Whilst the ACO and its 24 Hours of Le Mans dominated the racing headlines around the world last weekend, the SRO were doing their best to publicise their GT3 and GT4 race series both in Australia and North America where the Aston Martin Racing brand again found themselves represented within each.

Down under, last weekend was the third round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series which saw the Sydney based Volante Rosso team field their third driver line up the year as GT3 debutant Cameron Rees was welcomed into their #14 AMR Vantage GT3.

 

Not just a rookie to his race car but also a rookie to the Queensland Motorsport Park circuit, the odds were truly stacked against the solo driver as he competed within the Trophy class and with just fifteen runners again scheduled, his work was already cut out. Admitting to mistakes within Q1, the #14 car would start Saturday’s hour-long opener from P14 overall and P3 in class to come through to take a deserved race finish just two laps down to the overall winner P12 overall and P3 in class.

 

Sundays Qualifying run was much better as he secured a Trophy class pole position out of the three class runners but again his GT3 inexperience proved costly as Rees finished race two again in P12 overall and P3 in class.

 

Then over in North America, both the GT World Challenge America and GT America Series were racing out their fourth rounds to the seasons from the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with one AMR Vantage GT3 and one AMR Vantage GT4 this time flying the flag.

Again, there were no changes within either line up as Frank DePew and Robin Liddell raced within their #71 Rebel Rock Racing Vantage GT3 within Sundays three-hour Gt World Challenge race whilst Jason Bell would again run solo within his #2 Racers Edge Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 within the two forty-minute GT America Series races.

 

With just two GT4’s running within the GT America Series races, Bell didn’t have too much difficulty in maintaining his 100% race winning streak since returning to the series last time out.

 

Within the GT World Challenge America Series meanwhile, the #71 crew still had their work cut out in Liddell’s driver coaching for the more mature DePew as he continues his transition between GT4 and GT3 platforms and by the end of that Safety Car interrupted race, the #71 crew would secure their best result of the season so far finishing P13 overall and P10 in class.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

Fairly timely as the third round of the season sees the third driver line up reshuffle of the year for the Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing powered team within the GT World Challenge Australia Series.

This weekend racing at Queensland Raceway sees the #14 AMR Vantage GT3 powered team throughout a solo driver in Cameron Rees for their Trophy classed entry this time around.

 

Last time out at The Bend Motorsport Park, the time ran a revised line up of both Alex Gardner and Ben Porter together for the first time where that duo secured a podium double with a P3 and P2 finishes in class across the two one-hour races.

It will be the same race format again this weekend where Rees will be competing within an entry list of fifteen multi-classed entries where he will be making his national debut within the series

Photo credits – Team / Series

  

Three SRO related race series completed this weekend’s racing action as far as Aston Martin Racing powered teams and crews were going by as the GT World Challenge Australia’s duo of races preceded the GT World Challenge America and GT America races over the course of Saturday and Sunday.

Down under, the Volante Rosso GT3 team fielded another co-driver for their young prodigy Alex Gardner as Ben Porter was welcomed back to the team a couple of years after they first ran their Vantage GT3 togther in 2024.

 

This time at The Bend Motorsport Park in the second round of the season and running within the Trophy Class of just three runners, the #14 crew were able to convert their two P2 starts in class to a P3 and P2 finish at the end of each one-hour race.

Then, over at the Sebring International Speedway, the Rebel Rock Racing AMR Vantage GT3 crew of Frank DePew and Robin Liddell were out in only their second round of the season after having debuted themselves and the Vantage GT3 Evo last time out at the Circuit of the Americas.

 

Like CoTA, the #71 pairing were able to calm the bumps of the former airfield circuit to deliver another full three-hour race performance in the Floridian heat to convert their P18 start to finish P17 overall – P12 within Pro-Am. Another progressive result for them.

The weekend also saw the race return of former double GT America GT4 Champion Jason Bell who has reunited with the Racers Edge Motorsport team to see out the series with their new for 2026 AMR Vantage GT4 Evo.

 

Taking just the two Free Practice sessions to get back up to speed, Bell went on to claim both GT4 race wins over the weekend as well as being the fastest none GT3 based entry as well.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

This weekend sees the running of the second round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series from The Bend Motorsport Park near Adelaide where the sole running Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered team enjoys another driver re-alignment.

At the opening round to the 2026 season that was raced at Phillip Island back in late March, the #14 Volante Rosso AMR Vantage GT3 was then raced by both Alex Gardner alongside Lee Stibbs where the Trophy Classed duo secured P2 and P1 finishes at the end of those two one-hour races.

 

For this weekend’s two races, Gardner will again be joined by Ben Porter who debuted the teams then new (17A version) AMR Vantage GT3 together at the Queensland round of the series back in early August 2024.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back to rejoin Volante Rosso in the Aston Martin at The Bend,” Porter said. “It was great to be part of the team’s very first event with the Aston back in 2024, and since then, they have brought that package a long way. The car is sorted, the team knows it really well, and there’s no reason why we can’t be in a position to fight for a good result”.

The provisional entry list now confirms the #14 car just one of sixteen entries - three within their Trophy class.

 

 

It was a successful opening round to the GT World Challenge Australia Series for the Aston Martin Racing powered side to the Volante Rosso Motorsport team as their new driver line up scored well within their Trophy Class at Phillip Island.

Again racing the team’s older 16A version of the Vantage GT3, this season has seen the return of their ‘young gun’ Alex Gardner being paired with GT3 debutant racer Lee Stibbs within the team’s #14 as they also managed a parallel programme with a McLaren GT3.

 

 

Early track sessions we wet and influenced the Qualifying sessions on Saturday morning which saw Stibbs doing best with a P12 overall /P1 in class starting position for race one on Saturday with Gardner finishing at the tail of the grid for Sundays finale.

Both hour long races followed a similar pattern as early Safety Cars kept the opening laps to a more sedate pace as cars were extracted from both the gravel traps and from differing parts of the racetrack – all incidents that the #14 had managed to stay fortunately clear of.

 

Stibbs would lose most of his driving time within race one to the Safety Car before handing the car over to Gardner mid pack. Having braved another heavy shower than came across the circuit whilst still on slicks, the #14 car would incur a ten second time penalty (cause unknown) and that would hamper their recovery by despite Gardner initially maintaining his early gained class lead would have to make do with second in class at the end of race one – P10 overall.

Race two would see Gardner fortunately placed out of harm’s way at the rear as again, two more cars were sent spearing through the gravel track to turn one – again bringing out the safety car.

 

A later error of his own would see Gardner run through a gravel trap but would be able to recover himself back to the track with little or no damage to the car other than lost time. Making up for lost ground on Saturday, Stibbs would rally the car’s position to the head of the Trophy class to claim their first, class win of the year to also claim an early lead within their Drivers Championship

The next round to the season will be from the Bend Motorsport Park in early May.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

Despite our trepidation yesterday regarding this weekend’s racing situation as far as Aston Martin Racing powered teams were concerned, news overnight from down under thankfully see us as being proven wrong (again) as there will be a Vantage GT3 pounding the beat around a racetrack after all.

That news has come from the Australian based Volante Rosso team who last night confirmed a two GT3 car entry within their domestic GT World Challenge Australia Series entry which starts this weekend from Phillip Island.

 

One of those entries will indeed include their older 16A variant of the Vantage which they ran last year with some podium success with what turned out to be varying array of driver talent. This year, however, the team have entered their #14 car within the Trophy Class for their young protégé Alex Gardner alongside Lee Stibbs.

Gardner did start the team off with their AMR acquisition later on in the 2024 season before Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser/Jamie Day competed togther in 2025.

 

This weekend starts another six-round season.

Photo credits – Team / social media

 

 

It’s about this time of year when our race reporting workload ramps up another step as the SRO America group of GT series kicks off at their seasonal opener from Sonoma but that’s going to be very different this time around.

We can all recall just how prolific the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 platforms have been over recent years within the GT America, GT4 America and GT World Challenge America Series with up to twelve such platforms running at any point last season alone.

 

Last week’s provisional entry lists for these three series for this weekend’s seasonal opener from California have sadly listed precisely zero Aston Martins – not even the Rebel Rock Racing Vantage GT3 that was billed as a full and another expected GT4 entry from the Archangel team.

Now that might just be a glitch within the matrix as we have already seen new entries jump into what appears to be the GT racing preference of the IMSA group of series from last weekend’s second rounds but it is a worrying trend stateside but at least they can't get any worse!

 

Some of last season AMR based entries and drivers have also moved onto different manufacturers and series as we have seen with the Heart of Racing, 89X Motorsport and Skip Barber Racing to name a few and that is of course, an entirely natural process over the closed season but going from twelve to zero – what’s that all about??

Another gap in this weekend’s race programme is also with regards the postponement of the opening round and Prologue test (this week) of the FIA World Endurance Championship thanks to the ‘troubles’ being escalated within the region. Since then, we have also seen the F1 cancel their own rounds within that theatre of racing for the same reason but at least the FIA WEC Qatar 1812km event has been rescheduled for late October with the Prologue test being reassigned to just before the next round at Imola in just three weeks’ time.

 

Then, you add on top of all of that the expectation that the Australian based Volante Rosso team will be confirming a McLaren GT3 entry into this season’s GT World Challenge Australia Series – this weekend could be somewhat quiet - making time for other sporting enjoyments!!

 

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.

 

The Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing powered team concluded their first full season within the GT World Challenge Australia in fine style after the secured another podium finish at this weekend’s final round from Hampton Downs, New Zealand.

Competing with their third driver configuration of the year, the #1 car of (this time) Liam Talbot and Josh Hunt earned themselves a front row start for Saturday’s one long opening and for them to hold onto the race lead for much of the race before a last-minute pass by the eventual championship winning crew denied the pairing the top step of the podium.

 

After nearly a two month wait, the final round of the 2025 GT World Challenge Australia will be soon upon us this weekend as another expected entry of fourteen entries are due to compete with the two final races of the final round at the Hampton Downs circuit in New Zealand.

Amongst these fourteen will again be the #1 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 from the Volante Rosso Motorsport stable as they undertake their third driver change of the season with Jamie Day this time stepping aside in favour of co-team owner Josh Hunt to partner the quick Liam Talbot.

 

The Bend was an opportunity missed for the Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Liam Talbot and Jamie Day after distinctive pace within their #1 car still left them short of another GT World Challenge Australia podium finish despite their pole position for race one.

Again having to fly halfway around the world following on from his GT World Championship Europe Endurance Cup efforts from the Nurburgring, The Bend was just another circuit to the young Englishman for this penultimate round to the Australian series for only the second time of asking this season having debuted at Sandown last time out.

 

It’s the second half-way around the world flight weekend for Jamie Day as he again trades one green Aston Martin Racing powered team within the GT World Challenge Europe Series for a similar coloured one down-under in Australia as he and the Volante Rosso team prepare to do battle at The Bend this weekend.

Round five of a six round season sees Day pair up with Liam Talbot for only the second time this season having been sent to replace Declan Fraser aboard the #1 Volante Rosso AMR Vantage GT3 Pro-Am entry from the previous round at Sandown at the end of July. The mixed-race conditions on the day and with most things being new to the squad allowed them to convert a P8 overall finish in race one of the weekend into an overall race win on Sunday.

 

It was belated birthday celebrations for Liam Talbot earlier today as he and Jamie Day secured their first overall win together within the GT World Challenge Australia’s second race of the weekend from Sandown.

Only thrust together for the first time this year after a driver re-alignment within the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crew that saw Declan Fraser be replaced with the young Brit for the remainder of the season.

A much quieter race weekend coming up with what would be taking our fancy with just three main series featuring a sole Aston Martin Racing powered Vantage GT3 or GT4 within their midst.

Starting with the farthest away from us will see a sole AMR Vantage GT3 takes its place within a fourteen-car line up for this weekends fourth round of the GT World Challenge Australia as the #1 Volante Rosso car this time features a revised driver line up for their visit to Sandown Park.

Joining the Pro side of the previous line up in Liam Talbot will be the young British racer Jamie Day who now apparently replaces Declan Fraser for the remainder of the season after his best finish to his GT3 based GT World Challenge Europe season last weekend with a double podium visit and class win (alongside Kobe Pauwels) in the Sprint Cup Series.

The reason for the swap is unclear with the series itself referring it as a ‘withdrawal’ of Fraser from the crew after their good start top the season from Phillip Island has somewhat waned over recent rounds. Day, of course, featured within the teams 12Hrs of Bathurst GT3 entry alongside Mateo Villagomez and Jaylyn Robotham earlier in the year as well as another entry into the series last season that failed to materialise on race day thanks to ongoing technical issues that rounded off that season’s efforts.

They will run their usual two race format.

Next there is the fifth round of the Super Taikyu Series from Autopolis in Japan where the #777 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Yuta Kamimura and Tomonobu Fujii again take the wheel of their ST-X entry.

Last time out at Sugo at the start of the month saw a near lights to flag race win for the trio and all will be hoping for more this time around after that result lifted the team up to fourth in the overall Championship with these three rounds remaining.

This will be another five-hour race starting at 11:00hrs local.

Then finally, we also have the ESET Cup or GT Cup Series as its now referred to as and their fifth round of an eight-round season with their latest collection of sprint and endurance races from Most in the Czech Republic.

Last time out in the series should have been from Poznan but that was cancelled at the eleventh hour by the series although we did learn that the team did still compete at an event of some description from the venue.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media