town with two of their AMR Vantage GT3’s.

For the Belgian based team, their two Vantage GT3 Evo entries will be running within the sister GT Winter Series within an expected grid of thirty-nine Cup 1, Cup 2, Cup 3, Cup 4, Cup 5, Cup X and GT3 based cars that are permitted to enter. Most of the Cup classes cater for the many challenge or trophy class of chassis before eight pure GT3 cars are listed at the tail of entry list.

These two Comtoyou Racing entries include two familiar faces in Matisse Lismont and Kobe Pauwels within the #700 car whilst two debuting Brazilian drivers in Ricardo Baptista and Rafael Suzuki will compete within the #270 car.

The latter have also been confirmed by the team as entries into this year’s GT World Challenge Sprint Series with the team.

Photo credits – Team / social media

 

The twentieth running of the 24H Series running of the Dubai 24 has just concluded and the race again did itself proud for the Creventic organisers and its sixty plus, multi-classed entries although it didn’t necessarily prove itself that way for some.

Indeed, one of the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo’s entered didn’t actually make it to the race itself on Saturday morning after final night practice for the #41 Comtoyou Racing entry saw accident damage sustained whilst Russian driver Viacheslav Gutak was at the wheel. 

 

Qualifying is now done for tomorrows start to the opening race of 2025 as the 24H Series celebrate the twentieth running of their Dubai 24 event.

Fielding another impressive grid of sixty-four mixed class entries, this year’s entry sees three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo’s entered – two from the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team and another from the Asian based Earl Bamber Motorsport team.

 

Two Aston Martin Racing powered teams have just completed their respective driver line up ahead of this weekend’s start to both the GT World Championship Endurance Cup and GT4 European Series from Paul Ricard.

Having already confirm three entries for the new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 platforms amongst the Pro and Silver Classes, the Belgium Comtoyou Racing team still had their #11 Bronze class entry to confirm.

This week saw that final detail be revealed as being a driver line up of Porsche Cup racer John De Wilde, European Le Mans Series racer Job Van Uitert and TCR racer Kobe Pauwels ahead of this weekend’s three-hour opener.

In GT4, the GPA Racing team have also confirmed the remaining driver slot within their #39 AMR Vantage GT4 of Baudouin Detout as being Roberto Faria.

Having previously tested alongside various drivers, it will be the former Racar Motorsport entrant from the GT4 Winter Series who got the nod for this weekend’s pair of hour long races around the Mistral circuit.