This weekend sees the running of the second round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series from The Bend Motorsport Park near Adelaide where the sole running Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered team enjoys another driver re-alignment.

At the opening round to the 2026 season that was raced at Phillip Island back in late March, the #14 Volante Rosso AMR Vantage GT3 was then raced by both Alex Gardner alongside Lee Stibbs where the Trophy Classed duo secured P2 and P1 finishes at the end of those two one-hour races.

 

For this weekend’s two races, Gardner will again be joined by Ben Porter who debuted the teams then new (17A version) AMR Vantage GT3 together at the Queensland round of the series back in early August 2024.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back to rejoin Volante Rosso in the Aston Martin at The Bend,” Porter said. “It was great to be part of the team’s very first event with the Aston back in 2024, and since then, they have brought that package a long way. The car is sorted, the team knows it really well, and there’s no reason why we can’t be in a position to fight for a good result”.

The provisional entry list now confirms the #14 car just one of sixteen entries - three within their Trophy class.

 

 

It was a successful opening round to the GT World Challenge Australia Series for the Aston Martin Racing powered side to the Volante Rosso Motorsport team as their new driver line up scored well within their Trophy Class at Phillip Island.

Again racing the team’s older 16A version of the Vantage GT3, this season has seen the return of their ‘young gun’ Alex Gardner being paired with GT3 debutant racer Lee Stibbs within the team’s #14 as they also managed a parallel programme with a McLaren GT3.

 

 

Early track sessions we wet and influenced the Qualifying sessions on Saturday morning which saw Stibbs doing best with a P12 overall /P1 in class starting position for race one on Saturday with Gardner finishing at the tail of the grid for Sundays finale.

Both hour long races followed a similar pattern as early Safety Cars kept the opening laps to a more sedate pace as cars were extracted from both the gravel traps and from differing parts of the racetrack – all incidents that the #14 had managed to stay fortunately clear of.

 

Stibbs would lose most of his driving time within race one to the Safety Car before handing the car over to Gardner mid pack. Having braved another heavy shower than came across the circuit whilst still on slicks, the #14 car would incur a ten second time penalty (cause unknown) and that would hamper their recovery by despite Gardner initially maintaining his early gained class lead would have to make do with second in class at the end of race one – P10 overall.

Race two would see Gardner fortunately placed out of harm’s way at the rear as again, two more cars were sent spearing through the gravel track to turn one – again bringing out the safety car.

 

A later error of his own would see Gardner run through a gravel trap but would be able to recover himself back to the track with little or no damage to the car other than lost time. Making up for lost ground on Saturday, Stibbs would rally the car’s position to the head of the Trophy class to claim their first, class win of the year to also claim an early lead within their Drivers Championship

The next round to the season will be from the Bend Motorsport Park in early May.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

Despite our trepidation yesterday regarding this weekend’s racing situation as far as Aston Martin Racing powered teams were concerned, news overnight from down under thankfully see us as being proven wrong (again) as there will be a Vantage GT3 pounding the beat around a racetrack after all.

That news has come from the Australian based Volante Rosso team who last night confirmed a two GT3 car entry within their domestic GT World Challenge Australia Series entry which starts this weekend from Phillip Island.

 

One of those entries will indeed include their older 16A variant of the Vantage which they ran last year with some podium success with what turned out to be varying array of driver talent. This year, however, the team have entered their #14 car within the Trophy Class for their young protégé Alex Gardner alongside Lee Stibbs.

Gardner did start the team off with their AMR acquisition later on in the 2024 season before Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser/Jamie Day competed togther in 2025.

 

This weekend starts another six-round season.

Photo credits – Team / social media

Fourteen crews return for this weekend’s third round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series as Queensland Raceway this time plays host to the SRO series.

Having had something of a great start to the season, the Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing team of Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser has something of a reality check last time out as the series raced both a night and day race from Sydney Motorsport Park.

Having scored a near maximum twenty-eight points at the season opener from Phillip Island, SMP only delivered the #1 AMR Vantage GT3 crew with just seven points over the two, hour long races which has dropped them down to fourth in their Pro-Am class.

Since then, Fraser has just been named within this year’s Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy process which will see him get both remote and personal driver coaching assistance which will hopefully see the #1 car elevate itself within the championship by the end of the weekend and at the halfway stage to the season.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

The return of the GT World Challenge Australia Series to Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend completes our expected Aston Martin Racing powered team participation this time around with the Volante Rosso team looking to replicate their performance of last time out at Phillip Island.

This time gunning for outright glory, the Sydney based team has taken on board the racing talent of both Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser within their older 16A variant of the AMR Vantage GT3 but that certainly didn’t hold the duo back at the opening races at the start of the month.

 

It was a dramatic first round back to the GT World Challenge Australia Series for the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing team with their all new 2025 season look from Phillip Island at the weekend.

Sporting a brand-new livery and a new driver pairing of Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser, the team sadly hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after Qualifying when the car failed its post session technical inspection through not being able to produce enough of a fuel sample for the stewards. 

The GT World Challenge Australia Series kicks off its six round 2025 season this weekend with a two race visit to Phillip Island for its eighteen strong GT3 grid.

As per previous posts regarding the Volante Rosso entry, they will indeed remain the sole Aston Martin Racing entry for this round and possibly the season as the KMB Motorsport team have elected to run their Bentley GT3 this time around rather than their V12 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3.

 

A late and unfortunate technical issue aboard the #14 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 thwarted an otherwise impressive debut run for the team and crew at yesterday’s opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge event at the twelve hours of Bathurst.

Having started the race still in the dead of night at The Mountain, reigning British GT GT4 Silver Champion had the honour of starting Volante Rosso’s one-off entry within their ‘local’ event from eighteenth of the grid of twenty-two remaining cars. Having never tested at the circuit in the dark in the build-up to Sunday morning’s start, the young Englishman did what he needed to do the get the car through into more sustainable daylight racing hours and preserve that position whilst others were failing to do so.

 

It was another mixed bag of results for the two Aston Martin Racing powered teams competing within the GT Festival from Phillip Island that was the fifth round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series.

Season long entrant again saw the #38 KMB Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 of Valentin Astuti and Darren Currie within the Trophy class as well as the new #14 Volante Rosso 16A version of the car for drivers Alex Gardner and deputising driver Ross Poulakis running again in Pro-Am.

 

Within this already hectic weekend of sportscar racing, the fun and excitement also take us around the world as both the SRO GT World Challenge Asia and GT World Challenge Australia Series conduct their next rounds of the season from Okayama in Japan and at Phillip Island.

For the Asian side of the equation, this weekend will be their penultimate round of their seven round overall season but also the final round of their Japan Cup sub-Championship.

 

It was certainly a ‘difficult’ affair for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews at the latest round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series as they got down to business at the Queensland Raceway at the weekend.

Whilst it was business as usual again for the Trophy classed entry from the venerable #38 KMB Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 of Valentin Astuti and Darren Currie whilst it was certainly a bunch of new as the Volante Rosso team debuted their ‘new’ turbo charged Vantage GT3 for drivers Alex Gardner and Ben Porter in the #14 car.

It may be a case of unfinished business for the Trading Garage Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 of Michael Bailey in this weekend’s opening round of the 2024 GT World Challenge Australia Series from Phillip Island.

Named within a provisional entry list of seventeen cars, the #38 car will however be the only car within the series Trophy Class as the other entries elected to compete within the dual driver Pro-Am and (also mainly) solo driven Am classes.UPDATE

Young gun Valentino Astuti is a late driver inclusion for the opening round of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS this weekend.

The 2022 Australian Formula Ford champion has been recruited by Mike Bailey to race the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in the Pro-Am class at the famous Phillip Island circuit.

After winning the Formula Ford title, Astuti competed in Super3 in 2023 before being recruited by Bailey for an opportunity in his popular Aston Martin V12 GT3.

 

The GT World Challenge Australia Series visited The Bend Motorsport Park for the first time this season for their third round of their planned six round season with both Tony Quinn and Michael Bailey again representing the Aston Martin Racing brand.

For some reason, a dramatic and exciting race during the mixed conditions that was Race 1 was not streamed to the wider global audience but at least Race 2 was with the events of the weekend making for some significant changes to the Championship standings so far.

Going into this round with a thirty-point advantage in the Championship Am class for Tony Quinn, a race win from the #51 Lamborghini crew of McPherson/Porter diminished that slightly but another P2 class position from the Scotsman and his 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 at least maintained momentum in his successive string of podium finishes so far.

 

This weekend’s second round of the GT World Challenge Australia from Bathurst continued Tony Quinn’s opening form from the first-round last month with a pair of Class wins aboard his new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 to take the overall lead in his class.

Joining him at The Mountain was the Mike Bailey AMR V12 Vantage GT3 that this time sported an equally colourful livery after its lengthy rebuild after the car’s sizeable impact with the tyre wall in the opening race of the first round at Phillip Island last month.