This weekend’s second round of the GT Cup Championship from Snetterton will this time feature two Aston Martin Racing powered crews ahead of their two sprint and two pit stop punctuated races around the 300-circuit layout.

GT4 Challenge and British GT names from the past sees both Richard Taffinder and Tim Eakin reunite as a racing pairing as well as rejoining forces with what is now the GBR Stratton Motorsport team as they will complete within one of the teams AMR Vantage GT4’s.

 

Also making racing comeback is Paul Whight who will be bring his ex Villois Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT2 into the championship within their permitted GTO class.

This weekend will again see two twenty-five-minute sprint races and two fifty-minute pit stop races.

Photo credit – GBR Stratton (GT4)

 

 

With the Aston Martin DBR9 and DBRS9 coming towards the end of their expected racing lifespan, a new generation of Vantage race car platform was being developed with the initial legwork being done by Lord Paul Drayson's team who were then competing in the American Le Mans Series.

Auditioned in 2008 in the States, the GT2 Vantage soon hit the tracks of Europe with many teams like JMW, Jota and RoFGO across many series in Europe. Like the DBR9 platform before it, it wasn't too long before a cheaper Vantage GT3 race car was launched to AMR's customer teams whilst the GT2 went on to become the AMR's GTE model (which will be covered separately in these galleries).

Again in no particular order and again in support of health care professionals round the world, these are a few more of our photographic offerings.

Should you be in the UK over the weekend and strangely not be able to make it to the opening round of the new season of the World Endurance Championship (why not?) then perhaps you would like to make your way over to the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk for the penultimate round of this season's Aston Martin Owners Club racing.

Casting your eye down the provisional entry list for Saturday's activities on track you will see the usual GT4 'suspects' from Stratton Motorsport, Whitebridge AMR and Vantage Racing competing in the GT4 Challenge Race but it is those on either side of these entries that catches our eye.


Its been a long time since we have seen one of the former Marsh Plant Aston Martin V8 powerhouses from the 1970's race around a track and we have one of those due to compete in the Inter-marque Challenge alongside another AMR Vantage GT4.


Then, as Invitational entries into the GT Challenge race we will have Paul Whight and his former Villois Racing AMR Vantage GT2 out and about with Joe Hill joining him as well as the return of Gleb Stepanov's upgraded Aston Martin Vulcan AMR Pro with Stephen Tomkins. Maybe, that car will turn up still wearing its camouflage livery from the Gumball 300 charity run that it participated in earlier this year?

Could be interesting on track and a delight to listen to with some there tomorrow for private testing?

Photo credits - AMR / RLSI

An unplanned trip to the Silverstone Classic yesterday gave us some welcome sights in witnessing racing cars from both Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing through the ages.

From racing examples from its DB2 era taking on the full Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone came more modern examples of cars directly associated with Aston Martin Racing - a DBR9, a Lola Aston Martin LMP1 prototype and two examples of the grandad to todays brand new Vantage GTE in the form of the Vantage GT2.


The four AMR built cars were all competing within the Masters Endurance Legends Series, a series that has taken these cars previously only seen within their respective private collection back onto the race tracks of Europe to be raced how their designers had intended.

The Strakka Racing DBR9 was back on track with then driver and now owner Nick Leventis behind the wheel whilst the former JWA and Villois Racing GT2's were being raced by others - Tom Kimber Smith in the latter. The Lola P1 was being entered by its current owner Christophe D'Ansembourg - all cars now regular attendees in the Masters Series.


Without going into too much detail of their two races over Saturday and Sunday, it wouldn't be amiss to say that class and overall successes werent too far away in any of the three classes in which they ran nor to say that the characteristic wails of their respective engine designs fully captivated the attending audience.


Over in the National paddock amongst the mainly Formula Junior entry we found one person who has helped to sculpt their national GT racing culture and another who is very instrumental in the designs of todays Aston Martin road cars.


Jac Nelleman, a partner of Jan Struve's Young Driver programme took great delight in sharing the reasons for his attendance at the event in the form of the Formula Junior car that he helped his father build back in 1959. With the car having been within the family ever since and having already entered every major Historic event around the world Silverstone was to be the swan song event for him and his Alfa Dana car.

If ever you get the chance to chat with this man, best draw up a couple of chairs and a coffee as you won't be disappointed.


Finally, and with the man who brings everything back to the present day was bumping into the Chief Creative Officer at Aston Marin Lagonda in Marek Reichman with his Cooper Formula Junior car. Chanced upon in the National paddock by accident we thought that the chances of their being two people with that name being slim and indeed once we found him he also gave us a large period of time in his race build up to speak with us.

Obviously enjoying his recent spate of racing events both at home and at Le Mans (in both the AMR Festival and the Classic) his obvious enthusiasm on Sunday for historic racing wasn't enough to secure him a decent finish after damage sustained on the opening lap ended his day before it had really begun.


His comments on the irony of following one or two of his recent creations (the events Safety cars being provided by Aston Martin in the form of a DB11 and Vantage) whilst aboard a pre 1960 formula car was refreshing!!

All in all it was a good day out!

Just two weeks after competing in the new Masters Series Endurance Legends event at Spa Francorchamps, the former Villois Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT2 finds itself looking for a new home.

Having last been sold just over two years ago for a cool £125,000  plus commission at the Aston Martin Works auction, the GT2-007 chassis car has only been seen fleetingly on track ever since and is only one of an apparent three remaining platforms from an original production cycle of ten cars. That rarity is being reflected in the sale price.


Who says you only make money on property?!!!!

Full listing details for the sale can be found HERE

Hopefully with the level now being shown in the fledgling Endurance Legends Series we may get to see more of this beauty?

Photo credits - Richard Leach