They say that all good things come in threes as the German based Prosport Racing team today became the third Aston Martin Racing powered team to confirm an extended racing commitment for the 2024 season this week.

Not content with running two championship winning crews within the ADAC GT4 Germany Series with an AMR Vantage GT4 and a GT3 class winning crew within the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie next season, sees the Christophe Esser led squad go back to the ADAC GT Masters Series with a proposed up to two car AMR Vantage GT3 Evo effort.

Another Series kicks off their year this weekend with the ADAC GT4 Germany featuring again as a support package to the GT Masters Series at their opener at Oschersleben.

There was co-incidentally supposed to be an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 featuring this year within the headlining series, but that possibility sadly petered out by the turn of the year.

That leaves us revisiting the supporting GT4 Series where once the then PROsport Performance team promised so much with their two car AMR Vantage entry only for their effort to ‘go south’ with issues coming to bear in both their then GT3 and GT4 endeavours within the ADAC package.

 

After last weekend’s extremely busy race calendar, this weekend thankfully reverts back to something more sedate as just one event (as far as we are aware) will take place this weekend that features an Aston Martin Racing Vantage from a Customer or Partner Team. 

The global Aston Martin Racing family became another one stronger today after the Dorr Motorsport team from Germany confirmed a new AMR Vantage GT4 for drivers Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth in this season’s ADAC GT4 Germany Series.

Filling the void in the German national GT4 series previously held by the PROsport Performance team when they ran two brand new turbo charged AMR GT4’s in their debut year, this family backed team will support both an AMR car for one son and a new McLaren 570s for another.

Twenty-year-old Phil Dorr is another young driver who has progressed through the racing ranks and this year comes with two previous years’ worth of GT4 racing experience in both the ADAC GT4 series and the GT4 European Series including a race win and two pole positions in his then 570s entry.

Dorr is another big family chain of road car franchise’s in Germany that includes luxury marques like Aston Martin Berlin and three McLaren outlets.

Dorr is joined by thirty-six-year-old countryman Andreas Wirth who comes with extensive race experience most recently from the European Le Mans Series and many years in ADAC GT Masters.

The team expect delivery of their new race cars in the coming days before they start their season preparations ahead of six double header weekends that start at Oschersleben in mid-May.

We patiently wait for any further news of this apparent AMR Vantage GT3 entry into the headlining ADAC GT Masters Series as previously intimated by the series late last year!

Photo credits – Dorr Motorsport

Great to read this evening that an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 is expected to return to the ADAC GT Masters Series next season with an as yet, unidentified team.

A press releasee from the Series today confirmed that both AMR and Honda would be making a return to the German national series as part of an incredible 2021 race that has witnessed an application process from over fifteen teams for over thirty-three cars ahead the seven race weekend series (fourteen races) that starts in mid-May at Oschersleben.

This will be the first time that an AMR Vantage GT3 has run in the series since PROsport Performance (as it was then) had initially two full season entries for drivers Maxine Martin/Daniel Kielwitz and Valentin Hasse-Clot/Hugo de Sadeleer in 2019 before that all ‘went south’ and David Griessner and Matt George got a test in one of the team’s GT3 cars at the Nürburgring in September 2019.

As yet, the identity of the team and the two drivers has yet to be confirmed.

Photo credits – ADAC GT Masters

 

PROsport Racing make a one-off return to the ADAC GT4 Germany Series this week with one of their two available Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s for drivers Tim Heineman and Moritz Oestreich.

Having previously raced a two-car effort in that the front half of that series last year, accident damage and the team’s unfamiliarity with their then brand new machinery hampered their efforts back then then despite some promising young guns showing part of the potential of the new Aston.

 

Having been first made available for sale event before the end of last season sees this week German based PROsport Racing re-advertised for sale their pair of Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's that the team competed with in the ADAC GT Masters Series.

It was originally thought that the cars were disposed of when the PROsport Performance team nam went out of business - but obviously not. Now we are wondering what happened with their second AMR Vantage GT4? They retain one that PROsport Racing use in 24H Series, GT Cup Open, etc.

Full details available https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/115915/amr-gt3-16-a-for-sale

It has been great to read this week of the return of the German based Prosport team name to the world of GT racing as the Creventic 24H Series confirm their provisional entry list for their first race in Europe of the season in Italy at the end of March.

Former runners of two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's in numerous series across Europe, the last word that we had seen about that team was regarding their probable winding up after a difficult year for them with new AMR Vantage machinery in both GT3 and GT4 classes.

All four cars were/have been up for sale since before the end of last season and previous customers of theirs have been seen racing with other teams.


It is therefore extremely pleasant to see the Prosport team name again mentioned in the Creventic circles as the series confirms an AMR GT4 entry for drivers Rodrique Gillion, Nico Verdonck and new co driver and fellow Belgium national Tom Heeren.

This team and the former two drivers once held the GT4 Championship lead in this Series last year before technical issues with both their Prosport and Team Virage (used after the withdrawal of Prosport from all competitive racing last year) cars ended that possibility with two races to go.

Hopefully, this year will be better for all and we wish them luck!

Photo credits - 24H Series

Last Saturday saw the final round of the German Sports clubs VLN Series from the Nordschliefe with over one hundred and sixty cars again taking part in the final four hour race of the season.

Joining them were two cars from the Aston Martin Racing stable with Partner Team Garage 59 borrowing a Vantage GT4 from the neighbouring AMR Performance Centre and with German based Prosport Performance seeing out their final race with one of their AMR GT4's, both of which (and their two GT3's are now for sale).


For the Garage 59 pairing of Chris Goodwin and Alex West, this was a last chance for them to get in some final seat time ahead of their next event of the year down in Kyalami, South Africa where they will be racing their AMR Vantage GT3 in the final round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge Series.

Both Vantage Gt4's ran in differing classes to one another with the #156 AMR Performance Centre car again running in the SP8T Class  (a class that allows small adjustments) as opposed to the #173 Prosport performances SP10 class for 'true' GT4 cars.


Prosport were again running their customer team of Alex Mies and Mike David-Ortmann who had swapped over to the teams AMR Vantage GT4 at the final round of the German ADAC GT4 Germany race from the Nurburgring.

Running to an unspecified agenda - beyond that of just finishing the race, both did finish with the #156 car in P6 overall in SP8T and teh #173 in P5 in SP10.


For both Goodwin and West, they will be joining their own resident Pro driver Come Ledogar in South Africa in just under three weeks time with their #188 Vantage GT3 will make up a field of three Aston Martins (along side two from R-Motorsport) in the expected grid of thirty cars.

Photo credits - Frozenspeed / VLN / Blancpain GT

The final round of the 2019 VLN Series takes place this weekend from the infamous Nordschleife circuit with this time a pair of new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's seeing out the season.

Having narrowly missed out on the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup Am Class title together in their Garage 59 AMR Vantage GT3 sees both Alex West and Chris Goodwin race together (? for the first time at this venue we want to say?) in one of the green liveried AMR Performance Centres GT4's (again querying fo the first time for West) for the final four hours of racing around the near twenty-six kilometre circuit in the #156 car that both Martin and Alex Brundle shared to a class podium in VLN7.



Whilst Goodwin has raced at the circuit many times, most notably of late in the new Vantage GT4 at the ADAC Total N24 event earlier this year when he shared the then #36 car with Darren Turner and Christian Gebhardt, West only qualified for his full VLN Permit earlier this year when he shared the normally aspirated AMR Performance Centre Vantage GT4 with Martin Brundle.

Joining them is a customer entry for the #173 Prosport Performance team are drivers Alex Mies, Mike David Ortmann and Christoph Brauer. A bit of a strange entry this, considering the apparent hostility showed by the Prosport team owner towards AMR in an interview for a German website after his teams own difficult transition over to the the new iteration of Vantage race car in both ADAC GT Masters, ADAC GT4 Germany as well as other series - a fall out that has left all four cars up for sale. The first two drivers named did race together aboard one of their GT4 cars at the penultimate round of the ADAC series at the Nurburgring with great effect so it will be interesting to see if they stay loyal to the team or the brand in the new season.


As usual with all VLN events, private practice is available on the Friday before Qualifying on Saturday morning ahead of a noon start (local) for the four hour race.

Photo credits - Frozenspeed / Garage 59 / Prosport

Both drivers well versed with the complexities of GT4 racing saw David Griessner and Matt George take a significant step forward in their GT racing career last weekend as both shared one of PROsport Performances Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's at the penultimate round of the ADAC GT Masters Series from the Nurburgring.

Making such a step up after just a simple one day test before the event was asking a lot of the two young drivers but neither went on to disgrace themselves over the course of the two - one hour races over the weekend after contractural issues with both their Pro drivers saw one one them (Daniel Keilwitz) actually compete against them in the Zakspeed Mercedes.


Whilst Griessner did suffer 'an off' on Friday that made for some late night working for the German squad, he later did well to avoid a substantial accident on the opening lap of race one where four mid field cars were taken out of the race right in front of the #98 AMR.

With that race being red flagged to clear the debris field, the #98 car went on to finish a credible P22 out of the original 31 car starters at their first attempt whilst in Sundays race they finished P23 out of a starting grid of 29 cars despite starting each race from the rear of the grid.


George would later tell us that their cycling through of various issues with the car were systematically solved only for new problem to take their place but more importantly their success was measured in many ways and not necessarily where they finished up in the races.

We wait to see if these two will figure in the final race of the Series from the Sachsenring at the end of the month.


For the teams two AMR Vantage GT4's entered into the supporting ADAC GT4 Germany Series saw a gratefully received resurgence in race results as firstly both cars finished both races and in positions that were of great credit - particularly for the #19 crew who had never raced the car or with selves before the weekend.

The #18 car of Alex Mies and David Ortmann would finish P6 and P5 whilst Christian Konnerth and Yannick Frubrich would debut with P16 and P13 finishes respectively.


That series final round of the season is also at The Sachsenring.

Photo credits - ADAC / Prosport

With their 2019 racing commitments still far from being over, German based Aston Martin Racing Partner Team have yesterday listed for sale their existing stock of AMR Vantage GT3 and Vantage GT4 race cars on the Racecarsdirect website.

Having swapped to the new turbo charged era of AMR race machinery at the turn of the year, the team have been racing their two AMR GT3 chassis within the highly competitive ADAC GT Masters series, originally as a two car effort before reverting down to just one car after early 'performance issues' on track lead to the team releasing two of their younger drivers.

The ADAC GT Masters Series still has two round left to run this season at both Hockenheim next weekend and the Sachsenring two weeks later but we will wait to see whether team regulars Maxime Martin and Daniel Keilwitz will again be joined by the sister GT3 car for either round or not.


Their two GT4 platforms however have been worked a lot hard this season with parallel racing commitments within the ADAC GT4 Germany, GT4 European Series and the Creventic 24H Series all taking their toll on both man and machine eventually forcing the team to sit out some races and take stock of their situation. With the GT4 European and 24H Series now resolved that leaves just two rounds of the German national GT4 series to go also at both Hockenheim and the Sachsenring.

This is not the first - nor will it be the last time that a team has offered for sale their racing stock before the end of the season - Academy Motorsport are presently doing the same. All we don't know is where PROsport will go after this and only time and news from the team will confirm that.

Full details of each listing can be found HERE for GT4 and HERE for GT3

Photo credits - PROsport

Belgium based Aston Martin Racing customer team, Street Art Racing left things to the last race of the season from the Nurburgring today before finally claiming the Am class title for drivers Clement Seyler and Pascal Bachmann.

After ten previous races that normally saw the young Luxembourg racer Seyler and Swiss racer Bachmann on one step of the GT4 European Series podium, the duo left it to racing a very calculated percentage race in Sundays finale after suffering from some overheating issues with their #17 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 to finish P6 in class and to claim the ultimate prize by twenty points.


Many congratulations to them and to the team who secured their first Championship accolade in GT4 European Series since 2016.


The final event of the season was to be sadly reduced to a none event for the six AMR Vantages from the Street Art Racing, Prosport Performance or Academy Motorsport teams as they could never truly compete with the best of the rest due to a recent balance of performance change from the governing SRO but then, other than the #17 SAR car nobody was in a Championship contending position anyway.


The new David Ortmann/Alex Mies partnership aboard the #19 Prosport car showed some great potential on track, especially in race two even with the BoP situation with the finishing P6 at the end. Team regulars David Griessner and Akhil Rabindra would Qualify the highest of the AMR runners for each race but a power steering issue and a drive through pit stop penalty would scupper both races for them to finish off the season on something of a whimper.


It was another horrid experience for the Academy team after technical issues blighted track time for their #61 car of Tom Wood and Micah Stanley (Fiona James again absent) in Free Practice before further issues hit them in race one. In their sister #62 car, Will Moore elected to withdraw from the meeting (don't know why) so his place alongside the very capable driver Matt Cowley was taken by Finlay Hutchinson who has raced with the team before and was available at the circuit anyway with his commitment to the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series.

Either way, that change of scenery within the car didn't pay off for the Worcester based team as mechanical issues of their own in race one resulted in an early DNF but they did finish the year off with a P18.


A sad end really to the Silver Cup and Pro-Am class challenges from the teams that indicated so much in the opening races but with the new cars arriving late from Prodrive to the teams (and some being damaged at the opening round at Monza needing factory repair) they were always on the back foot. We hope that young and very talented drivers like those who raced with Prosport, Academy and Street Art Racing will be back again next year in what is truly the most competitive GT4 series there is.


And thank you to the Series for again providing another season that went all the way - it was great and see you again next season where hopefully the AMR guys can go one or two better!

Photo credits - GT4 European

Completing another busy weekend programme of motorsport in Europe are the activities down at the Circuit de Catalyuna near Barcelona where we will find the Creventic 24H Series undertaking their final endurance round of the season in continental Europe whilst being also supported by the fledgling SRO GT4 South Europe Series.

With the Series having started in Dubai back in January, German based Prosport Performance entered one of their two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's from the second round at Mugello in March where drivers Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Akhil Rabindra completed a sensational P2 finish at the first time of asking for all concerned.


Further podiums were collected by the team at both Spa and Brno until something of a disastrous round last time out at Portimao where various technical issues with the car finally proved to be too much for all with the car being retired from the race (and effective class championship lead) just after the halfway mark.

With the two Prosport cars now competing at the final round of the GT4 European Series at the Nurburgring we understand that the car entered into this race has been hired by the team from Team Virage for the both Gillion and Verdonck who will this time be joined by co-drivers Jon Aizpurua and Nicholas Silva.

Supporting the 24H Series is the SRO sanctioned GT4 South Europe Series and that sees two AMR Vantage GT4's being entered - one from local team Team Virage and one from Generation AMR SuperRacing.


Whilst the Generation AMR car of James Holder and Matt George have skipped the final round of the GT4 European Series to race at a new venue and series for them in Spain, this race is just the second round for Team Virage after a mixed opener for them at Jarama in mid June.

Co-incidentally (or not), Nicholas Silva who is racing aboard the Prosport entry in 24H Series was also with Team Virage in their opening races with their then brand new AMR cars but a heavy crash in race 1 for his co-driver left the car unable to race in race 2.


Since then the team did also race in the 24H Series 24hr at Portimao with a driver line up that included AMR factory driver Pedro Lamy where a third place result was their reward. So far only one driver (Diogo Ferrro - Series organiser) has been listed with their #95 car in the GT4 South Europe races so we will wait to see if another driver can be found in time.

Like the GT4 European Series the GT4 South Europe Series features two - one hour races over the Friday and Saturday of the weekend.

Photo credits - 24H Series 

Supporting the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe again from the Nurburgring this weekend will be the GT4 European Series who will be seeing out their final two - one hour races of their 2019 season after another highly entertaining of mix class GT4 racing.

Provisionally ending the season with a couple fewer Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's than what was started with, we at least have one such car very much in contention for an overall Class Championship position for what started out as the most unlikeliest of combinations.


Having only competed in literally a handful of tin top/GT races prior to the season starting in Monza back in April sees Luxembourg based racer Clement Seyler and more established and returning team co-driver Pascal Bachmann lead the Am Class Championship going into this final round by 19pts with their green Street Art Racing AMR Vantage GT4. With twenty five points still being available for a class win per race that obviously means that everything is far from secure for the and their one handed grasp onto the Championship trophy is very much theirs to lose hold of over the course of events in Germany. The extent of knowledge and experience given to the team's young three AMR driver Academy drivers up (excl Bachmann) until now by their AMR factory driver coach Maxime Martin has been phenomenal.

Starting the season with seven AMR entries, the year will end with just five such cars attending the final round with Generation AMR SuperRacing skipping out again to race elsewhere this weekend and where the originally second Prosport Performance entered car is now competing down in Spain in the 24H Series.


That leaves both Street Art Racing cars of Seyler and Bachmann along with the team's Silver Cup class pairing of Julian Darras and Jamie Vandenbalck and with a full contingent from Academy Motorsport with their Silver Cup pair of Matt Cowley and Will Moore along with the Pro-Am entered pairing of Tom Wood and Fiona James. Completing the line up will be the sole Prosport car of Akhil Rabindra and David Griessner who will again race in Silver Cup.


Sadly for all the AMR entries bar the Seyler/Bachmann car, the only thing these guys (and girls) will be racing for this weekend is pride as none have any mathematical prospect of securing any class title or runners up position although the collective Team Championship is still up for grabs. Street Art Racing again are the highest placed AMR entry in P3 and within possible reach of the leading Liepert Motorsport.

Like Blancpain GT, both Free Practice sessions are on Friday ahead of Qualifying on Saturday morning which precedes that days first race of the weekend. The season is concluded just before Sunday lunchtime after the final one hour race of the season.

UPDATE********

Since the publication of this post last night, the GT4 European Series has since confirmed a second PROsport Performance Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage entry for this final event of the series at the Nurburgring. Having raced with the team before at the last 24H Series event down in Portimao in July, David Ortmann returns to the team alongside fellow series returnee Alex Mies in the team's #19 Silver Cup entry.

Photo credits - GT4 European