As with most years with the racing season drawing to a conclusion, we start to see a few race cars being listed for sale and that is certainly the case here with Academy Motorsport offering both of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's on RacecarsDirect.com

Having bought both chassis brand new at the start of 2019 their domestic and European challenges in both British GT and GT4 European Series, team boss Matt Nichol Jones has pointed out to us today that selling both chassis #001 and #017 was always his intention and doesn't necessarily mean any move away from the AMR marque.

Indeed, he even went on to confirm that some of his existing drivers have already confirmed a desire to return with the team next year in another AMR. Both cars are available after season end next month.

Full details can be found at https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/105509/2-x-2019-aston-martin-gt4-cars

Only late last ween did Worcester based Academy Motorsport confirm the first of two new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's that they would be entering into the SRO's GT4 European Series with team returnees Tom Wood and Fiona James sharing the first car in Pro-Am.

Today sees the team announce the line up for their second car with single seater convertee Matt Cowley finally being able to make his announcement - he will partner (as things stand today) team boss Matt Nichol-Jones in the second car unless another driver comes along and signs up at the last minute. Interested parties should contact Academy Motorsports directly.


Having taken the traditional motorsport development route of karting before going into single seaters in 2013, Manchester born Cowley has seen success both at home and in the USA where he competed last year in the FIA F4 US Series whilst under the watchful eye of the Andy Priaulx Sports Management programme. 2019 will be his first experience of GT racing.


Having first tested the new AMR Vantage GT4 at the collective test day with the AMR team at Oulton Park in November last year and again more recently at Silverstone, todays announcement and the possession of the two new cars within the team finally allows all the squads to go testing without restriction.


The GT4 European Series kicks off its six round series in just a months time in Monza.

Photo credits - Matt Cowley Racing

2019 will be very much of an 'old with the old and in with the new' kind of season for the Worcestershire based Academy Motorsport team as the team will start the year with new cars, new drivers, new transporters and new kit.

Team boss Matt Nichol-Jones confirmed prior to the last round of the 2018 British GT Championship that his squad had been selected to receive two of the first batch of 2019 specification Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 ready for his to field in his preferred British GT and GT4 European Series.

Todays announcement was to confirm the first full British GT season entry for Micah Stanley and Ben Hurst who will compete in the Championship's Silver Cup class.


Eighteen year old Stanley has prior experience of SRO sanctioned series by already having competed in its GT4 European Series with teams including Street Art Racing and their normally aspirated V8 Vantage GT4 as well as in the BRDC Formula 3 Championship.

Hurst, a twenty one year old Canadian national also competed in the BRDC F3 Championship last year and makes his step up to the GT's for the first time. Both drivers have presumably also signed up to the Aston Martin Racings Academy programme - being under the watchful eye of Mick Gomme's Go Motorsport Management company.


“We’re thrilled to be able to confirm Ben and Micah ahead of the coming season,” said Academy Motorsport’s Managing Director Matt Nicoll-Jones. “Both drivers have a degree of experience behind them which should help them work well together.”

Today may have seen the first customer tests with the new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 at Oulton Park as the new race car reaches its final stages of development ahead of its formal homologation early next year.

With three British GT race teams being announced as holding the first batch of orders for both new platforms at the final round of the national championship back in September - two such  teams (TF Sport and Optimum Motorsport) have since gone on to announce a part driver line up for at least one of their new GT4 cars for British GT in 2019.


Academy Motorsport (the other remaining team announced to receive early examples of the new GT4) were of course also the first team to secure their team name across the side of an actual example of the new car back at Donington Park. Today we understand was theirs (and others) first on track experience of the new car with a number of potential drivers present.

Both the new GT3 and GT4 Vantage recently underwent an extensive endurance test at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France earlier this month with most of the factory teams GTE Pro driver line up. The new GT3 has already under gone a number of customer tests around the country to present the factory team and Prodrive with a very healthy order book for both platforms.


A great insight into the development of both the GT3 and GT4 cars can be found in this Dailysportscar.com piece HERE.

Photo credits - AMR /social media

Todays revealing by the SRO of their provisonal entry list for the inaugural GT4 International Cup event in Bahrain at the end of November has confirmed that the Generation AMR SuperRacing V8 Vantage GT4 will be the sole AMR representative in that event.

With the International Cup running in support of the FIA GT Nations Cup headline event, the new SRO sanctioned race will again see long time driving partners James Holders and Matt George take to the circuit in two 60 minute Qualifying races followed by a 60 minute race with a grid of twenty other entries.

Having previously raced together in the British GT and the then GT4 European Series Northern and Southern Cups, the duo have this year limited their racing together mainly to their preferred French FFSA GT4 Series. It was directly after that Series final race at Paul Ricard that their car was packed away for shipping out to the Middle East.


With this event taking place two weeks and little over 500 miles from the Gulf 12Hr from Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi, this winter should see the team compete in both events and see out their racing campaigns for the year together in the venerable V8 Vantage.


The more observant will notice the team name of Academy Motorpsort also appearing on the entry list of the GT4 InternationalCcup with team boss Matt Nichol-Jones this time sharing a McLaren 570S GT4 with Finlay Hutchison. Obviously too early for these guys to get their hands on one of their new V8 Vantage GT4's that they have on order!

Photo credits - FFSA / Gulf 12Hr

After six months of highly competitive racing around the best of British race tracks plus their annual excursion abroad, the 2018 British GT Championship finally came to a conclusion on Sunday with Aston Martin Racing customer team's and drivers standing tall having claimed four Championship titles at an unsurprisingly eventful 'Donington Decider'.

Optimum Motorsport's Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam completed what they needed to do to secure their place in the Championship's history books with a fourth place finish at the end of the final round's two hour race - enough to win them the overall Championship despite the best efforts of the Barwell and TF Sport rivals who both finished in front of them.


That result also earned Haigh the honour of being the first woman driver to win the overall championship as well as the her previous accolades of being first woman driver to qualify on pole in her own right followed by being the first woman to win the GT3 class race - all achievements that she earned first time out at Oulton Park back in early April and despite treacherous track conditions.


Aston Martin Racing placed co-driver Jonny Adam also earned himself a further entry into his on- going chapter of the Championship by winning his third GT3 crown.


Team Boss Shaun Goff was beyond words as he tried to convey his utmost admiration and respect for his new race pairing that had started on such 'shaky ground' as Haigh nervously first tested her new Vantage GT3 with Adam at a cold and damp Snetterton back in January through to the guts and determination of a driver who was no longer afraid to 'mix it' with more seasoned racers at even the all deciding final round at the weekend! That is not only great credit to the character of the pupil who was willing to learn and develop but also absolute credit to the tutor who has now coached some three amateur drivers to the same prize.


By virtue of Sunday's results Haigh and Adam also claim the 2018 Pro-Am Championship and Haigh the Blancpain Trophy each time just ahead of Barwell's Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen who, for a third time narrowly miss out on the big prize!


The only GT3 Championship that either Haigh, Adam and Optimum didn't win was the GT3 Team Championship as that award went to fellow AMR Customer team, TF Sport who themselves finished just nine points ahead of the Barwell team thanks to a stellar drive from the #11 car of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim to finish P2 at Donington after a time penalty had been applied for track limits - they had actually crossed the line first!


With TF Sport, Sunday's race was also the end of an era as Derek Johnston hung up his race suit for the (query) final time however sadly with a bitter taste after having been hit from behind with some force by the #1 Team Parker Racing Bentley sustaining terminal damage to the cars gearbox and forcing a much premature end to his tenure in the British GT paddock. Also as a result of that we didn't get to see Marco Sorensen perform his swan song stint in the car either!


When we (and we know others noticed too) shook Johnston's hand and thanked him for the time, efforts and service to the sport, we saw a slight welling up in his eye's with a ' I only raced a car' as he made a polite exit to the throng that was his family and friends in the TF garage. Somehow - we don't think that it will be too long before he is back in a car somewhere - maybe a selective round return to the Championship maybe but anyway, Johnston will take his car home with him as a keep sake to his AMR/BGT adventures that after all landed him the GT3 Championship title back in 2016.


Both Optimum and TF Sport have already been confirmed as the earlier precipitants of two examples each of the new GT3 and GT4 platforms apiece that we hope the teams will reveal details of in good time.

The final Championship winning performance from the weekend came from someone not directly competing within an AMR car but someone who is very much 'up and coming' with the factory team as Jack Mitchell secured a solo Championship win in his Century Motorsport BMW M4.


Formally with MacMillan AMR, Mitchell is also presently leading the China GT GT4 Championship in the #618 China Equity AMR entry that he did share with Ryan Liu as that series enters its final two events of the season with a street circuit format coming next up in just two weeks time.


For the rest of the Aston Martin Racing customer team contingent, Donington proved to be just as bruising and 'character building' as any previous round of the championship if you believe that rubbing is racing!


Jetstream Motorsport found that the only way past the 'blocking' Barwell Lamborghini was the hard way with a last minute and very elbows out move on the #69 car at the Melbourne hairpin before slipping off the circuit on someone else's oil at turn 1 before returning to the track under the Safety Car for some more panel bashing from others. Drivers Graham Davidson and Maxime Martin would finish the race P11 and the championship in P7 so for their somewhat last minute confirmation into the Championship having never driven the car or having even met each other - that is some achievement that they should all be proud of. They did win the Spa round after all!


For Beechdean AMR, their earlier good start to their return to the domestic GT scene had been hampered by some mid season misfortune so were hoping to round the year off on a high. As a result of Darren Turner's off track excursion during Qualifying, the #99 car that he shares with team boss Andrew Howard started lower down the starting grid than they had first hoped but they still found themselves as being one of the many stuck behind the intentionally slowly Lamborghini.

Despite some very competitive wheel to wheel racing in the opening stages, contact with the Nissan spun both cars around loosing them both a substantial amount of time before both were able to return to the track. After the pitstop it was the turn of Turner to come to the attention of the race officials for track limits earning himself a drive through penalty although he was later able to redeem himself with a multiple overtake to claim the cars finishing position of P5 - the position they also finished in the Championship. We await for news of a 2019 campaign.


The biggest heartache sadly befell the Academy Motorsport crew again and their two V8 Vantage GT4 entries of Will Moore/Matt Nichol-Jones and Jan Jonck/Tom Wood. Having started side by side on the grid and having earlier 'hijacked' the display of the new AMR Vantage GT4, Donington would again be cruel to the them all.

With the shenanigans of the opening lap, the #61 Moore car became embroiled in early contacts within the GT4 field that would leave several cars damaged dropping him down the order whilst local boy Tom Wood would benefit from that to find himself running up to third in class by the time of the Safety Car that was later called for the oil at turn 1. Just before the restart however, the #62 Wood car would suffer a puncture, albeit very close to the pit lane but enough to drop them out of contention.


That bad luck was quickly followed by disaster for the team as the #61 disappeared from the timing screen after apparently suffering engine failure going downteh Craner Curves marking the disappointing end of the season to Moore's/Nichol-Jones' intermittent season. For the other car, Donington would typify their own season of bad luck and misfortune (mostly not of their own making it has to be said) to finish down in P25 - some three laps down to the winning GT4.


All in all 2018 has been a year that Aston Martin Racing could easily showcase as the inaugeral year for their V12 Vantage GT3, claiming multiple podium finsihes throughout the year both in GT3 and GT4. Some teams have already confirmed their acquirement of the new turbo charged car with many more waiting to do similar.

With many national and European seasons now at an end we will have to await the timely announcements of such new race programmes as and when the teams see fit!

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / AMR / ChinaGT

They say that there is no time like the present and that is certainly the case at Academy Motorsport.

Fresh on the heals of it being confirmed today that the Worcester based team have indeed secured two of the first batch of new Aston Martin Racing's V8 Vantage GT4 ready for the start of the 2019 season, the team have put the first 'feelers' out in the racing community for suitable abled drivers to test for a potential seat.

Having raced for the last couple of years within the British GT Championship and the GT4 European Series, team boss Matt Nichol-Jones has tonight posted out to potentially interested parties to contact him at info@academymotorsport.com for a similar campaign in either or similar series.

Photo credit - AMR

Eight exciting races later and we have again reached a 'winner takes all' conclusion to the 2018 British GT Championship as Sundays two hour race will again determine both the GT3 and GT4 overall winners in what's now aptly become known as the #DoningtonDecider!


Earlier this month we saw what may just be a significant decision in deciding the final outcome of the GT3 Championship with the overturning an earlier race steward time penalty imposed upon the Optimum Motorsport car after race 1 from Snetterton back in May that reinstated the full race points initially claimed to the #75 V12 Vantage GT3 crew of Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam at the chequered flag. As a result of that decision, Adam and Haigh now enter Sunday's two hour finale with a 27.5 points over long time championship leaders Jon Minshaw & Phil Keen with their Barwell Lamborghini and by a further point ahead of TF Sport's Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim.


Only these three crews are in contention for the overall GT3 crown but with just 37.5 points on offer the latter two crews chances will be subject to the finishing positions of others. However, it is important to remember that recent Championship history has indeed proven that stranger things can and indeed do sometimes happen so all is not yet concluded!


Then late last week came the shock news that TF Sport's Derek Johnston will be making his 'home' event his last as the former British GT GT3 Champion will be hanging up his race helmet to competitive motorsport at least come the close of play Sunday afternoon. Never a stranger to wearing his heartstrings upon his sleeve we can be sure that the atmosphere will be somewhat emotional whatever the outcome for him and the team in their final race of the year in the Championship.

To Derek - its been great watching you race in the national GT series,  more so obviously when you came over to TF Sport in only their second year aboard one of their Vantage GT3's with Matt Bell. It was then a real privilege to see you lift the GT3 Championship at Donington just a year later with Jonny and we thank you for both your involvement and your time. Have a great finale and hopefully you and Marco will stick in on the podium for an AMR 1-2-3.


Rounding out the GT3 side of things, the #17 TF Sport car of Johnston/Sorensen will be having their own inter AMR battle as just over twenty points separate them from the Andrew Howard/Darren Turner Beechdean AMR car and the Jetstream Vantage of Graham Davidson and Maxime Martin as they all look to pass the ERC Mercedes team for fourth overall in class.



In GT4, Academy Motorsport will see out their season with just the remotest of championship possibilities for team boss Matt Nichol-Jones/Will Moore laying in fifth but that would involve the top four GT4 Championship cars ahead of them not finishing. The young gun line up of Jan Jonck/Tom Wood in the teams second V8 Vantage have endured something of a 'nightmare' of a season with technical issues too regularly taking the car out of competitive running positions.


Donington will also probably be the final time that we see the current iteration of V12 GT3 and V8 Vantage GT4 race their way around the national circuits as most (if not all) the main British GT teams are understood to have committed to buying the new turbo charged version of the Vantage GT3 and GT4 once both platforms have completed their development testing and homologation over the winter.

Thats sad in some respect but at least there is plenty to look forward to in 2019!


We will also keep an eye of for Jack Mitchell who presently stands at the top of the GT4 Drivers Championship table. Although racing this year in a BMW M4, he does of course make up a winning half to a China Equity AMR racing line up over in the China GT Championship this year!

Timetable for the weekend's event

Saturday 22 September
09:40 – 10:40: Free Practice 1
12:00 – 13:00: Free Practice 2
15:55 – 16:05: Qualifying – GT3 Am
16:09 – 16:19: Qualifying – GT3 Pro
16:23 – 16:33: Qualifying – GT4 Am
16:38 – 16:48: Qualifying – GT4 Pro

Sunday 23 September
09:35 – 09:45: Warm-up
12:30 – 13:00: Pitwalk and driver autograph session
13:35 – 15:35: Race

Academy Motorsport managed treacherous conditions at the Hungaroring last weekend (1st – 2nd September). Competing in the penultimate round of the GT4 European Series, the team splashed their way to two solid finishes.

Marred by rain for much of the weekend, the team were faced with difficult conditions. Following qualifying, both Matt Nicoll-Jones and Fiona James were ready for their double race appearance.

Nicoll-Jones, took the start of race one, in what were dry conditions initially. An early safety car period controlled the pace for six minutes, whilst two cars were rescued from a first corner incident. Once clear, the race resumed, with Nicoll-Jones a man on a charge, as he chased down one position after another.

As the pit window opened, the rain began to fall, creating the all important question of whether to remain on slick tyres or switch to wet tyres. As conditions quickly worsened, the safety car was deployed once again, to help manage the situation. 

With only three point scoring finishes out of a possible eight, the Academy Motorsport pairing of Fiona James and Matt Nichol-Jones will have been looking to see out the closing stages of the 2018 GT4 European Series on a higher level as the series competes at its penultimate round at the Hungaroring this weekend.

Belgium Pro-Am class stablemates in their own beautifully liveried Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 of Julian Darras and Pascal Bachmann are in a similar position just four points ahead of the British Team.


Both teams enjoyed a productive start to the meeting during the first of the Free Practice sessions this morning, both ending up in the top half of the timing screen and that extended to some degree into the second practice session before Qualifying. An as yet unidentified issue with the #60 Academy car forced it back into the Paddock for repairs missing nearly half of FP2 and didn't enter any time during Qualifying 1 for tomorrows first race. The #007 SAR car finished 24th out of the starting 43 car grid.

With the AM's in the car for Qualifying 2 later this afternoon, at least both cars managed to submit a time to start Sundays race albeit in P36 for the #007 and P41 for the #60 car with at least a further three car starting behind them after others had issues.


Like any other race series, Free Practice and Qualifying are one thing - the races are a whole new ball game!

Both races will be streamed live as usual from the series website HERE

Photo credits - European GT4/Academy

With sometimes heavy and persistent rain showers having just passed Snetterton by this morning it appears that most of our Aston Martin Racing runners in the British GT Championship had a ball in both Free Practice and Qualifying today.

This morning's FP1 session ended with the top four places occupied by both TF Sport cars, the Optimum and Jetstream Motorsport cars, which then transposed into the top four out of five spaces in FP2 with Beechdean AMR this time taking top honours. The combined FP times confirmed the #99 Beechdean car of Darren Turner and Andrew Howard as fastest overall.


Not to be outdone, Academy Motorsports two V8 Vantage GT4's were also pedalling quickly around the 2.9mile circuit to finish top of that class with the #62 of Matt Nichol-Jones and Will Moore by the end of Free Practice. Their sister #61 car of Jan Jonck and Tom Wood was just a further four places back.


With Snetterton again featuring two - one hour sprint races each drivers qualifying time would be there own with the Am's starting the first race and the Pro's starting the second.

Mark Farmer in the #11 TF Sport AMR was fastest just 0.048 of a second ahead of the #47 Jetstream car of Graham Davidson in GT3 Am with Farmers team mate Nicki Thiim also securing pole minutes later in the GT3 Pro session. The #47 car of Maxime Martin did finish P3 but was given an eight place grid penalty for a sporting infringement of insufficient qualifying laps being entered.


In GT4 Am the highest qualifying was Moore in the #62 Academy ahead of team mate Wood in P5 whilst in Pro both went some better to end their session P1 and P3 for Nichol-Jones and Jonck respectively. All in all - three poles out of four can't be a bad days work!


Whereas there has been no immediate change in fortune for the #17 car of Derek Johnston and Marco Sorensen (qualifying in P10 and P4) having changed its livery back to their 2016 championship winning guise for the event, it would take a brave person to discount them particularly should there be any first lap incidences for the cars infant. Likewise with the #99 Beechdean AMR car who have to date driven there own races with great effect and claiming two podiums along the way.

All in all, Sunday's two races are shaping up quite nicely for all to enjoy either at the circuit or on live stream from the SRO feed.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey