#007 aiming to be on top of the world at the end of this weekend Jeddah six hours in GT World Challenge Europe finale
Belgian based Comtoyou Racing sit on the cusp of something else very big this week as their #007 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Pro class entry lies at the head of the overall championship battle as the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup battles it out for the final time on Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to the herculean efforts of the team and drivers Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Matteo Drudi at the Spa 24 earlier in the year (plus a little bit of luck), their overall win in Belgium propelled the #007 entry into the championship lead – a lead that they retain by the slenderest of margins going into this final six-hour round of the Endurance Cup Series at the unfamiliar Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Forty-eight other GT3 entries will be joining them in the heat of the Saudi capital including six other AMR Vantage GT3 entries from both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Racing Partner teams with at least half a dozen additional crews retaining a potential championship winning position thanks to the additional points being available this weekend.
Despite AMR powered entries across the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Pro classes, it is unfortunately only the #007 car that retains any championship potential this weekend in a near literal winner takes all situation.
The #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry of Ross Gunn, David Pittard and Henrique Chaves sit way down in P17 and like the remainder of the collective field, will be desperate to round off what has been a disappointing season for them within the new Vantage GT3 Evo on something of a high.
Within the silver class there is also the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Kobe Pauwels, Nicolas Baert and Sebastian Ogaard and the #35 Walkenhorst effort of Romain Leroux, Maxime Robin and Lorcan Hanafin.
Within Gold, the is the solo AMR effort of the #21 Comtoyou Racing crew of Matisse Lismont, Job Van Uitert and Charles Clark whilst the bronze class features both the #11 Comtoyou Racing effort of James Jakes, John De Wilde and Niels Koolen (a change to their usual line up) and the #36 Walkenhorst entry of Ben Green, Me Jensen and another driver change in David Pun.
Track action for these teams starts on Thursday with two official test sessions before the customary bronze driver test before moving into Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying on Friday. Individual qualifying sessions take place on Saturday morning but only four and a quarter hours before the six-hour race is waved off at 17:00hrs local.
Best of fortunes to the #007.
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Monday, November 25, 2024 |
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Dubai - An event best laid to rest for the five AMR runners in the Asian Le Mans Series (Updated)
Like previously said, both the Bullitt Racing and TF Sport teams faced early logistical issues that forced a costly air freight bill for one and the late arrival of another car for TF Sport plus much of their pit equipment.
Then before the racing had even begun, the #61 Evisu Racing (with TF Sport) Vantage GT3 of David Pun, Ross Gunn and Adrian D’Silva suffered significant front-end damage that required parts to be flown in from the UK in the hope of making the grid of at least Sunday’s second race – but then, that’s just racing!!
Unfortunately for them, that was not to be with the exaggerated repair time and parts availability also forcing them to miss Sundays race as well, but we understand that they should be ready in time for next weekend’s second brace of races in Yas Marina.
In race one, the early testing pace of the #66 Bullitt Racing car of Valentine Hasse-Clot, Martin Berry and Jacob Riegel was very quickly unravelled with glancing side to side contact with a Mercedes on only the third lap of the race, breaking their front-end suspension which, despite the best of efforts of that time) forced the car to be retired.
The remaining three cars from TF Sport, D’Station Racing and the Viper Niza team all completed the opening four-hour round with track progression relative to their Qualifying position only being made from both the #95 TF Sport car of John Hartshorne/Jonny Adam/Henrique Chaves and the two driver Viper Niza #65 car of Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang.
Sundays race had seen a change to the GT class Balance of Performance criteria with all the marques received increases in boost whilst the BMW, Porsche and Mercedes all received an increase in base rate too.
With grid positions being taken from Saturday’s second-best lap times for their bronze ranked drivers, the #77 D’Station Racing car of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg would again be the highest starters of the four starting Aston Martin’s in eight with the #66 Bullitt car in P13, the #95 TF Sport car in P18 and the #65 Viper car in P22.
Whilst the D’Station car would fly the flag for the brand towards the top of the class for much of the race, the longevity of the AMR situation was such that it was soon muscled backwards in the order towards the latter stages of the race for them to eventually finish in sixth for some valuable championship points at least.
That would be as far as the good news would go again for this day as just before the 75% race distance, a heavy crash for Khoo resulted in the destruction of the front end of his car and a painful harness winding experience for the gentleman driver. That injury would be in addition to a foot injury apparently sustained during a routine pit stop earlier in Race 1 from which the team received a massive post race time penalty.
That would be as far as the good news would go again for this day as just before the 75% race distance, a heavy crash for Khoo resulted in the destruction of the front end of his car and a painful harness winding experience for the gentleman driver. That injury would be in addition to a foot injury apparently sustained during a routine pit stop earlier in Race 1 from which the team received a massive post race time penalty.
Messaging Khoo after the race, he confirmed to us that whilst he was otherwise OK from his ordeal (which is of course the important bit) less could be said about the state of his car which he believes to have been written off due to the damage sustained.
What that means for his and Ang’s Yas Marina event is as yet unclear but judging by Khoo’s tone of message – it will be doubtful if they will be in attendance with a new chassis in that short a time!
Just to round things off – the #95 TF Sport car would finish P14 and the #66 Bullitt car P17 to round off a totally disappointing and frustrating weekend for all concerned.
Goodbye Dubai and hello Yas Marina!!
Update - We have also learned that despite the best efforts of the TF Sport team, David Pun and his Evisu Racing squad have elected to take no further part within the Asian Le Mans Series have have since returned home as has the official withdrawal been confirmed of the Malaysian Viper Niza team from this weeks competition.
Five now become three!! ☹️
Photo credits – Teams / A Lofthouse / AMR
Photo credits – Teams / A Lofthouse / AMR
Sunday, February 12, 2023 |
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Gunn rekindles a racing partnership with David Pun in the Asian Le Mans Series with TF Sport
A previous social media posted by Evisu Racing boss David Pun had suggested that he would be joined in the Series by both Charlie Eastwood and Adrian D’Silva within his #61 car but today’s news from the Sussex based team (who are presently out in Daytona for this weekend’s opening round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship) has now confirmed that Pun and D’Silva will now be joined by Heart of Racing IMSA and AMR factory driver Ross Gunn instead.
No stranger to the team for Gunn, this event will however be an introduction to the team for both Asian theatre drivers Pun and D’Silva and will represent the first GT Endurance race for the clothing empire boss outside of his homeland China. This news also marks itself as a reunion for both Gunn and Pun after having raced together in the China GT Series back in 2019 within an AMR Vantage GT4 platform with class winning success.
The two Asian Le Mans Series double header race weekends will be over the 11/12th February at the Dubai Autodrome followed by the 18/19th February at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.
We just await the final driver to be confirmed within the #65 Viper Niza AMR Vantage GT3 to be confirmed for the full set of five Aston Martins with the Series.
Photo credits – Teams / social media
Photo credits – Teams / social media
Thursday, January 26, 2023 |
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Evisu Racing hint at their Asian Le Mans Series driver line up
Evisu Racing have become the latest team to strongly hint upon their driver line up ahead of their entry within this seasons Asian Le Mans Series.
Entering an Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 under the banner of TF Sport, the Chinese based team put out an Instagram post today saying that AMR factory driver Charlie Eastwood and experienced Malaysian based racer Adrian D’Silva will be joining the Evisu clothing empire boss, David Pun in the #61 car for the four-round series.
This crew is the fourth AMR powered team to reveal their crew ahead of next month’s opening weekend, alongside that of Bullitt Racing, TF Sport and D’Station Racing – only the #65 Viper Niza AMR needs to confirm it third driver before the full set is known.
Blighted by the travel restrictions imposed back home, Pun has seen his international race programme severely affected with racing entries limited to domestic series such as the GTSSC and Macau Grand Prix to feed his passion in 2021 before last season’s GT World Challenge Asia Series finally allowed him out of the country.
Whilst factory driver Eastwood needs no introduction especially as having recently been named within the ORT by TF Sport World Endurance Championship entry, D'Silva also comes with Aston Martin experience having raced the CMRT Eurasia V12 AMR Vantage GT3 during the 2018 Blancpain GT Asia Series.
The photo in question has been confirmed to have been taken recently whilst both the Evisu and Viper Niza crews tested at Sepang. Messaging Pun today, it is hoped that the #61 car will retain its livery last seen out when he raced around the streets of Macau in 2021.
Photo credit – Evisu / GTSSC
Photo credit – Evisu / GTSSC
Friday, January 13, 2023 |
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Uno Racing do themselves proud as they take their AMR GT3's to Macau
Featuring two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s from the Uno Racing team, this event was the first time that the latest generation of AMR Vantage GT3 had competed in the event since 2015 when three V12 examples raced for the then AMR powered Craft Bamboo team.
Well fashioned in livery designs from the two Oriental fashion houses, their #38 car was driven by long term GT3 racer Marchy Lee whilst their #91 car was driven by David Pun, a Gentleman driver who had stepped up to GT3 racing only this season within the Chinese GTSSC Series.
Competing against some more experienced and hardened racers, their short Qualifying session allowed them to Qualify P7 and P9 respectively for Saturday afternoon’s shorter eight lap race of the Sands China Macau GT Cup. The earlier warm up however, was marred by a big impact for the #17 Audi R8 which resulted in one destroyed car, significant barrier damage and sadly multiple chest injuries for the driver.
Down to eighteen starters for Race 1, a street circuit layout again confirmed just how hard it was to pass as both Aston’s initially dropped back before recovering again to run together just behind the lead pack in P5 and P6 overall before an engine failure for a Lamborghini going into Lisboa curtailed the race as the approaching P2 Mercedes AMG GT3 of former AMR racer Darryl O’Young spun off and crashed into the barrier from the dropped fluid.
The race was red flagged at this point and then quickly conformed as not restarting at the track curfew and release back into public use approached – P5 for Lee and P6 for Pun were later confirmed.
Those results were then used to form the starting grid for the twelve-lap race finale on Sunday and it was another feisty start for the grid as Marchy Lee ran three wide into Lisboa but was lucky to come out the other side in one piece leaving the two Astons again running line astern in P6 and P7 by the end of the first lap.
With the top four cars again breaking away with a big gap then back to Lee, drama again soon unfolded as first a Mercedes contacted the barrier and stopped on track before another Lamborghini hit the barrier harder at another part of the circuit.
Further debris from a tyre blow out on a Porsche lead to the need for a Safety car to help clear the circuit to allow at least a last lap dash to the flag from where Lee finished just the overall podium in P4 with Pun just behind in P5 overall but P3 in his CAMF Class to mark a fine return of the brand to the Macau scene.
Congratulations to all involved.
Photo credits - Macau GT
Monday, November 22, 2021 |
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Two AMR Vantage GT3's get set to compete at Macau
Tomorrow sees that start of the formal track proceedings ahead of the running of the 68th Macau Grand Prix this weekend around the distinctive street circuit of the semi-autonomous region of coastal China.
For the first time since a three-car effort back in 2015, this weekend’s event shall see the return of Aston Martin Racing’s latest Vantage GT3 platform, this time running in the hands of Uno Racing for their drivers David Pun and Marchy Lee.
With neither driver no stranger to the demands of the circuit and with the entry list for this weekend’s Sands China Macau GT Cup races being restricted to Chinese (and colony) nationals rather than being opened up to the wider audience for an FIA sanctioned event, the #38 car of Lee and the #91 car of Pun will face just as a good a chance within the two races as the next driver in the provisional 19 car grids.
Running just a 25-minute Free Practice session on Friday before a 25-minute Qualifying session later in the time, track time is obviously being limited around the 3.8 mile Guia street circuit for the Grand Prix’s six series programme.
Saturday will then see a brief warm up session before their first eight lap race that will start at 15:50hrs local before a further 12 lap race on Sunday at 13:10hrs local.
Both Aston Martin’s will be conspicuously liveried to represent the two fashion labels that a supporting the teams with Pun’s Evisu fashion empire (presently celebrating their 30th anniversary) supporting his #91 car with the Bathing Ape label supporting Lee’s #31 car.
As with any street circuit race, incident and accident is never too far away!!
Photo credits – Uno Racing / Macau GP
Thursday, November 18, 2021 |
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Two new Aston Martin Vantage GT3's to race at Macau Grand Prix
Racing back then with the venerable V12 variant of the Vantage GT3, the Craft Bamboo Racing team entered three such cars into the first running of what was then the FIA GT World Cup for drivers Stefan Mucke, Darryl O’Young and Richard Lyons for which Mucke claimed pole position for the weekend’s first race before eventually finishing P3 in both races.
This time in 2021 however, it is the turn of the Uno Racing Team with the assistance of the AMR appointed Motorsport Services Asia AMR crew to bring two of the latest V8 turbo charged Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s to the peninsula to race in the Sands China Macau GT Cup over the weekend of 19th-21st November.
Recently appointed GT Super Sprint Challenge Series runner up David Pun will be the driver of one of the cars with experienced GT racer Marchy Lee aboard the other.
Neither no stranger to the Macau street circuit, Pun last raced at the event in 2019 behind the wheel of an AMR Vantage GT4 from the Chinese based BSEM team (under his clothing firm’s Evisu Racing banner) where a last lap incident ruled out a podium finish for him but gained one for his then team mate.
Lee also comes with a long line of recent GT experience, racing before in single seaters and then in GT series such as Blancpain GT Asia, Asian Le Mans Series and the Japanese Super GT Series – mainly in an Audi R8 GT3 chassis.
These two Aston’s are due to compete in a provisional grid size of nineteen cars including a Mercedes AMG GT3 with O’Young aboard. The Uno Racing team have also had Adderly Fong driver coach Pun during the GTSSC season, and he was another driver who raced against the three Aston’s back in 2015!
Race one on Saturday afternoon is due to run over eight laps of the 3.8-mile street circuit with a further twelve lap race on Sunday.
Photo credits – Craft Bamboo / Uno Racing / China GT
Thursday, November 11, 2021 |
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David Pun secures runners up position in GTSSC in first season of GT3 racing
Belated congratulations to David Pun for securing the runners up position at the weekend in the inaugural running of the GT Super Sprint Challenge after another visit to the Shanghai International Circuit.
Racing in an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 for the first time this season (and indeed in the first AMR Vantage GT3 to be exported into the Chinese racing arena before later extending to a two AMR car team after the enforced break), both COVID and an incident later during testing threw ‘many spanners’ into the works for the Evisu fashion empire boss as the season was first delayed just after the opening round before he (and team co-driver Riokonig) swapped to an Audi R8 GT3 chassis at the last minute after an incident during testing left the Uno Racing team left them with only a single AMR serviceable chassis.
Wanting to finish the season out in an Aston, Pun returned to his fashionably liveried AMR for last weekend's event where he eventually claimed an overall P7 and P4 finishes during Saturday's wet finale - enough to conclude his runners up position in his AM+ class.
Working under the driver coaching of former British F3 racer Adderly Fong, the team now look to this months Macau Grand Prix event for their next action.
Photo credits – Uno Racing
Tuesday, November 09, 2021 |
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David Pun comes back with his Aston Martin for latest round of GTSSC at Shanghai
The Shanghai International Circuit welcomes back the GT Super Sprint Challenge Series this weekend for what is their fifth round of their extended 2021 season as well as one of Uno Racing’s Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s for driver David Pun.
Having started the series with a class podium at the first round of the series way back in July, a further enforced break in motor racing events in China saw the teams wait until September when the team returned with two AMR Vantage GT3’s and a Vantage GT4 for the second round in Shanghai.
Since then, the team has skipped a round (for unknown reasons) before coming back at Uno Racing’s home track of Zhuhai – not in there AMR’s but with a pair of Audi R8’s!!
That transpired to be because of a testing incident with one of the cars prior to that round that left one car unrepairable in time for the race weekend with drivers Pun and Riokonig swapping over to two available Audi’s with Team X Works. At that round, the driver crews picked up an overall race win for Pun in Race 1 with a P3 for Riokonig before swapping fortunes in Race 2 with a P2 and P1 race win respectively later that weekend.
For this weekend’s fifth round, we understand from the team that still only one Aston Martin remains in a serviceable condition and will be raced by Evisu fashion boss David Pun whilst teammate Riokonig competes again in the Audi.
Photo Credits – Uno Racing.
Thursday, November 04, 2021 |
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UNO Racing back out in the GTSSC at Zhuhai
The Chinese based Uno Racing team are back in business this weekend with their fourth round of their COVID interrupted GT Super Sprint Challenge Series, this time from their local Zhuhai International Circuit close to the Macau peninsula of the country.
First time out at Shanghai in early May, the team’s sole Aston Martin Racing GT3 entry for David Pun came away with a post-race awarded class win aboard his #91 car for the series to be then postponed again immediately prior to the second round due to an increased infection rate within the country.
The series then came back to the tracks with its much delayed second round, also back at the Shanghai International Circuit but this time with a three car AMR entry – two Vantage GT3’s for drivers David Pun and Riokonig and a Vantage GT4 for Thomas Song. Between them, they collected four podium positions between their classes over the two-race weekend.
They team sat out the third round but will come back together again at Zhuhai for much of the same.
Photo credits – Uno Racing
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 |
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Multiple podiums for Uno Racing as the Chinese GTSSC gets back to business
A challenging Saturday for the 3 drivers and the team, still all very new to the new Aston Martin Racing GT3 and GT4 cars with the unpredictable weather making this challenge even more difficult with everyone within the team still working on getting an ideal balance for their cars.
Despite being a brand-new team with brand new cars and new drivers to the cars, none were afraid of trying to further develop the setup and even with the growing challenges of the unpredictable weather for Sunday.
As predicted by the weather forecast, rain indeed arrived with Race 1starting behind safety car. It was a still a chaotic start with many cars spinning and running off the track and within those challenging conditions and having started in 8th position overall, Riokonig quickly climbed through the grid and successfully took the lead of the race by lap 2.
After an exciting race, Riokonig in Car 71 crossed the finish line as the overall winner, a fantastic feat for his debut in the series, and also the first winner trophy for the AMR Vantage GT3.
Pun aboard the #91 car also had a good race and finished the race overall 6th place and 4th in class, having started in the middle of the grid on 11th position.
Thomas in the GT4 race car, performed a very stable and consistent race whilst facing breath-taking moments in some very tricky track conditions, not only passing cars which were losing control and spinning, but also battling with three other competitors and succeeding in fighting for 2nd position, all making an amazing debut racing for him.
Thomas in the GT4 race car, performed a very stable and consistent race whilst facing breath-taking moments in some very tricky track conditions, not only passing cars which were losing control and spinning, but also battling with three other competitors and succeeding in fighting for 2nd position, all making an amazing debut racing for him.
As Sunday afternoon approached, the unpredictability of the weather was still making all the teams struggling to set race strategy and choice of tires. In the end, on wet conditions and intermittent showers, Race 2 also started under the safety car. Riokonig’s Car 71, having started on pole, was able to defend his position for xxx laps before he made the first mistake in the tricky conditions in T12 and losing the lead.
Pun's #91 started from 6th in the grid, had a good afternoon with exciting battles and overtakes in Race2. At one point was even able to take the lead of the race but failed to hold it due to the changing track conditions, having in the end crossed the finish line in 2nd place overall and a 1st in AM+ class. For each of the races, each GT3 driver received a trophy in Race 1 and Race 2, just like the plan they joked about earlier on the week.
Thomas in the GT4, in fact never have driven a race car on wet tyres, was a challenging task, lost a position during Race 2, but never gave up. He still fought well to defend his 3rd position in class. As a rookie in AMR GT4, this is a very positive and satisfiying result for both the team and the driver.
Next GTSSC round, 1st of October ai Zhuzhou International Circuit.
Source material - Uno Racing
Sunday, September 12, 2021 |
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Second round of new GTSSC postponed in mainland China
Having raced competitively for many years in GT4 and other brands of GT3, the opening round of the Series from Shanghai in early May was Pun’s first racing experience of his new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 having only taken delivery of it just over a week before the opening round via AMR's new regional strategic partner - MSAA.
All of that has however now been dashed after the Federation of Automobile and Motorcycle Sports of China (CAMF) recently suspended all motor sport in mainland China following the large loss of life to competitors in a recent ultra marathon event in north-west China.
Just how a tragic outcome in a running event has any bearing upon a motor sport event we are not quite sure, but the reality is that racing has come to another stop in China and there isn't a lot anyone can do about it so at this time - everything is suspended.
Photo credits – Team
Wednesday, June 02, 2021 |
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Further AMR team successes at the weekend from around the world
Starting in Shanghai where the Chinese motor racing scene finally got back on track with the inaugural running of the GT Super Sprint Championship with the Evisu clothing magnate David Pun stepping up to the AMR Vantage GT3 for the very first time having only taken delivery of it just over week ago.
Competing in the event specially designed for the Gentleman driver, Pun would start the first of two 27-minute races form the front row on Saturday – converted a subsequently heavily Safety Car impacted race into a P2 finish before being elevated to a P1 result following a post-race penalty for the original #911 Porsche winner.
Then in Sunday’s race, Pun would make his return to competitive GT racing in China for the first time in over a year with a P4 finish.
Over at Road America, Florida based Automatic Racing had brought out one of their older AMR GT4 GA specification cars for their Stoner Car Care entry into last weekend’s World Racing Leagues 8 + 8 hour double header races for drivers Ramin Abdolvahabi, Rob Ecklin and Steven Davison.
Despite taking the chequered flag first by the end of Saturday’s eight hours, a post-race penalty for contact demoted them down to P3 before all was amended with a resounding P1 in Sundays follow up race.
All a bit of fun at Road America (and bit of circuit re-familiarisation) the team will sit out this weekend’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge event at Mid-Ohio instead choosing to reconvene at Watkins Glen in June.
Finally, but certainly by no means least saw the PROsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Alex Walker and Guido Dumarey take a resounding P2 finish in the SP10 Class at the weekends ADAC Total N24 Qualification Race.
Having slowly built up confidence and speed during the NLS Series season so far, the Nico Verdonck coached drivers their best result to date from the Nordschliefe ahead of the main event in early June.
Photo credits - NLS / Stoner Car Care / GTSSC
Monday, May 10, 2021 |
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