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