The weekend may have started with racing woe for one Aston Martin Racing powered team, it ended happily for the other as the Violante Rosso Vantage GT3 crew secured a much-deserved class podium finish at the end of today’s 12Hours of Bathurst.

Whilst the Vantage GT4 powered Team New Zealand entry of Graham Dowsett, Romain Leroux and Chris Van Der Drift were forced to lament there early exit from the event after a Free Practice accident for Dowsett saw the car receive non-repairable damage, things were certainly different a few garages up the pit lane for the Sydney based Volante Rosso team as The Mountain experience within the team certainly paid off.

 

 

Bryce Fullwood qualified the #14 car just ahead of the Heart of Racing crew (again competing within a Mercedes AMG GT3), P27 overall and third within Pro-Am as their attention soon turned to the early start to the race on Sunday.

With the thirty-four remaining cars taking the start around the unlit circuit, it was long before the characteristics of the circuit with one entry being literally taken out by a member of the local wildlife in what could have been a more horrifying than it already was accident. A second, non-related incident put paid to almost the first hour of racing with the race (proper) then restarting as the sun began to make an appearance of the horizon.

 

 

 

Disaster struck the Team New Zealand racing team at the 12Hours of Bathurst earlier today when a Free Practice accident saw their #7 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 incur significant rear end damage after contact with the outside wall.

Having already circulated around the Mount Panorama circuit without incident for the Graham Dowsett, Romain Leroux and Chris Van Der Drift driven car, the #7 crew were the fastest GT4 classed crew sitting a respectable P33 out of the thirty-five strong runners after the first session available to them.

 

To end the day of track action was the second bronze driver only session of the day where Dowsett would again run solo with his like graded peers and for his twelve laps completed, was still the fastest of the two GT4 entries.

However, disaster struck the gentleman driver as #21 Herberth Porsche came through into Sulman Park where the line of the Aston Martin was disturbed and the car drifted out onto the marbles to back heavily into the concrete retaining wall. Not as visually spectacular as the R-Motorsport AMR Vantage GT3 at the same corner a few years ago, Dowsett was able to remove himself from his race car unaided and without injury.

 

 

No great surprises when it comes to the livery designs for the two Aston Martin Racing powered cars entered into this weekend’s 12Hrs of Bathurst as both the Team New Zealand and Volante Rosso teams posted very familiar looking photos of their cars today.

After preparations at the circuit earlier, yesterday saw the annual pilgrimage from the circuit to the town of Bathurst for all the cars entered into this year’s event, something that also makes up the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

 

The completed entry list ahead of next weekend’s 12 Hours of Bathurst has finally been confirmed by the race organisers with the two Aston Martin Racing powered runners finally being revealed in full as part of the thirty-five-car line up.

The ‘locally’ based Team NZ squad were one of the first to announce their commitment to the 2026 event as Graham Dowsett strives to make big improvements within his racing efforts alongside that of his driver coach Romain Leroux having spent the last two seasons or so competing within the Thailand Super Series.

They will be joined within the teams Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 by Chris Van Der Drift for this iconic event – which will also serve as the opening round to the Inter-Continental GT Challenge (which neither AMR powered team will part of) over the 14th and 15th February.

 

A late and unfortunate technical issue aboard the #14 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 thwarted an otherwise impressive debut run for the team and crew at yesterday’s opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge event at the twelve hours of Bathurst.

Having started the race still in the dead of night at The Mountain, reigning British GT GT4 Silver Champion had the honour of starting Volante Rosso’s one-off entry within their ‘local’ event from eighteenth of the grid of twenty-two remaining cars. Having never tested at the circuit in the dark in the build-up to Sunday morning’s start, the young Englishman did what he needed to do the get the car through into more sustainable daylight racing hours and preserve that position whilst others were failing to do so.

 

The #14 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 has certainly pulled upon the heartstrings of local race fans during the preceding sessions of this weekend’s opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge around the ionic circuit of Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Australia.

Fielded by the ‘near’ locally based team from Sydney, the older generation 16A variant of the successful AMR platform competes within the silver class with its diverse young gun driver line up of Jamie Day, Mateo Villagomez and Jaylyn Robotham.

 

From the east coast of Florida to just off the east coast of New South Wales in Australia is the route of this weekend’s motorsport programme as the Intercontinental GT Challenge sets about its opening round of the season around The Mountain of Bathurst.

Whilst last weekend’s IMSA opener from Daytona did lead to one class podium finish for one of the four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD entries, this weekend’s twelve-hour race will feature just the lone bullet entry from the locally based Volante Rosso Motorsport team but with an international flavour behind the wheel.

 

There has certainly been plenty of positive noises coming out of various Aston Martin Racing powered camps this week as various team put their names against various campaigns within this season coming but nothing more than what you would expect them to at this stage of the year.

There has been however, some other news coming out of other AMR powered camps that contained some rather more robust news to suggest that they are actual plans rather than desires moving forward.

Good news today as it appears that we shall be seeing the return of Tony Quinn as well as a surprise entry back into motor racing this season down under as the new for 2021 GT World Challenge Australia Series kicks starts itself back into action after a year-long COVID-19 induced hiatus.

 

Today final saw a Provisional entry list issued for next weekend’s final round of the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge from Kyalami in South Africa but alas, there is nobody to cheer for from our own side of things!

Having started way back in late January at the opening round from Bathurst Australia, this truly international GT3 Series has obviously been yet another series blighted, reduced in numbers and delayed in time by the ongoing global pandemic to such a degree that next weekend we will see just twelve cars entered, with some racing for the final time as a factory concern and no Aston Martin’s!

Today saw the SRO reveal their Provisional entry list for their heavily revised second round of their 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge Series from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in just under a months time.

Another Series heavily affected by the global pandemic after their opening round at Bathurst way back in early January, they later saw subsequent rounds both postponed and/or eventually cancelled and that lead to a situation where they now have two quick fire rounds on either side of the Atlantic before ultimately concluding their season in South Africa in December.


Due the new world of motorsport that has come about as a direct result of COVID-19, todays entry list only shows twenty two entries spread between the GT3/GT4 classes and does unfortunately not include any entry from the Garage 59 Aston Martin Racing Team.

Listed at the start of the season as a full season and manufacturer supported entry that the Series requires, Garage 59 have elected not to attend the North American round of the now four round season for reasons that we believe including the race's proximity to the Spa 24hr event just three weeks later where we do expect them to make a return.


With that disappointment, the Provisional entry list did however include the Notlad Racing with Rennsport One AMR V8 Vantage GT4 of SRO GT4 America racers Matt Dalton and Pat Gallagher. With them having swapped to the AMR platform for the 2020 season, that team have had some bad luck in the season so far but have most recently been rewarded for all their hard work and determination with a class podium at their latest round of racing from Road America last weekend. They are due to be joined by a Jonathon Taylor for the eight hour event.

Taking yesterday's confirmation that Swiss based Aston Martin Racing team, R-Motorsport would pay no further part in what is left of the 2020 season as a simple statement of fact was nothing short of a complete disaster for all those involved with the team, the series they were due to compete in and for us fans.

Since stepping up from their early days of 'simple' ad-hoc VLN participation for both team partners (plus supporting network of customer drivers) in on of their AMR Vantage GT4's racing under their St Gallen name, 2020 was due to see the team again enter two of their new AMR Vantage GT3 cars into both of the World Challenge Europe Sprint and Endurance rounds as well as an additional Vantage GT4 in the supporting GT4 European Series.


Those series were in addition to the worldwide Intercontinental GT Challenge that the team had already started by taking the new turbo charged Vantage GT3 to Bathurst for the first time in early February 2020.

The team also had ambitions, although there was never to be any further word on this from the team of their Vantage Cup Series concept beyond that of its launch announcement with Florian Kamelger, Andreas Baenziger and Dr Andy Palmer from Aston Martin.


Of course, the tail end of the 2019 came with significant cost for the team as they abandoned their German DTM efforts even before the end of the season after suffering from persistent performance issues that simply left them uncompetitive against their BMW/Audi/Mercedes peers - that must have left a large hole in the balance sheet of the team that the current COVID-19 pandemic only served to exaggerated this year.

As with all professional race teams, racing is a business working to a proven business model and when that model is affected by circumstances beyond their control (no spectators/corporate guests/shortened season/unpredictable situation moving forward) all of that leaves you with a simple decision with regards to moving forward or not!


Clearly the business heads on the team bosses outweighed that of their hearts.

These guys are not the first to be affected in the world of motorsport by the ongoing worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic - they certainly will not be the last either as we know of a few other national and European programmes going back under the spotlight by their paymasters ahead of any final go-no go decision but for us AMR fans, they are the biggest - and it hurts!!

For us, our only glimpse of their 2020 efforts came in the form of the Official Test for the GT World Challenge Europe at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France back in mid March. For some of their confirmed eleven drivers, this news has allowed them to concentrate on other programmes whilst many others have been sadly left with few options right now.


"The required access restrictions at race events prevent us from offering our exclusive R-Experience hospitality to our customers and partners, which is vital not only for R-Motorsport but for the business of our entire group of companies."

"Irrespective of the decision not to race this season we are already fully committed to our programme in 2021 and beyond” said Kamelger.

In a bruising Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour that claimed a dozen cars, the Garage 59 team went through the highs and the lows of racing at Mount Panorama.

The #159 Aston Martin, competing in the Silver Class with Andrew Watson, Olivier Hart and Roman De Angelis, took second place in class by avoiding trouble and staying fast and consistent throughout the 12-hour race. They actually crossed the line in third position but a post-race penalty for a competitor boosted their position. Team regular Watson made his Bathurst debut in 2016 but De Angelis and Hart are Bathurst rookies and the calm yet fast pace from all three was rewarded with a podium finish.