Whilst the #95 TF Sport car would keep it mostly clean, the #77 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Casper Stevenson and Tomonobu Fujii would see their Saturday race blighted by the effects of losing three laps due to early contact through to being delayed by contact (both of their own and other cars making) to eventually round off another Asian Le Mans Series with P19 and P14 finishes accordingly.

It was not all plain sailing for the #95 yesterday as Tuck was involved in an incident that saw the two cars make the slightest of touches whilst line astern to one another only for the #86 GR Racing Ferrari top spin off and impact heavily into the circuit barriers. Fortunately, the driver was bruised, sore but otherwise OK although their own weekend would be run with their car quickly being established as irreparable in time for race 2.

Tuck would later post a heartfelt apology for his involvement and the consequences of the incident that lead to GR Racings withdrawal – very sporting and gentlemanly of him to do so.

The resulting red flag period for that incident would leave just over half an hour of the penultimate four-hour race to go for the red and white liveried car to come home with their best result so far in P6.

Sunday would see early rain effect the balance and track with early dramas taking out four championship contending cars from the early running order. Not being part of that process, neither Aston had anything to lose yet everything to gain as Hoshino made the early running as high as P3 for them whilst the #95 ran lower down the order.

More Safety Car and FCY intervention periods of course made for ‘mad’ restarts and whilst Hoshino would appear to have been spun by another, they were adjudged to have been at fault and given a Drive through penalty for their efforts. Just before the first hour, another red flag period for barrier repairs was necessary after an LMP2 car took out another GT car – again both drivers were otherwise OK but with the clock still counting, time was running out on both the race and the season for others.

With the race again entering darkness and with around ninety minutes remaining, the #77 and #95 cars eventually swapped running order on track with Tuck again putting in some hot laps with Stevenson mirroring his moves albeit on a differing strategy but this time it would be Adam and Fujii who would be rounding off the season for both AMR Partner teams in both P4 and P14.

Whilst one chapter closes – another one opens as Aston Martin Racing, Aston Martin F1 and Aston Martin Lagonda are expected to reveal all tomorrow from the home of British motorsport at Silverstone. 

##UPDATE - Post race penalties within the GT class elevate the #95 crew onto the podium for race 2 with a confirmed P3 finish with the #77 crew now up to P13!! Awesome stuff to end another exciting season with!!

Photo credits – Teams / Andrew Lofthouse

Starting Sundays four-hour race from P15 and P19 respectively out of a GT3 class grid of twenty-two cars, unfortunately it was the #95 car of Hartshorne who would ‘suffer’ first having picked up an early puncture following an opening lap incident that took out several cars. Dropping an early lap as a result, it took the full driving capacity of both Adam and Tuck – along with a bit of luck with strategy and further on track incidences for the trio to eventually finish P10 as a result.

The #77 D’Station car meanwhile had run much of their race within the top ten in class only for a misjudgement coming out of the third hour of the race with Fujii behind the wheel that would quickly cost them a finish. Then running in P12, side to side contact was made between the #77 AMR and the #66 Attempto Audi that would break the Aston’s steering that would in turn result in further, heavier contact between the two cars.

With clear wheel and suspension damage, the #77 would not make it back to pit lane leaving the Japanese driver no choice but to stop on track and retire the car. Post-race, the car was excluded from the official results and had a five-place grid penalty imposed for the next round.

That leaves just two more rounds of the series still to come this weekend coming as the paddock is packed away again into their containers ready for the short journey up to the Yas Marina Circuit in neighbouring Abu Dhabi.

Photo credits – Teams / Andrew Lofthouse

There, both the D’Station Racing and TF Sport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Casper Stevenson alongside John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and Ben Tuck battled it out within a twenty-three strong GT3 class as well as eleven LMP2 and a further five LMP3 cars.

In Dubai, the entry list shows a slightly revised forty-one strong entry list going into yesterday private testing before sessions become a little more formal today with the first Free Practice, ahead of Sunday four-hour race starting at 13:00hrs local.

Still racing the outgoing 16A version of the AMR Vantage GT3, both #77 D’Station Racing and #95 TF Sport again compete with an unchanged line up as both look to improve upon their finishes in Sepang where the #95 was the faster of the two finishing P15 in class in race 1 and P9 in race 2 as opposed to P16 in Race 1 and P17 in race 2 for the #77.

Whilst both Aston’s finished down the lower end of the table during the earlier private testing session, that did all change within FP1 where the #77 shot up to P3 in class and the #95 P15 at the end. But there’s still obviously a long way to go.

Hopefully this weekend the weather will not intervene but even with the desert of Dubai - you just never know these days!!

Photo credits – Series / Team / Andrew Lofthouse

The D’Station Racing team arrive perhaps the strongest of the Aston Martin pairings as their World Endurance Championship driver line up of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Casper Stevenson will compete within their #77 car whilst the #95 TF Sport entry will field their European Le Mans Series drivers of John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Jonny Adam.

After two private testing sessions at the circuit yesterday and two further Free Practice sessions today, the #77 car has been consistently the faster of the two over the four sessions but has only just been able to penetrate into the top ten in class.

Tomorrow morning sees the first Qualifying sessions of the weekend, just hours ahead of the opening four-hour race later in the afternoon with the second leg of the double header in quick succession just twenty-four hours later on Sunday.

Like any series of motorsport – practice is one thing but racing is something entirely different!!

Photo credits – TF Sport / Andrew Lofthouse / D’Station Racing

Following that, we saw TF Sport confirm that their 2023 European Le Mans driver line up of John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Jonny Adam within the red #95 entry with Tuck getting his first taste of the series which will this year run in Sepang, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as part of a five-round series which starts next week in Sepang.

Unfortunately again too early in the life cycle of an expectant new race car, these two teams will compete within the current Vantage GT3 specification of car having both raced together this season within the Vantage GTE version.

We were originally told of three such returning AMR powered crews into this year’s Series, but the Viper Niza Racing team have since elected to run with their LMP3 chassis this year instead.

Twenty-three GT3’s help to make up the combined LMP2/LMP3/GT3 grid of thirty-nine cars expected for the first two four-hour races of the season which will run over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of December 2023 before moving across to Dubai for round three on the 4th of February 2024 before the short flit over to Abu Dhabi for the deciding double header over the weekend of the 10/11th February.

Photo credits – Andrew Lofthouse

Running quite the alien timetable that most would note for this ACO rules series sees the forty strong multi-class entry list which includes the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE crews from both TF Sport and GMB Motorsport, all see a track timetable that starts tomorrow (Wednesday) with the first of the private testing sessions. Track action then becomes a little more formal moving forward as the entry prepare to race the opening 4Hrs Algarve into the night race on Friday before having to repeat most ahead of the 4Hrs Portimao on Sunday.

Unfortunately for all three Aston Martin crews, there will be no championship winning celebrations this time around after another ‘difficult’ series visit to Spa Francorchamps which saw the Danish #44 GMB car fail to finish after an outlap crash for the young Gustav Birch after a great opening stint from Jens Moller and Nicki Thiim whilst the all-French #72 TF Sport crew of Max and Arnold Robin with Valentin Hasse-Clot ‘struggled’ with both inter team and inter brand contact that kept losing them time for a P6 finish at the end.

The #95 TF Sport AMR of John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and Ben Tuck was also never on the pace as they eventually mopped up the last of the available Championship points with a P9 finish but that result still leaves the #95 crew the best placed AMR crew in twelfth, with the #72 now just behind and the #44 sadly at the foot of the table still.

Latest information shows that the Vantage GTE platform will get a final BoP break with an additional two litre fuel capacity and increase in boost pressure across the range. A little late for Championship hopes but at least that may allow this GTE platform to go out on something of a high.

Joining them in Portugal for just one more round will be the LMP3 and GT3 cars of the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series, which happily this time sees the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR of Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse-Clot remain in front in class after the previous round at Spa Francorchamps.

Despite a major hic-up during Qualifying last time out in Belgium that saw the #10 fail to refire in the pitlane after an outlap crash for another competitor which brought out yet another red flag, the French duo did eventually come home in fifth after a late time penalty added five seconds to their race time after a miscalculation on driver time ‘forced’ Robin to drive extra-ordinarily slowly into pit lane for their compulsory stop.

“Getting away’ with those issues in Belgium has left the crew twelve points clear at the top of the GT3 Drivers Champiosnhip but with twenty-six points still available for both Pole Position in Qualifying and the class win, things are far from safe for the French duo as another three crews line up behind them to take their chances should they stumble at the final hurdle.

All three races will be exciting to watch with all three again visible to watch live via the series media channels.

With just twenty-two cars from both the GT World Challenge America and Intercontinental GT Championship circulating around the 2.4 mile infield circuit of the ancestral home to American motorsport, there were times when the track looked pretty barren in places and that must have been with a similar though from within the cockpit should your car not have quite the same number of ponies underneath the bonnet as some of those around you!

In order to elevate himself up his domestic series leader board, DeBoer needed to beat Samantha Tan and George Kurtz on track with neither securing any championship points by the end of this eight hours but unfortunately for all, both finished above DeBoer on track for the apparently ever smiling DeBoer to remain third in class.

This race also represented Hasse-Clot’s one hundredth race for Aston Martin Racing since becoming a factory driver as well as Tuck’s first endeavours around the iconic circuit so the experienced gained by the crew over the course of the weekend will favour them for any future visits to the Brickyard.

Whilst the race result may not have been quite what was hoped for by those in and out of the team, the best news has come from The Racers Group confirmation of their intention to run the new 2024 iteration of the Vantage GT3 next season. We still wait to see just what that car looks like and how it may perform in comparison with the model it will replace.

Eventually finishing P13 overall having started from one place back in P14, and P7 within their own GTWCAm Series to round off an otherwise great return to AMR powered GT3 racing.

Roll on 2024

Photo credits – Team / Series

Within the headlining GT World Challenge America Series, the closing round to their season is again ran alongside that of the Intercontinental GT Challenge is one eight-hour race format with over twenty-two top quality American and global teams expected to line up for the Saturday start.

The ‘usual’ pairing within the #007 The Racers Group AMR Vantage GT3 of Derek DeBoer and Valentin Hasse-Clot is again restored for the concluding round as they step up to the full eight-hour race with TF Sport European Le Mans Series Vantage GTE racer Ben Tuck.

With we understand as double points being on offer for this single race format (in lieu of the traditional double header of the average race weekend), that gives the #007 a remote possibility of securing the overall Pro-Am Class win come the end of Saturday’s into the night race but only as long as the crew above them fail to score and the #007 take maximum points. DeBoer and the team presently stand third within both the Pro-Am Team and Driver’s Championship table going into the weekend, thirty-six points behind the Crowdstrike by Riley Mercedes AMG GT3 team at the top of the table but only seven points ahead of the ST Racing BMW powered team.

For a season that started for all at Sonoma back in late March with a chassis very new to both the team and driver, the fact that the #007 TRG have done so well is testament to the work put in by various Prodrive supplied engineers and crew as well as the information and guidance passed onto DeBoer by both Ross Gunn and Hasse-Clot having shared the co-driver role between them.

Private testing begins at the circuit on Wednesday before the start of more formally timed sessions starting Thursday with Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying on Friday ahead of a green flag to the race at 12:15pm local on Saturday.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media / Andrew Lofthouse

With TF Sport again supporting a two car ELMS entry for that of Arnold and Max Robin with Valentin Hasse Clot aboard their all French supported #72 car and the #95 car of John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Jonny Adam, they were of course joined by the Danish #44 GMB Motorsport crew of Jens Moller, Gustav Birch and Nicki Thiim.

Whilst both the #44 and #95 cars head recent track data from their earlier test to run mid table within their class during the opening session, it was something of a game of catch-up for the #72 crew as they built up their own momentum and used cross series data available to them from their dual Le Mans Cup Series entry with the Racing Spirit of Lemans AMR Vantage GT3.

Next came the Bronze Driver test session and the first signs of real pace from the Aston Martin as both Arnold Robin and Moller took control of the first two places on the timing board with a gap of just over half a second to the chasing pack ahead of Saturday’s second Free Practice and Qualifying sessions.

Declared a wet track in the morning, track limits blighted the #44 crews position where Race Control forced them to sit time out within pit lane whilst the #95 moved up to a mid-table position with the #72 maintaining its momentum to end up P5 as the bronze rated drivers about to perform again in Qualifying.

This time the Aston Martin’s would not get everything their own way as Arnold Robin had to settle for a front row P2 start with Moller immediately behind in P4 whilst Hartshorne again struggled for pace, eventually starting from last in class.

Race day, and with the words of Race Control about the race being a four-hour affair and not just the first corner already in distant memory in the minds of some – the chaos ensued as the now collective forty strong grid hurtled its way into La Source for the first time.

Scattering LMP2 an LMP3 cars around the first corner, the chasing GTE field did at least avoid the carnage, but the race was immediately brought back under the control of the Safety Car for the first time whilst the debris was cleared having already seen a change to the running order with the #44 up to P2 and the #72 down to P3.

Twenty minutes were lost to that caution as the first racing laps showed a great dual in the making between the two lead Aston Martin’s whilst Harthorne had already pitted for a splash of fuel and a change to his cars strategy under the Safety Car.

At the top of the first hour, the first FCY was called for debris on track after which saw both #44 and #72 cars pit for the first time (for only fuel and tyres each) whilst the #95 car inherited the class lead thanks to their earlier stop. Once that sequence had cycled through, the biggest problem for the Aston Martin’s at the time was the pace of the #16 Proton Porsche which was doing more than enough to keep the chasing pack at bay.

The earlier challenging #66 JMW Ferrari meanwhile had clipped the tyre wall at Raidillon have spun coming up from Eau Rouge and their damaged steering would see that car stop on track bringing the Safety Car back out for a second time. Whilst the #72 benefitted with track position after their misfortune, the #44 GMB car would get a Drive Through Penalty for track limits (again), and that would cost the Danes heavily in terms of track position by the time that Nicki Thiim had come out for his hour stint at the midway point.

A further FCY was called for a stranded car in the barriers with 100 minutes remaining, a place in the race where the #72 car was P6, the #44 car was down to P8 and the #95 in P10. Those places would soon change again however as on the restart, small rear contact from Thiim with the #72 car of Robin saw the #72 get turned around but was thankfully able to re-join, albeit twenty or so seconds in arrears.

Ninety minutes to go and a heavy impact in the barriers for an LMP3 car saw another, prolonged appearance of the Safety Car as debris and repairs were made by the ever-efficient circuit marshals. This gave the #95 crew the chance to make their final stop under the slower pace of the caution as Ben Tuck got his first racing laps of Spa in an Aston.

An hour to go, and Thiim pitted the #44 car for their final driver change as the young Gustav Birch stepped aboard form their now P8 position in class. Unfortunately, the combination of cold tyres and over exuberance from the young Dane saw him ride the kerb at Les Combes to get spat back out to nose and tail his #44 car into the tyre wall whilst trying to catch the end of the Safety Car train ahead of the packs impending release.

Losing the rear wing, damaging the defuser amongst other things saw that car limp back to the garage and into immediate retirement leaving just the #72 of (then) Hasse Clot and the #95 of Tuck to see what each could both rescue from their P8/P9 places respectively.

Despite their best of efforts and the further intervention of two further Safety Car periods within the final half hour, the capabilities of those aboard the cars ahead and the gaps between them were too much to overcome in such little time for the #72 and #95 cars to finally come home in P6 and P9 respectively.

A disappointing end to the race and the GTE’s final appearance at the Belgium circuit for the AMR Vantage powered crews as the series now looks ahead to its final two quick fire rounds of the series at Portimao in late October. 

As far as the Championship goes – that has already been determined that it won’t be going to any AMR powered team unfortunately – not this season anyway!!

With this weekends round and then two back to back rounds still to come in Portugal, the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE’s of the ELMS are sadly effectively out of championship contention (although mathematically possible) but for the sole Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 within the Le Mans Cup, they certainly still has everything to race for!

No changes aboard the three Vantage GTE runners this weekend as the venerable platform sadly counts down to its last visit to Spa as a mainstream chassis but with its replacement presently under test this week somewhere in Spain, there are still good times to look forward to.

John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and Ben Tuck lead the AMR trio within the GTE Champiosnhip, presently standing in twelfth place in their #95 TF Sport prepared car having failed to score for the first time this season last time in the heat of Aragon. Much cooler and perhaps even wet conditions in Belgium across the weekend will certainly help to spice everything up within the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE grid.

The #72 TF Sport Aston Martin GTE of Max and Arnold Robin with Valentin Hasse Clot alongside stand below them in P14 having endured a very difficult start to their short GTE career this season, something that started with a first lap crash and elimination in Barcelona. Since then, something could have been on for them at Paul Ricard before late contact put that hope to bed before also struggling in the heat of Aragon.

Finally, there is the #44 GMB Motorsport AMR of Jens Moller, Gustav Birch and Nicki Thiim – a team who have probably suffered the most with both younger and novice drivers suffering with incident and accident along the way both in this series and at Le Mans itself.

They will come into this round with certainly nothing to lose and with a Pro driver already seat ready after his secretive two-day test with the factory team as they continue to develop this evolution of the Vantage platform in time for next season.

The more ‘spirited’ news comes with the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse Clot as the French duo maintained a slender lead at the top of the GT3 Drivers Champiosnhip after they managed to secure a P3 in class finish at Aragon.

With two lower place finishes over the course of the Road to Le Mans races in June blighting their otherwise podium-based record, the remaining races at both Spa and Portimao will need to be on their best form if they are to stop the #86 Porsche and #51 Ferrari from snatching that top prize from them at the death.

The circuit of Spa Francorchamps can be difficult enough for some at the best of times so the autumnal weather within the Ardennes will be pivotable to the success (or failure) for both grids going into race day on Saturday for the Le Mans Cup and Sunday for the ELMS.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / A Lofthouse