With just over a week to go before Media Day, their first pair of drivers have today been confirmed by the GBR Stratton Aston Martin Racing team ahead of this season’s British GT Championship.

Having announced a potential two car AMR Vantage GT4 entry way back at the turn of the year, the pairing of John Hartsorne and Ronan Pearson is the first driver announcement from the partnership between the Graham Brunton Racing and Stratton Motorsport team and comes some weeks after at least one tested with the team at Donington Park.

 

Whilst Hartshorne will be a very familiar name within the Aston Martin Racing Partner team fraternity after his racing comeback with the TF Sport team within most of the current ACO rules series, this is his first recent adventure within a GT4 platform within current regulations.

Pearson meanwhile, comes from the UK TOCA package of race series including the Renault Clio Cup and British Touring Car Championship but this will be his first adventure into GT racing.

“I am absolutely ecstatic to be making my debut in the British GT Championship with GBR Stratton
Motorsport. This change of career path has me incredibly motivated for success and I feel extremely lucky to be working with some great people who have really been in my corner through every step so far. My first season in rear-wheel-drive machinery is going to be a big learner but one that has been in my sights for some time now and this welcome change couldn’t come at a better time with the opportunity that I now have” he said.

With potentially seven Aston Martin Racing powered crews being entered into this season, this news still leaves the second GBR Stratton Motorsport crew to be declared plus the second Full Send Racing GT4 crew after that of Darren Turner and Dan Lavery.

From what we understand from British GT, all further announcements between now and Media Day (at Silverstone on the 31st March) will be on short notice.

Photo credits – Team

 

 

 

It appears that Blackthorn AMR will not be the only the AMR powered team due to compete within the International GT Open Series as the Polish based Good Speed Racing team also cut a new racing pathway with their transition from the Mercedes AMG GT3 to the Vantage GT3 Evo.

Having been established for a number of years now, the team has most recently competed within the European based GT Cup Series as well as the GT Winter Series. They show an expected driver line up of both Piotr Wira and Tomas Magdziarz.

 

 

 

The other snippet of British GT Championship related news today comes from the recently announced Townsend Racing powered by Fox Motorsport team again.

Nothing new with that revelation of course after James Twonsend’s new association with Fox Motorsport and Aston Martin Racing within the UK domestic championship was released several weeks ago now.

 

 

What today’s news does confirm is that Joe Wheeler will be partnering Townsend within the teams new AMR Vantage GT4 for their 2026 GT4 Pro-Am class campaign as well as the cars livery reveal ahead of the crews full dress rehearsal (test) at Silverstone later this week.

Despite his younger years, Wheeler comes to the team with four years of British GT racing experience that has rewarded him with several class podiums during that time.

 

 

It appears that we all get a weekend off early season motor racing this time around as we look forward to the next batch of IMSA Series racing due to take place over the final weekend in February.

Until then, and to a point where we will find out if we will have any Aston Martin Racing powered runners within the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series visit to CoTA, we can take a quick look back at the snippets of news that have come out from other AMR powered runners over the last week or so. (UPDATE - unfortunately there are none being listed!)

 

The Japanese D’Station Racing team where out this week in a pre-season Super GT Series test from their home circuit of Fuji Speedway.

The team have already confirmed the return of both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg within the team’s #777 Vantage GT3 entry but it was just the team manager on hand this week as they clocked up some valuable laps as the event was curtailed to just a single day due to track conditions in the bitter cold. The team will now look forward to two official test dates before the opening round to the season from Okayama in April.

 

 

The Spanish based E2P Racing team have had their 24H Series European Series entry confirmed with a four-man driver line up and their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 that they have already raced this year within the GT Winter Series 6 Hours of Portimao a couple of weeks ago.

This will be the team’s second season with the Aston but their fourth within the Creventic lead series.

 

 

Within the ranks of the British GT Championship, the GBR Stratton Motorsport team have again bee out pre-season testing – this time at Donington Park where a familiar face in John Hartshorne having his name above one of the doors of one of the team’s two Vantage GT4 cars that they have entered.

The team is due out again next week at Snetterton and then at Silverstone before we hopefully hear of some definitive names within their GT4 entries ahead of Media Day at Silverstone at the end of March.

 

 

Within Britcar, the Addison Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of father and son namesakes Martin and Bill Addison have also been confirmed earlier the month with the crew moving up to the 17A variant of the car late last season with some immediate class success.

 

With the winners Champagne hardly having time to dry upon the podium of the final round to last season at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, this weekend will see many hands return to the track of Daytona International Speedway for a test ahead of next year’s IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

Usually the first to get their new season underway in mid to late January, IMSA will again be running their elective pre-season test from the home of the opening round (Rolex 24) with track sessions be available per class allocation over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

After all these other series competing at their latest rounds around the world this weekend, that leaves that small matter of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the start to the build to the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship from the Circuit De La Sarthe.

Whilst the beginning of the race may not be until 16:00hrs local next Saturday afternoon, the build-up really began as soon as last years event finished but with the more visual aspects to that race preparation only becoming more visible to the average race fan this weekend with Sunday’s Test Day.

That’s now pre-season testing over with for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team as their prepare for their next chapter within their domestic Super GT Series this season.

Testing their AMR Vantage GT3 Evo again at their home track of Fuji International Speedway, the #777 only had Tomonobu Fujii on hand again to do what was necessary over two opposing days as in track running conditions.

 

Just before we settle down ahead of this weekend’s racing with more than a handful of Aston Martin Racing powered teams competing within both the USA and Europe, we just need to catch up upon a few things that came to light earlier this week.

Down under sees the Volante Rosso AMR team confirm their strongest driver line up to date within their Vantage GT3 that will run again within the GT World Challenge Series Australia – starting next weekend from Phillip Island.

 

Amongst another healthy bunch of thirty-one total runners, it was again those from within the Racar Motorsport and Araujo Competicao who provided most of these but new AMR convertee teams in NGT Motorsport and Gianfranco Motorsport teams were also in attendance.

Whilst the day did start with rough weather conditions at the Portuguese circuit, the sun did eventually shine down on the grid, which is not confirmed at the point in time beyond that of the two Araujo Competicao and Gianfranco Motorsport crews already confirmed by the teams.

 

Both drivers are this time on hand for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team ahead of this weekend’s Super GT test from the Okayama circuit.

Having tested solo before with Tomonobu Fujii behind the wheel of their #777 AMR Vantage GT3 Evo, this weekend’s two-day test also sees co-driver Charlie Fagg behind the wheel for the first time this season as the young Brit looks forward to a full season within the topflight Japanese series having stepped in with great effect after the opening couple of rounds last season.

 

Whilst the FIA WEC tick off their first of a two-day Prologue test today in Qatar, more images and news has been released over the course of the week regarding multiple Aston Martin Racing race programs for various teams around the world.

With the Heart of Racing already busy in Qatar with the first appearance of their fully homologated Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars and one Vantage LMGT3, the team has also been busy back home at the Apex Motor Club in Arizona testing with both the AMR Vantage GT3 and Vantage GT4 that they will run within this seasons GT World Challenge America and GT4 America Series.

 

French based Code Racing development today revealed the livery that will adorn their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo that will compete within the Le Mans Cup Series this season.

Officially confirmed by the series at the start of the month as the sole Aston Martin within a GT class of just eight cars this time around but within combined grid of a forty-four cars including the two LMP3 classes.

 

Tomorrow sees the start of a three-day official IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship test around the infamous bumps of the Sebring International Raceway ahead of its second round of the season there in four weeks’ time.

Despite this being an official test ahead of another endurance round following the opening 24hour round from Daytona at the end of January, we will only see some of the Aston Martin Racing powered participants there at the test.

 

As expected, the Japanese based D’Station Racing team confirmed their Super GT Series driver line aboard their #777 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo for the 2025 season.

Employing a trusted ‘if it isn’t broken – don’t fix it’ mentality, the team today confirmed that both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg will again be driving the team’s GT300 class entry as they ended up doing together from early on last season.

 

The Japanese based D’Station Racing team have got their first track miles in today as they go about preparing themselves for a full-scale assault on the Super GT Series with their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo.

Scaling back significantly on racing commitment from previous seasons sees the team turn away from early competitive racing within the likes of the Asian Le Mans Series to hopefully put themselves in a better position for the second season of their return to their topflight domestic series which starts at Okayama in mid-April.