Both Street Art Racing and Academy Motorsport will be hoping for greater consistency with their collective three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 entry at this weekend GT4 European Series form Brands Hatch.

Academy skipped the series Official Test at Zolder back in March in preference to their private testing in Portimao and that became pretty evident at the first round of the Series last month in the first two races of the season. With such little time to practice together, Zolder became a baptism of fire for both Matt Nichol-Jones and new co driver Fiona James as both technical issues and race 'rustiness' blighted both of their races to finish DNF and P20 respectively.


For the teams second car, it was a case of grade demotion and driving alone for Immanuel Vinke in the AM class as no second driver could be found in time. We understand that for Brands Hatch that situation remains the same as he looks to improve from P28 and P34 last time out.

Hopefully the teams P3 podium last week for Nichol-Jones in British GT will serve as a catalyst for them all.

For the Belgium Street Art Team, Zolder was also the first time out in that formula for their young and inexperienced driver Julien Darras and their Pro Pascal Bachmann.


With both races for the Blancpain GT support series taking place on Sunday, that leaves little margin for error should any team have an altercation with the circuits newly enhanced safety barrier systems.

Qualifying and both races can be viewed live from the series webpage.

Photo credits - Academy / GT4 European

After some last minute negotiations with the series organisers, it looks as if Academy Motorsport will indeed be entering both of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's into this weekends GT4 European Series opener from Zolder.

Having previously advertised a two car entry into both the GT4 European Series and its sister SRO series (the British GT Championship) the Worcester based team has been struggling to fill their final seat in the second of their cars, but have today received a change of driver grading that will now allow the one confirmed driver to race alone.


Just after the AMR Collective test from Portimao in Portugal in early March, team boss Matt Nichol-Jones announced that he would indeed be returning to the Pro/Am class of the European Series but with a new co-driver in Walero race wear boss and former Dutch Supercar driver Fiona James.

Now racing solo in the team's other car will be (now) Bronze rated driver Immanuel Vinke, a name that many of you will recognise as a man who raced with Beechdean AMR in their Vantage GTE at the final round of the European Le Mans Series in Portimao last year.


Joining the two Academy cars will the Street Art Racing V8 Vantage GT4 #7 car of Pascal Bachmann and Julien Darras who will also compete in the Pro/Am class. They will race a car with the livery that competed in the FFSA GT4 Championship last year having sold their former GT4 European Series car to - Academy Motorsport over the winter!

Forty four cars from ten manufacturers are presently down on the Zolder entry list!

Sharing the meeting with the Blancpain GT Sprint Series, all races will be streamed live via the series webpage.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / GT4 European

Outgoing European Le Mans Series (ELMS) GTE Champions Beechdean AMR rounded off their 2017 campaign with a fourth place finish at the Algarve International circuit.

Featuring a different driver line up for the final round at Portimao, consisting of Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Immanuel Vinke, the #99 qualified sixth and was able to pick up the pieces from the unreliability of the Spirit of Race Ferraris during the 4 hour race to claim fourth and 12 championship points.

Team boss and driver Howard commented, “I enjoyed my stint chasing the Aston ahead. Congratulations to JMW on winning the championship. I am looking forward to returning to racing in 2018.”

Despite their best of efforts and finishing on the podium yesterday afternoon, Surrey based TF Sport left the Portimao circuit almost empty-handed after the final round of the European Le Mans Series.

Whilst nobody would ever complain of the fact that long term series protagonists JMW Motorsport did enough on Sunday to clinch both the GTE Team and Drivers Championships by just two points over TF Sport, yesterday's results do leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouths of any discerning Aston Martin Racing fan with the thought of what might have been.


That feeling has been echoed by the sometimes very carefully worded social media posting from drivers Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Nicki Thiim after each event since the Red Bull Ring in July when the V8 Vantage received its last Balance of performance adjustment - an adjustment that then placed their #90 car (and indeed that of the #99 Beechdean AMR) behind that on track of the subsequent all conquering Ferrari 488.

All that being said, there was nothing the team nor the drivers could have done about it despite all their protestations, leaving everything else to what they do best as racers and giving their all for which nobody could have asked for anymore!

Whilst we pass our congratulations onto JMW for their championship win and for another season of great motor racing, we also pass our congratulations and thanks to TF Sport who have supplied us fans with another awesome season of european racing as we now eagerly look forward to what plans are confirmed for 2018.


They also don't leave Portugal quite as empty handed as we thought as their second place finish in the GTE leader board earns the team their second consecutive automatic entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 so its not as bad as it could have been.

Well done guys!

Photo Credits - Andrew Lofthouse / Jacob Ebrey

GTE Championship contenders TF Sport face an uphill battle tomorrow as another poor qualifying left both Aston Martin Racing Vantages at the rear of tomorrows grid.

Needing to at least finish ahead of the JMW Ferrari in tomorrows race in order to have any chance in lifting the championship crown, both Nicky Thiim and Darren Turner were left frustrated at the foot of the timing sheet as their balance of performance hobbled Vantages were 'left standing' in the closing stages of the session this afternoon as the other championship protagonists (Spirit of Race and JMW) claimed first and second in class respectively in their Ferrari 488's.


Without taking anything away from the achievements of Matt Griffin in claiming pole and Will Stevens for doing what he needed to do to maintain his own championship hopes, you could easily sense the high level of frustration with some within both AMR camps as this 'imbalance in performance' had continued with these lack lustre parameters ever since the Red Bull Ring in July.

The deficit from the pole setting #55 Ferrari to the #90 car in P5 was a whopping 1.5 seconds!

None the less - what is done is done and the four hours of Portimao will provide us fans with another epic multi class race as all three classes have championship titles to settle.

Obviously we hope that Elektra claims hers!

Photo credits - A Lofthouse / Dunlop

The provisional entry list released today for the final round of the 2017 European Le Mans Series at Portimao in two weeks time has indicated a slight driver change for outgoing GTE Champions Beechdean AMR.

Having finally battled their way back to the GTE Class podium last time out at Spa Francorchamps, the entry lists sadly omits the name of Ross Gunn from the red, white and blue V8 Vantage GTE in favour of young German Immanuel Vinke who now joins team boss Andrew Howard and Darren Turner in Portugal.


Lately of Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup experience with the #32 Am Class Zakspeed team, the twenty two year old silver ranked driver also has experience in the European GT4 Series but nothing of note in any GTE car unless of course he tested with the team at two recent AMR/AML tests at both Snetterton and Silverstone!

Twenty four points behind the class leading TF Sport car, the #99 crew do of course have the slightest of chances of retaining their crown should they take maximum points and those around them 'drop like flies'.

We understand that this move is a pre-cursor from the team's announced expansion into a number of other national and european GT racing series in 2018.

Photo credits - BES / ELMS