The second rounds of the German based DTM and ADAC GT Masters Series take place this weekend from the Dutch coastal circuit of Zandvoort with the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team back in action within each series.

For the programme heading DTM Series, the team will be back with their two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo’s as Nicki Thiim carries on his incredibly busy week that started over a week ago in fact during the earlier Qualification stages of the ADAC Ravenol N24, through the twenty-four-hour race itself before moving onto Spa Francorchamps earlier this week for some Crowdstrike Spa 24 testing.

 

Whilst the Dane drives his #007 car, the sister #008 car will again be driven by Nicolas Baert having also attended Spa for the two-day Prologue test with the team.

First time out this season in the series was at the Red Bull Ring, Austria back in late April where a difficult opening qualifying session and later Race 1 was improved upon on the second day where Thiim finished P5 overall and Baert P17.

 

This weekend will see another difficult weekend for the AMR Vantage platform in terms of power characteristics around the tight and twisty circuit where the teams only data from last season saw both cars finish at the tail of the pack. This weekend’s entry list also shows another nineteen strong entry (21 cars in total) for the two one-hour races.

Joining them at the circuits will be the fifteen-car entry of the ADAC GT Masters Series with the Comtoyou Racing team also fielding another AMR Vantage GT3 Evo powered crew within that series.

 

Their #39 entry of Jamie Day and Baudouin Detout will take on only their second race together in their silver class.

Last time out for these guys in Austria saw Day secure a front row start for race 1 for them to finish eighth before dropping down to P10 in race two for what was still Detout’s first competitive GT3 racing weekend.

 

This weekend will be fast and furious for sure!

Photo credits – Teams / Series

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today saw the first track action of a two-day Prologue Test at the Spa Francorchamps circuit ahead of next months 78thCrowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa with fifty-nine of the expected seventy car entry taking part within today’s opening two sessions.

Whilst we thought that the seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered entries and crews were fairly locked in before now, there have been a few more changes within a couple of these cars with six of the seven in attendance today.

For the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport team, it’s a busy week for them having just cleared up from their podium winning achievements at last weekend’s ADAC Ravenol N24 from the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

 

The #35 silver classed Vantage GT3 of Mateo Vilagomez, Ethan Ischer, Gaspard Simon and Maxime Robin was in attendance today at Spa but their #34 Pro class entry of Henrique Chaves, Christian Krognes and Jamie Day was not – or at least did not get any measurable laps in.

The Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crew was in attendance but their driver line up within their #56 car for both the Prologue and the Spa 24 has changed again slightly as Tom Wood loses his seat to Romain Leroux for both events alongside Jonny Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli and Lorcan Hanafin.

The remaining Aston Martins in attendance were from the locally based Comtoyou Racing team as they fielded the other four cars across the Pro, Silver and Bronze classes.

 

Podium winners at Nordschleife Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi (then in a Walkenhorst prepared AMR of course) swap over to the Comtoyou prepared #7 Pro entry alongside that of Marco Sorenson. The #11 bronze entry of Marcelo Tomasoni, AJ Muss and Kyle Marcelli has been boosted with fourth man Felice Jelmini whilst their #21 silver entry of Oliver Soderstrom, Kobe Pauwels and Sebastian Baud also has fourth man Arthur Dorison confirmed.

That leaves the all-Belgian car and crew of Nicolas Baert, Xavier Knauf, Sarah Bovey and Gergory Servais within the recently announced #700 Pro-Am Cup entry.

Photo credits – Series

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst there have been many other Aston Martin Racing powered team podium finishes this weekend, the greatest achievement of the year so far has to go to the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry in this weekend’s ADAC Ravenol N24 around the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Giving early indications as to their speed and intentions, the #34 car of Nicki Thiim, Mattia Drudi and Christian Krognes not only took the race to the more dominant German brands but beat many of them in the process to eventually finish third overall at the end of the twenty-four earlier this afternoon. This result is the best overall race result on record for any AMR podium tea has achieved and has been something that has (and continues) to illude the British marque.

 

Starting from eleventh on the grid after Fridays top qualifying session, the #34 was quickly making its mark at the sharp end of the one hundred and sixty-one car entry – leading the race by right as the afternoon turned dark and as Drudi survived two laps around the sprawling circuit on slicks whilst others were coming off worse for the same.

With their success, there was also heartache to be felt within the AMR camp featuring four AMR Vantage GT3 powered crews and one Vantage GT4 powered crew as it was just the #34 crew who finished the race. The #35 Walkenhorst car failed to make it five times around the track before its stationary position on track was narrowly avoided by the chasing pack whilst the #39 Walkenhorst car didn’t go much further after being rear ended during the night.

 

The #37 Prosport Racing AMR did make it through the night only for a tyre failure along the Dottinger Hohe to spear the older Vantage headlong into the barrier and into immediate retirement. We unfortunately didn’t see much of the #169 Dorr Motorsport Vantage GT4, but they did also feature high within their SP10 class overnight before also failing somewhere soon after.

It’s been another great event – a great tribute to the sadness of the preceding Qualification race weekend but well done to all concerned.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / AMR / social media

 

 

 

 

After three more Qualifying sessions around the Nurburgring Nordschleife, the starting grid ahead of tomorrow’s start of the 2026 ADAC Ravenol N24 has finally been determined.

Despite running higher up the order in earlier sessions, the best that any of the four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and one Vantage GT4 powered runners was just outside of the top ten within the combined total grid of one hundred and sixty-one cars.

 

With the three Walkenhorst Motorsport and one Prosport Racing crews already having faced some very challenging but very typical track conditions, it was unsurprisingly the #34 Walkenhorst car of Mattia Drudi, Nicki Thiim, Christian Krognes and Felipe Fernandez Laser who will be started farthest forward after they secured a P11 start at the end of today’s earlier top 12 Q3 session.

The sister #35 Walkenhorst AMR of Mateo Villagomez, Dennis Fetzer, Stafan Aust and a double dutying Laser were next quickest as they finished the qualifying process with a P23 with the third and final Walkenhorst entry of Henry Walkenhorst, Anders Buchardt, Nico Hantke and Mex Jansen P32 overall.

 

The #39 Am classed Prosport Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Guido Dumarey, Tobias Wahl, Markus Lonnroth and Christian Konnerth P43 overall.

There is a further AMR Vantage crew competing at the event this weekend, this time within the SP10 class as the Dorr Motorsport team manage of their cars for their client crew of Peter Sander, Heiko Hahn, Roland Waschkau and Philippe Charlaix within their #169 car. They will start 106th overall.

 

Whilst the racing will always be good, the weather over the Eiffel circuit remains the biggest threat with low cloud cover as well as low temperatures expected to exacerbate the expected rain over both Saturday and Sunday.

The race will be waved off at 15:00hrs local on Saturday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

It’s time to gear ourselves up ahead of the first of the three major twenty-four-hour racing events in Europe as the ADAC Ravenol N24 looks to get going this week featuring another incredible entry list of one hundred and sixty-one mixed class GT and tin-top racers this weekend around the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife.

 

Again featuring itself as the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge as a ‘side show’ to the racing event in itself, we will be looking to the front of the grid – within the SP9 class to be specific where we will be welcoming four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews to its midst.

 

Like many of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie events before it, all four AMR powered entries will be from both the Prosport Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams as they enter their older and newer examples of the Vantage platform within the class.

Those crews are confirmed as follows:-

#34 Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR Vantage GT3 Evo – Nicki Thiim/Chirstian Krognes/ Matia Drudi/Felipe Fernandez Laser

#35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Vantage GT3 Evo – Mateo Villagomez/Felipe Fernandez Laser/Dennis Fetner/Stefan Aust

 

 

Tragedy unfortunately struck down the motorsport community again at the weekend after it was confirmed that a veteran racer succumbed to injuries inflicted in a multi-car accident at the opening race of the 2026 ADAC Ravenol N24 Qualifiers on Saturday.

Over one hundred and thirty-two cars were listed as entering this weekend’s pair of four-hour races however the events early into Saturday’s race saw the proceedings red flagged due to this multi-car incident, but no further details were given.

 

Only later into the evening when it was confirmed that race one of the weekend would not be resumed did race organisers confirm that 66-year-old Finnish racer Juha Miettinen had sadly passed away despite the best of efforts by the medical and circuit staff.

That seven-car accident had also claimed the #27 Prosport Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 amongst the carnage just prior to the Karussell and that car and crew would take no further involvement in Sundays continuation.

 

 

 

Five Aston Martin Racing powered crews will convene around at the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit this weekend for the two ADAC Ravenol N24 Qualification races around the infamous circuit.

Unsurprisingly, all five crews are from the Prosport Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams with the former running their pair of older 16A iteration of platform whilst the latter run a trio of Evo versions.

At the last NLS round we only had the single Prosport entry but that was simply because the Walkenhorst team were busy in the south of France getting ready for the opening six-hour round of the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup Series.

 

That being said, one of the overall winners within the #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR Vantage GT3’s in that event will be swapping allegiances to the Walkenhorst team for these qualification races and indeed twenty-four hour itself as Nicki Thiim partners Christian Krognes with the #34 SP9 entry. They will then be joined by third man Mattai Drudi at the 24 but he is already busy this weekend at the FIA WEC opener in Italy.

The team’s second N24 entry within their #35 car will also be present around the Green Hell this weekend as drivers Mateo Villagomez, Felipe Fernandez-Laser, Dennis Fetzer and Stefan Aust team up togther for the first time.

A third team entry for team boss Henry Walknehorst, Nico Hantke, Anders Buchardt and Mex Jansen will also be involved within the teams #39 car. We don’t know about any special livery this time around after the colourful charity fundraiser example of last season.

 

The locally based Prosport Racing team will also be fielding two AMR Vantage GT3 crews this weekend although they are only down for having one within the main event in mid-May. The entry list for this weekend also list drivers within both cars so it’s all rather confusing at the moment with father and son Maxime and Guido Dumarey part of the N24 entry but with Marek Bockmann, Tobias Wahl, Maik Ronnefarth and Markus Lonnroth all in support somewhere across the two cars.

This weekend’s event will be made up of two four-hour races – one on Saturday and the other on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

 

The Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie becomes the first traditional European based race series to get its 2026 programme underway this weekend with its first of ten rounds around the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife between now and mid-October.

Compared to previous seasons within the NLS Series, all Aston Martin Racing powered participation moves to the front of their traditional diverse and expansive grids will all three AMR powered entries competing within the SP9 class.

Over the winter, the usual participants from the Prosport Racing team have seen them realign to another platform leaving just there older iteration of Vantage GT3 to compete with the two Walkenhorst Motorsport and their newer Evo’d cars.

 

As the German based team continue to go about their pre-season testing business around Europe, the Walkenhorst Motorsport team have been the first Aston Martin Racing powered team to confirm their participation within this year’s ADAC Ravenol Nurburgring 24 Hour.

Having already confirmed a multi- AMR Vantage GT3 participation within the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance and Sprint Cups Series, the team today confirmed a two-car entry into this year’s event in both the SP9 and SP9 Pro-Am classes.

The qualification sessions for this weekend’s ADAC Ravenol 24H Nurburgring from the Nurburgring Nordschleife are now over after its earlier delay and it’s been a great showing from the four Aston Martin Raving Vantage GT3 crews competing within the top-flight SP9 Pro classes.

With the Walkenhorst Motorsport team putting up three of those entries and the locally based Prosport Racing team the fourth, all have qualified their cars comfortably within the top twenty ahead of tomorrow’s wave off.

 

Three weeks after the unfortunate weather affected and shortened version of the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nurburgring, the next round of the Nordschleife Langstrecken Serie is now upon us from the infamous German circuit with another healthy line up of Aston Martin Racing powered entries.

Preparing for this Saturdays four hour and third round of the NLS series sees up to seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 powered crews hope for some summer seasonal weather around the historic Nordschleife circuit after torrential rain and then fog blighted the 24H event earlier this month.