It was a frustrating trip to the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort for the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing after they arrived earlier this week for the second rounds of both the DTM Series and the ADAC GT Masters Series.

Having already had a busy couple of days at Spa Francorchamps with their Prologue testing duties ahead of the Spa 24, it was double driving duties for all but one of their drivers and a triple stint for one of those.

 

Having raced already at the faster and wider Red Bull Ring in the opening rounds of both series, the tight and twisty coastal circuit of Zandvoort was always going to be a tall ask for their three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered runners with their available BoP never going to see their cars of either series.

Race one in DTM was uneventful for the #007 of Nicki Thiim and the #008 of Nicolas Baert as Thiim qualified and finished ninth overall whilst Baert improved from his P19 start to finish P17 within the twenty-one starters.

 

Race two also didn’t go their way after Baert suffered from another tyre failure whilst Thiim was given penalty for earlier contact which resulted in both Aston’s finishing at the rear of the pack.

Within the ADAC GT Masters Series, it was still a learning curve for Baudouin Detout as he prepared to compete in only his second competitive GT3 powered race weekend under the watchful eye of Jamie Day aboard their #39 Aston Martin.

 

Starting the weekend in sixth after Day’s earlier qualifying run, Detout would start the car before handing over the Englishman to end the busy day of Saturday P11 out of the entry of fifteen cars. Race two on Sunday would start the other way around in driver rotation with Day being able to elevate their car from its P15 starting position before handing over to Detout to eventually finish P8 overall.

The next round for both series will be from the Lausitzring in mid-June.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

 

 

The second rounds of the German based DTM and ADAC GT Masters Series take place this weekend from the Dutch coastal circuit of Zandvoort with the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team back in action within each series.

For the programme heading DTM Series, the team will be back with their two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo’s as Nicki Thiim carries on his incredibly busy week that started over a week ago in fact during the earlier Qualification stages of the ADAC Ravenol N24, through the twenty-four-hour race itself before moving onto Spa Francorchamps earlier this week for some Crowdstrike Spa 24 testing.

 

Whilst the Dane drives his #007 car, the sister #008 car will again be driven by Nicolas Baert having also attended Spa for the two-day Prologue test with the team.

First time out this season in the series was at the Red Bull Ring, Austria back in late April where a difficult opening qualifying session and later Race 1 was improved upon on the second day where Thiim finished P5 overall and Baert P17.

 

This weekend will see another difficult weekend for the AMR Vantage platform in terms of power characteristics around the tight and twisty circuit where the teams only data from last season saw both cars finish at the tail of the pack. This weekend’s entry list also shows another nineteen strong entry (21 cars in total) for the two one-hour races.

Joining them at the circuits will be the fifteen-car entry of the ADAC GT Masters Series with the Comtoyou Racing team also fielding another AMR Vantage GT3 Evo powered crew within that series.

 

Their #39 entry of Jamie Day and Baudouin Detout will take on only their second race together in their silver class.

Last time out for these guys in Austria saw Day secure a front row start for race 1 for them to finish eighth before dropping down to P10 in race two for what was still Detout’s first competitive GT3 racing weekend.

 

This weekend will be fast and furious for sure!

Photo credits – Teams / Series

 

 

 

 

 

Today saw the concluding two sessions take place of the Spa 24 Prologue Test with the sixty runners of today experiencing some typical Spa Francorchamps weather by the looks.

Yesterday saw six of the seven scheduled Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews take part within yesterday’s two sessions but today did see the arrival of the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Pro class entered car of Henrique Chaves, Jamie Day and Christian Krognes.

 

The morning sessions was rather damp to say the least after numerous shower fronts passed the circuit by making for some spectacular photos. Track conditions did however improve over the course of the day to leave dry track conditions to see out the test.

Obviously with the four sessions over the two days just being for testing purposes, it wasn’t too surprising to see that none of the Aston Martin Racing powered runners threaten the top of the class live timing before time was called on the occasion with all runners and drivers not expected back to the circuit until the week of the 22nd June to prepare for the actual 24 hour race over the 27th and 28th.

 

For some, their next track activity is just this weekend.

Photo credits - Series

 

 

Today saw the first track action of a two-day Prologue Test at the Spa Francorchamps circuit ahead of next months 78thCrowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa with fifty-nine of the expected seventy car entry taking part within today’s opening two sessions.

Whilst we thought that the seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered entries and crews were fairly locked in before now, there have been a few more changes within a couple of these cars with six of the seven in attendance today.

For the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport team, it’s a busy week for them having just cleared up from their podium winning achievements at last weekend’s ADAC Ravenol N24 from the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

 

The #35 silver classed Vantage GT3 of Mateo Vilagomez, Ethan Ischer, Gaspard Simon and Maxime Robin was in attendance today at Spa but their #34 Pro class entry of Henrique Chaves, Christian Krognes and Jamie Day was not – or at least did not get any measurable laps in.

The Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crew was in attendance but their driver line up within their #56 car for both the Prologue and the Spa 24 has changed again slightly as Tom Wood loses his seat to Romain Leroux for both events alongside Jonny Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli and Lorcan Hanafin.

The remaining Aston Martins in attendance were from the locally based Comtoyou Racing team as they fielded the other four cars across the Pro, Silver and Bronze classes.

 

Podium winners at Nordschleife Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi (then in a Walkenhorst prepared AMR of course) swap over to the Comtoyou prepared #7 Pro entry alongside that of Marco Sorenson. The #11 bronze entry of Marcelo Tomasoni, AJ Muss and Kyle Marcelli has been boosted with fourth man Felice Jelmini whilst their #21 silver entry of Oliver Soderstrom, Kobe Pauwels and Sebastian Baud also has fourth man Arthur Dorison confirmed.

That leaves the all-Belgian car and crew of Nicolas Baert, Xavier Knauf, Sarah Bovey and Gergory Servais within the recently announced #700 Pro-Am Cup entry.

Photo credits – Series

 

 

 

 

The four cars of the Heart of Racing team will soon be making the relatively short hop over the English Channel before making their way down to Spa Francorchamps in time for this weekend’s second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

After the earlier postponement of the Qatar opener due to geo-political tensions and conflict within The Gulf, the opening round and proceeding Prologue test were hastily moved to Imola, Italy for a more conventional six-hour race.

 

It will be another six hour race this weekend that will again beckon the Hypercar and LMGT3 based classes this time around but will also be the team’s final racing opportunity to fine tune their racing package before the 24 Hours of Le Mans that will take place just a month later.

Imola saw a year of continuity within the Heart of Racing’s Hypercar package as Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble reunited within the green #007 car whilst Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen were again together within the sister #009 car.

 

It was a similar trait across the garage to the team’s #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 as Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Matia Drudi also team up for a second season togther but their #23 Vantage LMGT3 was an all-new affair for 2026.

Last time in Italy saw Gray Newell make his FIA WEC debut alongside the more seasoned campaigner of Le Mans winner Jonny Adam. They were supposed to have been joined by Eduardo Barrichello, but he was on important IMSA duty for the team over in Long Beach, California so his seat was taken by AMR Drivers Academy winner Kobe Pauwels as he also debuted upon the world stage.

 

Despite the last-minute collation of driving talent, that young crew still managed to deliver a P9 in class finish at the end of that race as did the #007 Hypercar crew of Tincknell and Gamble.

An earlier in the race weekend off for the #009 car saw the team having to build another car from scratch utilising the spare tub but as a result, the #009 car was never quite on the pace from that point forward as they eventually came home P14. The #27 car would also suffer from technical issues later into the race that resulted in Drudi having to pit from P8 in class with ninety minutes still remaining.

 

Since then, all four cars would have had a full strip down and rebuild in time for this weekend’s coming round with the AMR Vantage LMGT3’s being seen stretching their legs prior to transiting down to Spa over the weekend. The two Valkyrie’s enjoyed similar at Silverstone earlier in the week.

Thursday will see the FIA WEC expected grid of thirty-five cars for the first time with Free Practice 1 and 2 before Free Practice 3 and class Qualifying on Friday with the start to this race being waved off at 14:00hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits – Team / DPPI Media / social media

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Qualifying was unfortunately not kind to any of the four Heart of Racing Hypercar and LMGT3 entries at today’s first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship from Imola in Italy with none of them reaching the lofty heights of Hyperpole.

That came off the back of decent and consistent mid-table laps times during the preceding three Free Practice sessions with #23 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 and then the #27 sister car leading the class at the end of FP2 and FP3 respectively.

 

For the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar powered crews across the garage, their hard work to rebuild the #009 car after its Prologue test accident earlier in the week was rewarded with the car making the first officially timed session yesterday but still somewhat amiss compared to their sister #007 car after they managed to circulate just a few tenths quicker than the #009 car through all three sessions.

Whilst the #007, #009 and #27 Heart of Racing entries of this season feature the same driver base as last, the #23 Vantage LMGT3 features an all new for 2026 crew as ACO rules stalwart and Le Mans 24 class winner Jonny Adam passes on his knowledge to both rookie teammates Kobe Pauwels and Gray Newell.

 

Despite that lack to racing knowledge at this level, the #23 car still qualified for tomorrows six-hour opener just 0.2 of a second behind the more established #27 to earn themselves a P15 in class start tomorrow against a P12 start for the #27 car.

Up front again, both Valkyries also missed out on their class Hyperpole as the #007 car continued with. Its faster pace (compared to the #009) with their P12 start and a P14 slot for the #009.

 

We all know that one single lap pace in qualifying is one thing but six hours of single lap pace around Imola is something completely different as thirty five cars will be thundering through the first sequence of corners at the historical Italian circuit for the first time tomorrow afternoon.

Photo credits – Team / AMR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blink and you would have missed it as the FIA World Endurance Championship completed its mandatory Prologue test at Imola today having been forced to do so from global events.

Whilst we would have been pleased to say that all passed off without incident for the Heart of Racing team, that would sadly not be the case after Marco Sorensen suffered a heavy off in his #008 Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar during the wet morning session.

 

Without knowing too much about causation, the green V12 powered monster was seen spinning through the gravel before connecting heavily with the tyre protected circuit barrier causing significant damage to the car.

Whilst the Dane was able to extricate himself from the car and after mandatory medical assistance, was fortunately deemed fit to continue with the upcoming race weekend but the same couldn’t be said for the #009 car with the team now working hard to build up a new car utilising their spare monocoque in time for Fridays first Free Practice session.

 

Meanwhile, their sister #007 Hypercar of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble got in the laps and hence valuable data during the eight hours of track availability finishing the day just outside of the top ten within an extended class of seventeen cars.

It was better news however, across the team garage to where both Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3’s are prepared as Mattia Drudi powered the #27 car that he shares with Zacharie Robichon and Ian James to the top of the overall class leaderboard.

 

Their sister #23 car of Jonny Adam and a series debuting Kobe Pauwels and Gray Newell also fared well within the wet conditions finishing mid table in the results but with both debutant drivers getting in a decent number of laps between them.

That was of course just testing and the real business will begin on Friday ahead of Qualifying on Saturday and the start of this six-hour race opener at 13:00hrs local.

Photo credits – Teams / AMR / social media

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Last week we saw the ACO rules European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup Series conduct their pre-season Prologue test before their respective opening races of their 2026 seasons from Barcelona, and this week sees the FIA World Endurance Championship undertake the same from Imola, Italy.

This venue should of course have been the second round to the season but (continuing) political and military instability around the area of Qatar saw that venue postponed until later in the year (if possible) with the double duty of both the Prologue and thus opening round to the season moving onto Italy.

 

For many teams, their cars and equipment arrived back from the Middle East just over a week ago, giving them little time to repack and dispatch in time for tomorrow’s Prologue test.

Running both the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes, 2026 will again see two Aston Martin Valkyrie’s from the Heart of Racing team as well as both Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 entries permitted per manufacturer.

 

The #007 and #009 Valkyrie driver line ups remain unchanged from last year as Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble pair up again in the former with Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen within the latter.

It is the same for the #27 HoRT AR Vantage GT3 as Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi team up for a second season togther of their own but diary clashes between the FIA WEC and IMSA has seen the HoRT make driver changes between the two series as Eduardo Barrichello runs within the IMSA series at Long Beach this weekend. That gives the young Kobe Pauwels his FIA WEC debut alongside the debuting Gary Newell with a more experienced individual in Le Mans winner Jonny Adam.

 

Tomorrows Prologue will see up to eight hours of running across two sessions before the timetable takes the teams and crews into the opening gambits of round one with the first Free Practice session on Friday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

The two-day Prologue Test ahead of the start to the SRO GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup has concluded today with nearly sixty highly competitive GT3 powered crews getting in some early laps around the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France ahead of the opening round to the season there this weekend,

Amongst that lot were seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews from the Comtoyou Racing, Walkenhorst Motorsport and Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR teams who will individually compete across all classes except for the gold class this season.

 

It would have been good to say that the two-day, two session per day test passed off without incident for any of these Aston Martins but unfortunately, we were made aware of on track incidents for both Jamie Day and his #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry that he shares this year with Henrique Chaves and Christian Krognes as well as the #18 Comtoyou Racing Pro class entry of Mari Boya that he shares with Lance Stroll and Roberto Mehri.

Whilst Day was transferred to the circuit medical centre for checks, we understand that both he and Boya were otherwise uninjured from their experience whilst we still hunt down information about their respective cars.

 

Unsurprisingly, none of the AMR powered teams decided to ‘show off’ at the test, keeping their powder dry as it were for the real racing this weekend with the #007 Comtoyou Racing Pro class entry of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi being the fastest AMR crew in both sessions on day 1 – at best P11 overall.

Today saw two further sessions where it was the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR Bronze classed entry of Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonny Adam and Tom Wood who lead the AMR charge with a lap time comparative to that of the #007 car the day before.

 

Beyond that, the remaining crews remained as previously confirmed with Kobe Pauwels/Oliver Soderstrom/Sebastian Baud aboard the #21 Comtoyou Racing Silver entry, Kyle Marcelli/AJ Muss/Marcelo Tomasoni aboard the #11 Comtoyou Racing Bronze entry as well as the #35 Walkenhorst Silver entry for their drivers Mateo Vilagomez/Ethan Ischer/Gaspard Simon.

Tomorrow (Friday) sees just a bronze driver test session for those applicable crews before one final Free Practice session for all into the night ahead of Qualifying over lunch on Saturday.

 

 

Like the runners and riders of the European Le Mans Series did before them on Monday and Tuesday, the forty-four strong entry within this season’s Michelin Le Mans Cup Series also had their day of testing around the Circuit de Catalunya today ahead of this weekend’s opening race.

Primarily made up of LMP3 powered crews within their available LMP3 and LMP3 Pro-Am classes, ten GT3 powered crews again add a separate dimension for the ACO rules feeder series with three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews amongst them too.

 

After a morning and afternoon session availability today, it wasn’t too surprising to see the returning duo of Philipp Sager and Valentin Hasse-Clot secure the fastest times in class as they return to the series for a second chance albeit this year within the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman entry.

The Ecurie Ecosse supported Blackthorn AMR entry of team owner Claude Bovet and former AMR Driver Academy winner Tom Canning will also be running a full season together this time around after the team dipped their toe into the series previously but with a second car already confirmed for the series visit to Le Mans in June.

That pairing ended the day with a steady lap time around the low 1:44’s to finish the day fifth.

 

 

There is still news however revolving around the #11 Code Racing Development AMR Vantage GT3 driver line up of what should have been both Antoine Leclerc and Pascal Huteau as neither driver participated within todays test. That duty was left to both Nico Hantke and Sebastian Moreno.

Not being aware of what preparation these two drivers have had leading into today but both improved to finish the day with a best lap time of 1:43:542.

 

 

Like the ELMS paddock, these cars will now be stripped down again and prepared for the first official season of the first round of the season on Friday before both Qualifying and the two-hour race on Saturday.

 

 

That’s a wrap for the European Le Mans Series Prologue Test from Barcelona as far as the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing team are concerned as they now focus their attention to this weekend’s opening round.

Like last season, the #59 AMR Vantage LMGT3 entry is the sole AMR powered entry this season although there was only one change in driver line up between this season and last with Clement Mateu and Valentin Hasse-Clot being joined this year by fellow Frenchman Marius Fossard.

 

This season has attracted another capacity grid of forty-seven entries spread across the LMP2, LMP3 and LMGT3 class with the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman crew competing within another challenging group of fourteen entries.

Two days at the Circuit de Catalunya has seen the team pound in nearly three hundred laps between the three available sessions yesterday and the two today and by last year’s standards – that equates to the equivalent lap distance of nearly two and a half four-hour races.

 

Being a test, being the fastest was not necessarily the direct intention of any of the runners but the timing screen has shown a constant display from the #59 crew with a best lap time during the Prologue of 1:42:520 compared to an overall best lap time in class of 1:41:40.

Whilst the drivers will be resting and scrutinising their performances to date, the team will now be stripping down and race readying the car ahead of the first official Free Practice sessions to the new season that start late on Friday morning before extending into Qualifying on Saturday and the start of the four race at noon (local) on Sunday.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

Last year’s Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy winner Kobe Pauwels gets another chance of a lifetime next weekend as he steps up to the World Endurance Championship for the opening round with the Heart of Racing team.

With the American based team this year fielding both AMR Vantage LMGT3 entries within the FIA WEC series in parallel to its IMSA programme, occasionally diary clashes come about forcing the team to make choices which in turn give others opportunities.

Next weeks (revised) start to the FIA WEC season from Imola, Italy as well as its preceding Prologue Test still clashes with the third round to the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship which will be running this time from Long Beach, California and that has forced the Heart of Racing’s hand into its driver allocation per event.

 

 

 

We are now just one week away from the 2026 racing season going absolutely bonkers which will see our own Aston Martin Racing powered race coverage step up from just the one European based series this weekend to up to eight series operating around the globe specifically around the Vantage GT3 and GT4 platforms next weekend.

In between then and now, we will also have three of those eight series run their respective Prologue tests as the ACO based European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Cup Series prepare for their opening round to the year from Barcelona and the SRO ran GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup kicks off at the Le Castellet circuit in southern France.

 

Whilst we thought that we were already aware of the AMR powered entry lists within all three series, further publications today have seen names come and go within existing entries plus an all new F1 inspired entry being confirmed within the other.

Starting with that one, today saw the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing further expand their already chaotic race schedule within the GT World Challenge Series with another AMR Vantage GT3 entry for Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll and former F1 racer Roberto Merhi (alongside third man Mari Boya).

We understood from this week’s British GT Championship Media Day that the team has recently collected their sixth Vantage GT3 platform from the Prodrive factory with this specific car being something of a last-minute rush to build in participation with the Comtoyou team.

 

This takes their racing commitment at next weekend’s series opening to four cars as the new #18 car will compete within the Pro class alongside their already established #007 car and that of their other silver and bronze class entries.

That obviously expands the total AMR powered entry to seven cars with two entries from the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport team in both Pro and silver classes plus the single car from the Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn AMR which will race in the bronze class.

Then just along the south coast of Europe, both the ACO rules European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Cup Series will also be running their pre-season Prologue test ahead of their opening rounds to the year from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.

 

Within the headlining ELMS Series, the Aston Martin Racing powered entry from the Racing Spirit of Leman team remains the same as previously announced with Clement Mateu, Marius Fossard and Valentin Haase-Clot racing their #59 car within a fourteen-car strong LMGT3 class.

The remaining driver variations/additions and omissions have come from the ten strong GT3 class of the series within the three AMR powered entries.

Tom Canning’s progression back into ACO rules racing alongside Claude Bovet remains the same within the latter’s own Blackthorn AMR team and their #91 entry but we have unfortunately lost that of Tom Wood and his original Racing Spirit of Leman drive lost.

 

Whilst that young Brit moves across to the Eurie Ecosse Blackthorn team for selected rounds (including Paul Ricard next week) within the GTWCE Endurance Cup, his position has now been confirmed for the returning pair of Phillip Sager and Valentin Hasse-Clot (who raced last year togther with Code Racing Development) whilst within the actual #10 Code Racing Development car being driven by both Antoine Leclerc and Pascal Huteau.

Huteau will also be racing within the Fanta Racing R-Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 in the GT3 Revival Series that debuts at Paul Ricard next weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media