It’s now that sad time of year when we see many race series and championships come to their natural conclusion with both the ACO rules European Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup Series no different as they both travel down to Portugal for their final races of the year.

Round six of their 2026 seasons sees a forty-four car, multi-class grid travel down to the Autodromo Do Algarve near Portimao for their final four-hour race alongside the LMP3/GT3 powered grid of the Le Mans Cup Series who will see off their final two hour race with their forty-seven strong grid.

 

As far as Aston Martin Racing powered teams are concerned, the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR Vantage LMGT3 has again been the sole full season representative for the British marque within the series this season but even that hasn’t come easy for the team with multiple driver changes forced upon them.

Starting the year with a driver crew line up of Clement Mateu, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Marius Fossard – all went ‘well’ as far as racing was concerned whilst the results may not have been preferable until the third round of the season from Imola.

 

After that, Mateu stepped away from the team and series citing family reasons (always a very valid point) but hoping to be back as and when situations changed and for the next round of the season from Spa Francorchamps, his and Hasse-Clot's (who was committed to IMSA that weekend) places within the team-were taken up by both Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson but as just a one-off entry.

Next time and last time out at Silverstone, the crew was back to Fossard and Hasse-Clot but this time with fellow countryman François Heriau joining the #59 car for what turned out to be another ‘difficult’ round to the season.

 

However, that has all gone full circle now as Mateu has confirmed his immediate return to the car and team in time for this seasonal finale from Portimao that features both a maximum grid entry size within a series that still has all of its available class championship titles up for grabs. The #59 crew of whatever combination is already massively out of championship contention this season so this race will be all about pride and just what come into play for them all next season.

Track action begins on Thursday with the first of two Free Practice and bronze driver sessions over that day and the next before class qualifying on Friday before the final race is waved off at 14:30hrs local on Saturday.

Group photo credit - Team

 

 

 

Mid-race misfortune unfortunately affected an otherwise solid run from the impromptu Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crew yesterday as they tried to convert their earlier class pole position into something more meaningful.

Racing in what was the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series from the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, the #59 Racing Spirit of Le Mans team had already been forced to seek out another capable and adequately funded gentleman driver after the shock news beforehand that Clement Mateu was stepping aside for both family and financial reasons.

 

The team fortunately found that American racer Anthony McIntosh was again willing to put his money where his mouth was with the team having exercised a similar option last year with the team when their FIA World Endurance Championship driver Derek DeBoer found himself in a similar position. He would bring with him his more usual co-driver of parker Thompson to race the Aston Martin alongside the more established team driver Marius Fossard.

We understand that McIntosh may have been feeling under the weather going into this race weekend and had at a point considered his continuation within the programme but his effective last lap dash in the very damp conditions of qualifying to claim the LMGT3 Class Pole Position would have persuaded him otherwise.

 

Getting underway for this four-hour race on Sunday, McIntosh secured his position at the head of the pack during the usually chaotic few laps (and as would again prove correct) with many of those in prototypes thinking that they could win the race within the open hour with the first Safety Car intervention called before the end of the opening lap. McIntosh would go onto use his race experience gained within the FIA WEC to maintain his class lead throughout these early cautions, but he would eventually lose the lead thanks to a longer first stop.

Dropping down to fourth in class, all was still looking well within the #59 car as lap times remained competitive to those around him but continued and multiple car incidents on track again forced Race Control to intervene – again destroying the fluidity of the race itself but it was at the restart to the Safety Car period just short of the second hour where the race would all go horribly wrong for the #59 crew.

 

Having been backed up and tightly together behind the Safety Car for some notable time whilst two cars were extracted from the gravel, unseen events around the #59 car would eventually see the silver machine nosed into the tyre wall at turn nine after the downhill rundown from the tighter hairpin at Bruxelles. Replays would suggest no apparent contact, but the result of the event was never in doubt as they lost track position and then (more importantly) a lap to the pack just as the bronze drivers minimum drive time was coming to an end.

Despite being towed out of the gravel with damage no more visual than two missing door mirrors, the race for the #59 crew was still effectively done as the series does not operate a wave around system when behind the Safety Car, so there was no chance of recouping that lost real estate to the pack.

 

Whilst the #59 crew would not be finishing last as others either faltered on track or crashed out of the race, they would be the last of the runners as the final two hours of the race passed by and through to the bitter end with the crew eventually being classified as finishing twelfth in class – one lap down to their peers.

Next stop for the series is at Silverstone in about three weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

In the rather timely manner in which they operate, the European Le Mans Series confirmed their entry list earlier today ahead of their fourth round of the season from Spa Francorchamps, Belgium next weekend.

Only yesterday were we writing about the unfortunate departure of Clement Mateu from the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 powered team and the series with us (then) just how that would have impacted upon the team for the remaining half of the 2026 season.

 

Well, today’s news from the series has confirmed that Anthony McIntosh will indeed be returning to the team (for at least this event – maybe more) in lieu of Mateu having done similar last season when Derek DeBoer also found himself unable to complete the second half of the FIA World Endurance Championship with the Swiss based squad.

Thanks to another clash between the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship and the ACO rules ELMS series, the #59 RSLM driver Valentin Hasse-Clot also finds himself committed to racing stateside next weekend meaning that there were actually two seats going spare within the #59 car. Today confirmation has seen Hasse-Clot’s position being taken by Canadian racer Parker Thompson whilst the remaining full season driver, Marius Fossard completes the driver line-up for the team as they run a bronze/silver/silver format this time around as the #59 car makes up the confirmed forty seven car line-up.

 

 

With the Le Mans Cup Series also supporting the ELMS in Belgium, Hasse-Clot’s absence will also enforce a driver change within the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entry that he shares with fellow class championship leader, Philipp Sager. We understand (although not yet confirmed by the series) that Fossard will be double dutying between series for the team this time around.

That change will come off the back of their class win at Le Mans.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

It was unfortunately that ‘bad day at the office’ for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entries from both the Code Racing Development and the Racing Spirit of Leman teams after todays second round of the Road to Le Mans Le Mans Cup Series after a decent start Thursday.

Again, featuring another large fifty-eight strong LMP3 and GT3 grid over the more modest forty-two strong mixed classed grid for the usual seasonal rounds, that number of cars and the varying degrees of racing abilities spread amongst the two driver crews again saw the track sessions descend into some form of anarchy even before we got to the two, hour long races on Thursday and Saturday.

 

In amongst the various preparatory sessions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans around the Circuit de La Sarthe this coming week will also see the now institutional two races from the Le Mans Cup Series.

Having seen the usual six round race calendar extended in race duration this year, their Road to Le Mans event sees the expected fifty-eight strong LMP3 and GT3 entry revert to their usual two race – one on Thursday and the other on Saturday morning format.