Some serious AMR powered related news released earlier today (UPDATED)
Starting at the top, saw the Heart of Racing today their full driver line up within their #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 that will compete again within the World Endurance Championship that starts again in just a few weeks’ time.
Having raced so competitively last season with drivers Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli behind the wheel sees team manager James return to the car but this time alongside the likes of Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi.
Whilst Robichon has been involved with the team’s varying race programme for a couple of seasons now, Drudi’s team involved only started a few weeks ago where he and Robichon raced together in the opening round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship aboard the team’s #27 GTD entry where they finished third in class, but this will be both drivers debut within the WEC.
“I’m super excited to be making my FIA WEC debut with the Heart of Racing Team,” said Drudi. “Zach was one of the best Silver rated drivers in 2024 and Ian has been one of the quickest Bronze rated drivers. I think overall we have a really strong lineup. The Aston Martin Vantage was one of the strongest and most competitive cars last year. I can’t wait to get the season started in Qatar later this month.”
The 2025 World Endurance Championship kicks off again in Qatar at the end of February which will also witness the racing debut of the team’s new Valkyrie Hypercar whose driver line ups will be confirmed in due course.
In other news, there has been a driver change within the Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 entry into this weekend’s second round (third and fourth races) of the Asian Le Mans Series from the Dubai Autodrome.
Originally listing their #19 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of full season entrants of Claude Bovet, David McDonald and Jason Ambrose, a more recent change sees the likes of Jonny Adam originally re-partnering up with his 2024 British GT co-driver Giacomo Petrobelli alongside Charles Bateman but news today confirms that Saudi Arabian lady racer Reema Juffali will now take the place of the Italian.
Originally listing their #19 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of full season entrants of Claude Bovet, David McDonald and Jason Ambrose, a more recent change sees the likes of Jonny Adam originally re-partnering up with his 2024 British GT co-driver Giacomo Petrobelli alongside Charles Bateman but news today confirms that Saudi Arabian lady racer Reema Juffali will now take the place of the Italian.
Juffali was one of four Saudi racers who competed within the final round of the 2024 GT4 European Series with the Comtoyou Racing team in one of their older 17A variants of the Vantage GT4 and who secured a class podium finish in race 2 alongside co-driver Ahmed Bin-Khanen.
Despite already having at least two season’s worth pf prior GT3 racing experience within the GT World Challenge Europe and International GT Open Series, this will be another step up the racing ladder for the Saudi racer and her gentleman co-driver.
Despite already having at least two season’s worth pf prior GT3 racing experience within the GT World Challenge Europe and International GT Open Series, this will be another step up the racing ladder for the Saudi racer and her gentleman co-driver.
We also see a change in livery design and colour for the #89 Earl Bamber Motorsport AMR entry of Jamie Day, Mattia Drudi and Gabriel Rindone.
Photo credits – Teams / GT4 European / social media
Photo credits – Teams / GT4 European / social media
Monday, February 03, 2025 |
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It just wasn't to be in Jeddah at finale of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
Whilst there was one final podium finishing position to round the 2024 season off for one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crew, it wasn’t to be the then championship leading #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Marco Sorensen, Matteo Drudi and Nicki Thiim despite their best of efforts against the charging #51 AF Corse Ferrari crew who eventually picked up the overall crown by the end of the race.
Going into this final race of the season around the very long but very narrow circuit had already seen one Vantage GT3 eliminated from the proceedings from each of the Comtoyou racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams with another Walkenhorst entry only rescued from the ashes of a pit lane fire and an overnight rebuild by the team for that car to even make the grid.
The biggest talking point as far the Aston Martins were concerned was sadly again around the platforms balance of performance parameters with none of the cars even close at threatening those championship challenges in front of them. In hindsight, even a mid-event change in BoP (as in weight reduction and an increase in boost) wasn’t enough to give either Pro entry the ‘ponies’ that they needed to put up anything like a representative fight.
With many suffering from the effects of mid and post-race penalties (mainly for track limits), the #007 car eventually finished P10 overall with the #34 Walkenhorst car of Ross Gunn, Henrique Chaves and David Pittard finishing just behind in P11 having completed a miraculous recovery drive having started from last thanks to their Qualifying issues.
The one race success was from the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont who grabbed P3 within the silver class.
The one race success was from the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont who grabbed P3 within the silver class.
Having lead the overall championship position since that overall win at the Spa 24, the #007 crew would eventually finish the year down in fourth with their sister #12 car the next best AMR finisher in class, P8 in silver.
What comes next for both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Comtoyou Racing teams is yet to be seen but with the 2025 Prologue test already set for early March, that won’t be a too longer wait before the first signs of pre-season testing gets underway.
The new 2024 Vantage GT3 car did well within its opening year of racing service again and with the ongoing developmental work that AMR are already undertaking, 2025 looks more than positive.
Well done to all involved this season and here’s looking forward to next.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Monday, December 02, 2024 |
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Not the best of starts for either AMR powered team at the start of the Jeddah GT World Challenge Europe finale
Before anyone else worries too much, none of the incidents involved have involved the championship contending #007 Comtoyou Racing car of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mateo Drudi but both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams have already a car between them due to accident damage and a further car being sidelined due to a fire.
The #36 Walkenhorst bronze entry of Ben Green, Mex Jensen and David Pun was the first eliminated after the Chinese gentleman driver went off during the bronze driver test and that was already after the #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze entry of James Jakes, Nield Koolen and John De Wilde had been withdrawn without a wheel even being turned.
That lead to both Jakes and Koolen moving across to the sister #21 car at the expense of both regular drivers Charles Clarke and Matisse Lismont but even that arrangement was short-lived as that car crashed out but was fortunately repairable during testing
If that could not have gone any worse for the Aston Martin Racing collective, then the silver #35 Walkenhorst car was to suffer a fuel fire aboard the car – although quickly extinguished, the subsequent damage and cleaning up meant that the Romain Le Roux, Maxime Robin and Lorcan Hanafin entry would have little track time through Thursday and Friday with Q1-Q2-Q3 sessions their first real possibilities.
Assuming that all goes well overnight with the repairs of that car, that has left the original driver line ups of some cars being rehashed again as the sessions went through Free Practice and into the last session of today in Pre-Qualifying.
Both the #007 and #34 Pro entries remain the same with the Comtoyou Racing entries of the #21 car now being that of Koolen, Jakes and Job Van Uitert and the #12 being Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont alongside a hopefully repairable #35 Walkenhorst.
And that doesn’t even include anything about track performances today from any of the AMR powered cars that are left!!
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Friday, November 29, 2024 |
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#007 aiming to be on top of the world at the end of this weekend Jeddah six hours in GT World Challenge Europe finale
Belgian based Comtoyou Racing sit on the cusp of something else very big this week as their #007 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Pro class entry lies at the head of the overall championship battle as the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup battles it out for the final time on Saudi Arabia.
Thanks to the herculean efforts of the team and drivers Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Matteo Drudi at the Spa 24 earlier in the year (plus a little bit of luck), their overall win in Belgium propelled the #007 entry into the championship lead – a lead that they retain by the slenderest of margins going into this final six-hour round of the Endurance Cup Series at the unfamiliar Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Forty-eight other GT3 entries will be joining them in the heat of the Saudi capital including six other AMR Vantage GT3 entries from both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Racing Partner teams with at least half a dozen additional crews retaining a potential championship winning position thanks to the additional points being available this weekend.
Despite AMR powered entries across the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Pro classes, it is unfortunately only the #007 car that retains any championship potential this weekend in a near literal winner takes all situation.
The #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry of Ross Gunn, David Pittard and Henrique Chaves sit way down in P17 and like the remainder of the collective field, will be desperate to round off what has been a disappointing season for them within the new Vantage GT3 Evo on something of a high.
Within the silver class there is also the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Kobe Pauwels, Nicolas Baert and Sebastian Ogaard and the #35 Walkenhorst effort of Romain Leroux, Maxime Robin and Lorcan Hanafin.
Within Gold, the is the solo AMR effort of the #21 Comtoyou Racing crew of Matisse Lismont, Job Van Uitert and Charles Clark whilst the bronze class features both the #11 Comtoyou Racing effort of James Jakes, John De Wilde and Niels Koolen (a change to their usual line up) and the #36 Walkenhorst entry of Ben Green, Me Jensen and another driver change in David Pun.
Track action for these teams starts on Thursday with two official test sessions before the customary bronze driver test before moving into Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying on Friday. Individual qualifying sessions take place on Saturday morning but only four and a quarter hours before the six-hour race is waved off at 17:00hrs local.
Best of fortunes to the #007.
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Monday, November 25, 2024 |
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Seven Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for the GT4 European Series finale in Jeddah next weekend
Two months has now passed since the last round of a six round 2024 season, but two class championships remain on offer although (unfortunately) none of the full season Aston Martin Racing powered teams are in contention.
Within next weekend’s final round, another grid of thirty-five cars is expected although many are guest entries for this fly away round with one such Aston Martin Racing team fielding a clutch of new Vantage GT4’s for the first time.
From a full season entry perspective, the French based Mirage Racing are back with their two-car entry of Ruben Del Sarte and Josh Miller aboard their #5 silver class entry, and they are again joined by the #7 Pro-Am entry of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub.
They will be joined by another two-silver classed AMR Vantage GT4 Evo’s from the Swiss based Racing Spirit of Leman team as Roberto Faria and Baudouin Detout again pair up within the #39 car whilst Jamie Day pairs with the 2024 FFSA GT4 Champion Matteo Villagomez within their #82 car.
Rounding off the five full season entries is the #72 GPA Racing crew of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud within the Am class within their older 17A specification car.
We then have the two guesting entries from the Belgium based Comtoyou Racing team with their four locally based driver base who will race within the Pro-Am class for the #26 car and within the Am class for the #28 car for the two one-hour races again scheduled over next Saturday and Sundays evenings local time.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Friday, November 22, 2024 |
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Gold and Silver class success for AMR runners after another chaotic visit to Monza in Endurance Cup
Going into this penultimate round of the Endurance Cup season and the final round in Europe at Monza before they hit the track of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for the season finale in late November, most eyes were upon the championship leading #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorenson and Nicki Thiim.
Starting from the front row of the grid for Sundays three-hour race, hopes were obviously high but that hope lasted until virtually the first corner as an errant Mercedes pushed into the green Aston Martin pushing them down the emergency access road and spinning another title contending BMW in the process.
With further contact down the order that also probably saw out the bronze class #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR of Tim Creswick/Mex Jensen and Benn Green, the #007 car was at least able to recover and continue albeit many places down as the Safety Car came back out. The relief for the #007 crew after this would however be short lived as an electrical issue sidelined the car long enough to take them well out of contention even before the race was an hour old.
With further contact down the order that also probably saw out the bronze class #36 Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR of Tim Creswick/Mex Jensen and Benn Green, the #007 car was at least able to recover and continue albeit many places down as the Safety Car came back out. The relief for the #007 crew after this would however be short lived as an electrical issue sidelined the car long enough to take them well out of contention even before the race was an hour old.
Whilst one AMR teams Pro effort was struggling the other (#34 Walkenhorst) car of David Pittard, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Henrique Chaves was still circulating within the top ten having also been delayed by that incident going into turn one but at least there was still plenty of time to go and with differing maximum drive time requirements this time around, a lot of the action would be down to the respective teams strategists to decide.
Just a little further back, the silver and gold classed Aston Martins from both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst teams were also doing well as the #21 car of Charles Clark, Matisse Lismont and Job Van Uitert were circulating second in class, the #35 silver classed car of Maxime Robin, Lorcan Hanafin and Romain Le Roux third in class with the class rivalling #12 car of Nicolas Baert, Kobe Pauwels and Sebastian Ogaard immediately behind in fourth.
Despite further on track frivolity involving others, things had improved by the halfway stage as the #21 car of Lismont was now leading the gold class with the #12 and #35 cars now second and third respectively in silver although one of those would soon hit trouble with a puncture.
Going into the final hour and another Safety car period had Hasse-Clot finishing his opening Pro class attendance within the series holding fifth overall with the Walkenhorst car looking good for a possible podium challenge at the time with Leroux retaining the silver class lead in eleventh overall and Pauwels holding second in silver after Lismont picked up that puncture along the start straight.
As the light and race clock began to fade, the podium gravy train had unfortunately long since departed both Pro class entries after earlier technical issues for one and latter penalties for the other, both for the remaining gold and silver entries – Monza would become a memorable event for these crews.
Eventually finishing P15 overall, the #21 Comtoyou crew would claim P2 in silver with the #35 Walkenhorst crew picking up P3 to make it an AMR 2-3 in class for their efforts whilst the #21 gold class Comtoyou Racing entry would also claim the final step of their podium with a P32 overall finish.
Now there is a two month break before the Endurance Cup completes its final leg of the season from the Middle East but importantly within the Overall Drivers Championship stakes – the #007 Comtoyou Racing crew still retain a slender three-point lead over yesterday’s second place (in class) finishers from AF Corse whilst in both silver and gold classes, these results have come too little too late to make any significant difference.
The extended six hours of Jeddah will run on the 30th November.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Monday, September 23, 2024 |
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The Aston Martin Vantage GT4 was on pace at Monza but that wasn't always enough for some in the GT4 European Series
For the #72 GPA Racing crew of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud, their Am Class endeavours were always going to be a long shot going into this final round in Europe before moving onto the season finale from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Having finished fourth in class after Saturday’s opener, the French duo needed to at least win and have the championship leaders fail to score in order to take the class fight to the final round.
Despite the championship leading Alpine crew crashing out of race two just after their pit stop, the #72 crew duo were unable to climb any higher than second in class before eventually finishing third for something of a bitter-sweet return to the class podium with the championship ultimately lost.
Then within the Pro-Am Class, we had the #7 Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub lead the class into Monza and with a class win in Saturdays race – all was looking good. Unfortunately for these guys, a puncture early on into a lap forced the crew to limp around for most of the lap before ultimately finishing towards the rear of the remaining pack for a P9 finish in class.
That result allowed the #30 Porsche crew of Finn Zulauf and Max Kronberg to swap positions with the #7 Mirage crew within the Pro-Am Drivers Championship table to take a fifteen points lead with them to Jeddah.
Completing the podium run this weekend was the #82 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR crew of Jamie Day and recently declared FFSA GT4 Silver Champion Matteo Villagomez who completed a P3 double at Monza.
Sadly, too little too late for any championship aspirations but the fifteen points per race does lift them up to P7 within the drivers table with two races still to come.
We now have a long break whilst all the cars and equipment and maintained before being shipped out to Jeddah for the final two races over the weekend of the 29th and 30th of November for an event that practically nobody within the paddock will know anything about until they get there!
As a foot note - the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR of Alexandre Machado was involved in an almost obscured accident along the pit straight as the pack was released by the Safety Car for their final last lap dash to the flag. Whilst the Car was extensively damaged after impacting with the barriers/wall, the series has since reported that the driver has been medically checked over and is otherwise OK.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Sunday, September 22, 2024 |
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Monza will be pivotable before the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup moves onto Jeddah for a November finale
Racing what will be their penultimate round of the season, it will be another state of maximum attack from all fifty-two entries before the many of the available class championships get decided at the season finale many miles away this time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at the end of November.
With endurance rounds so far from Paul Ricard, the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps and most recently from the Nurburgring, it is still the #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR Pro entry of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim leading the Overall Drivers Championship table thanks to their points haul (and overall race win) at Spa.
Having recovered to pick up a disappointing eight points in Germany, the #007 crew lead the chasing Audi trio of Christophe Hasse, Ricardo Feller and Alex Aka by just fifteen points with these two rounds remaining.
Having recovered to pick up a disappointing eight points in Germany, the #007 crew lead the chasing Audi trio of Christophe Hasse, Ricardo Feller and Alex Aka by just fifteen points with these two rounds remaining.
Within the other six Aston Martin Racing powered entries from both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport entries, this weekend’s entry list sees a couple of slight changes to their driver rosters from that of the Nurburgring lats time out.
The most notable will be that AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot will deputise for his fellow AMR factory driver in Ross Gunn as the Englishman will be busy racing for a possible IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship crown with the Heart of Racing team over at Indianapolis this weekend – the Frenchman will be joining both David Pittard and Henrique Chaves within the #34 Walkenhorst Pro entry.
The other change appear to be (and contrary to the published entry list) within the #11 bronze class entered Comtoyou Racing entry as both John De Wilde and James Jakes will now be joined by Dutch racer Niels Koolen instead of the advertised Job Van Uitert after he swaps to the #21 Gold entered car alongside Charles Clark and Matisse Lismont.
The remaining #12 silver class Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert/Sebastian Ogaard/Kobe Pauwels remains the same as do the other Walkenhorst AMR entries of Maxime Robin/Romain Leroux and Lorcan Hanafin aboard their #35 silver class entry and Mex Jenson, Tim Creswick and Ben Green aboard their #36 bronze class entry.
Other than the #007 car in the Pro class, only the #11 Comtoyou bronze entry appears to have any championship prospects in the Middle East should results go in their favour this weekend.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
Wednesday, September 18, 2024 |
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