The fourth and final round of the debuting SRO GT Cup Series was run earlier today around the street circuit of Macau with the Stanley Yang driven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo doing what he could within that nine-lap Greater Bay Area GT4 race finale.

The expectations of the circuit lived up to their name during the earlier Free Practice session where two thirds of the twenty-five strong grid were unable to post a single time thanks to multiple session interruptions for those in strife around the 3.8-mile Guia circuit.

 

The improvised street circuit of Macau is this weekend’s destination for the final round of the SRO GT Cup Series as the GT4 based series runs out its final races of the season with its Great Bay Area GT Cup event.

Having started the year at the more traditional circuit layout of the Shanghai International, the middle two rounds of the season have been around street circuit layouts including the first running of the Beijing last time out a month ago.

 

Rounding off last weekend’s racing events for an Aston Martin Racing powered team saw another podium finish return for the Stanley Yang entered AMR Vantage GT4 around the new for 2025 Beijing street circuit.

Supporting the larger SRO GT World Challenge Asia Series, the GT Cup was running their third and penultimate round of their inaugural season having started at Shanghai before moving onto Zhuhai.

 

The Eatnos lubricants sponsored #87 car remains the sole Aston Martin Racing powered participant at this year’s 71st running of the Macau Grand Prix.

Sadly not within the main FIA GT World Cup event of course, the BSEM supported entry competes within the still competitive Greater Bay Area GT4 race with Taipei based driver Yang Meng Chiao behind the wheel.

 

Whilst an Aston Martin Racing powered entry is again missing from this year’s FIA GT World Cup race around the streets of Macau, there is at least one such entry within the supporting Greater Bay Area GT Cup (GT4) race.

As posted a few weekends ago, the Stanley Yang ran BSEM AMR Partner team will be entering one of its 17A variants of the Vantage GT4 platform under the name of Enos Racing Team for this year’s event with Taipei driver Yang Meng Chiao behind the wheel of the #87 car.

This weekend’s penultimate round of the Thailand Super Series from Sepang sees a doubling of Aston Martin Racing powered crews attending this night race event as the Earl Bamber Motorsport team services both a Vantage GT4 and GT3 entries.

The full season #7 Team NZ AMR Vantage GT4 of Graham Dowsett and Ananthorn Tangniannatchai returns to the fray but also joining this weekend’s thirty-three strong multi-class entry will be the #11 EBM Motorsport Vantage GT3, something that is more recognisable from its GT World Challenge Asia exploits.

It appears to be welcome back BSEM Aston Martin Racing after they posted their first racing post on social media for some time this weekend

Well known to have been a successful GT4 class team with the help of both Ross Gunn and then Jack Mitchell within the then China GT Series, things have until now gone rather quiet for the Stanley Yang run outfit.

 

The return of the Aston martin Racing Vantage GT3 to the streets of Macau proved to be something of a short-lived affair after an unnecessary track incident during Qualifying left it unable to continue with its intended race programme.

For gentleman driver Anderson Tanoto, this event was to be his first event within a GT3 race car as well as his first visit to the Macau circuit as he and host team, Earl Bamber Motorsport entered the Greater Bay Area GT3 support race this weekend.

 

Some brief news from Asia as it appears that the Douglas Khoo ran Viper Niza racing team have had a change of heart ahead of this year’s Asian Le Mans Series that starts in Sepang in just over a months’ time.

Having originally been listed as returning to the ACO rules series with their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3, the team have just confirmed that they will now be entering their older Ligier LMP3 instead.

With the street circuit lined Armco barrier being as unforgiving as usual, the 68th running of the Macau Grand Prix was just as a bruising affair at it usually is for the nineteen strong entry that competed in the Sands China Macau GT Cup races at the weekend.

Featuring two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s from the Uno Racing team, this event was the first time that the latest generation of AMR Vantage GT3 had competed in the event since 2015 when three V12 examples raced for the then AMR powered Craft Bamboo team.

Tomorrow sees that start of the formal track proceedings ahead of the running of the 68th Macau Grand Prix this weekend around the distinctive street circuit of the semi-autonomous region of coastal China.

For the first time since a three-car effort back in 2015, this weekend’s event shall see the return of Aston Martin Racing’s latest Vantage GT3 platform, this time running in the hands of Uno Racing for their drivers David Pun and Marchy Lee.

 

This month’s Macau Grand Prix will mark a momentous event in the realms of Aston Martin Racing as the marque again gets represented at the prestigious event for the first time since 2015.

Racing back then with the venerable V12 variant of the Vantage GT3, the Craft Bamboo Racing team entered three such cars into the first running of what was then the FIA GT World Cup for drivers Stefan Mucke, Darryl O’Young and Richard Lyons for which Mucke claimed pole position for the weekend’s first race before eventually finishing P3 in both races.

Belated congratulations to David Pun for securing the runners up position at the weekend in the inaugural running of the GT Super Sprint Challenge after another visit to the Shanghai International Circuit.

Racing in an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 for the first time this season (and indeed in the first AMR Vantage GT3 to be exported into the Chinese racing arena before later extending to a two AMR car team after the enforced break), both COVID and an incident later during testing threw ‘many spanners’ into the works for the Evisu fashion empire boss as the season was first delayed just after the opening round before he (and team co-driver Riokonig) swapped to an Audi R8 GT3 chassis at the last minute after an incident during testing left the Uno Racing team left them with only a single AMR serviceable chassis.

Wanting to finish the season out in an Aston, Pun returned to his fashionably liveried AMR for last weekend's event where he eventually claimed an overall P7 and P4 finishes during Saturday's wet finale - enough to conclude his runners up position in his AM+ class.

Working under the driver coaching of former British F3 racer Adderly Fong, the team now look to this months Macau Grand Prix event for their next action.

Photo credits – Uno Racing

 

Forced to sit out the whole 2020 season in China because of their own COVID-19 travel restrictions, Aston Martin Racing Partner team BSEM were out hitting the headlines earlier today in Beijing with one of their AMR Vantage GT4's being used for the back drop of a new mobile phone launch.

Not being able to race in the China GT Championship this year despite calendars being revised at least twice and sadly not at this months Macau Grand Prix either despite having secured a podium finish in the Greater Bay Area GT Cup race last time out, team boss Stanley Yang has at least been busy keeping the team's name out at the forefront at this large corporate event.

Hopefully, that will bring some interested parties towards him once motor racing reconvenes in main land China next year.

Photo credits -Stanley Yang

Thats very much the case for Japanese Aston Martin Racing Partner team, D'Station Racing AMR having just concluded their national Super GT and Super Taikyu Series commitments to find themselves over in mainland China this weekend for the opening round of the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series.

With one of their trio of Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's now having arrived at the Shanghai International Circuit still sporting the technical decals of the Pirelli Super Taikyu Series, works begins now for the team and their technical support from the Prodrive factory to ready the car for the start of track proceedings for the opening four hours of racing that begins on Friday with the drivers not to arrive until the day before.


The D'Station Racing AMR car with drivers Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Ross Gunn joins 25 other full season entries and competes in a GT3 grid of 9 cars - all contesting for one of four automatic invitations awarded at the end of the series for next years 24Hours of Le Mans.

Last season we off course had the Red River Sport with TF Sport entry of Bonomy Grimes and Jonny Mowlem with the older normally aspirated V12 Vantage, a pair who have now moved up into the World Endurance Championship with AF Corse in the GTE Am class and it is the same ambition of this Japanese duo to meet and and this time race against Gunn and his #98 AMR crew at the Circuit de La Sarthe next year.


This race comes at the end of an intense period of racing support from some of the guys from Prodrive for its Asian based teams, support that started off at the finale of the Super GT Series last month, saw the end of both the Super Taikyu and China GT Championships over the next two weeks as well as the Macau GP only last weekend. For Gunn, he has also just finished two races at Shanghai, both in China GT and the WEC where he returned home with another GTE Am class podium finish.

This solo AMR car competes in the GT field of nine that comprises of four Ferrari 488's, three BMW M6's and a solo Lamborghini Huracan Eve.


What is interesting is that Gunn was entered into this series (as well as the WEC) as a Silver rank driver as per his ranking last years FIA Driver lists but the new 2020 list (published today) shows him now rated as a Gold!

Photo credits - D'Station / TF Sport / AMR