Tony Quinn gave the VIP Petfood’s V12 Vantage GT3 its first outing last weekend in the opening round of the Australian GT championship at Bathurst.

Sharing the track with the Bathurst 12hr competitors gave the team a challenging environment with which to get to grips with their new racer. “It’s tough to get a clean lap” said Quinn, “but already I really like the car, it’s good in the fast stuff, it brakes well, it keeps up with the Audis, I think it will be good for the year ahead to be honest.”

The race start was hectic, with the safety car coming out early on to enable a number of damaged cars to be removed, soon after the race restarted the yellow flags were out again after a Class C Aston Martin Vantage GT4 made contact with a Lamborghini on the run out of Forrest’s Elbow, the Aston then moving across as a result into the path of the similar V12 Vantage GT3 Aston of Tony Quinn, forcing both him into the concrete wall and retiring the car on the spot.

The team will now turn their focus to Adelaide for round two of the Australian GT which resumes February 28.

Race gallery

Australian race team, VIP Pet Foods, will soon be taking delivery of an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which it will race in the highly competitive Australian GT Championship.

The team which has previously run an Aston Martin DBRS9 will debut their new car in the GT Championship support event at Bathurst February 8 - 10 2013. They will then begin their Australian GT Championship campaign at the Adelaide Street Circuit on the 1-4 March.

The Vantage GT3 features a modified version of Aston Martin’s production 6.0 litre V12 engine found in the marque’s highly acclaimed sports cars. The dry-sumped engine is expected to produce 600 bhp with 700 Nm of torque and its position has been optimised further to improve weight balance..The GT3 racer also benefits from Aston Martin’s V/H architecture philosophy, the modular chassis uses aerospace bonding techniques to create a light and immensely stiff aluminium and composite structure which not only aids handling on Aston Martin’s road cars but is also an ideal base for competitive race cars.