SRO America is back in town this weekend as all three series get back to racing from the Circuit of the America’s in Texas with another bunch of nine Aston Martin Racing powered crews amongst them.

For both the GT World Challenge America and GT4 America Series, this visit to CoTA will be their second rounds of the season having both opened at Sonoma at the end of March whilst the GT America Series has already snuck in their second round of the year with a west coast visit to the streets of Long Beach California just two weeks ago.

Only last week were German based Prosport Racing hinting at a two cars Aston Martin Racing powered driver line up for this year’s Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie but todays sees them go one step further.

Running both a Vantage GT4 and Vantage GT8R again within the Nordschleife based series sees the Christoph Esser lead team confirm both Guido Dumarey and fellow Belgian Alexander Hommerson compete within the SP8T classed GT8R whilst the SP10 classed GT4 will be driven by Jorg Viebahn and Yannik Himmels.

The Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie is back in action this weekend around the infamous Nordschliefe circuit in Germany, this time with a six-hour event to mark the fifth round of the 2023 season.

Scanning through the provisional entry list, we see three Aston Martin Racing powered teams return, two from the full season entries from the locally based Prosport Racing team and another from the ADAC GT4 Germany based Doer Motorsport team.

Not the only crew mate to be racing again this weekend sees the remaining two thirds of TF Sports Le Mans 24hr GTE Am winning team of Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood also get back down to business this weekend – this time back in the International GT Open Series with their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3.

With Jonny Adam racing with Garage 59 in their new Vantage GT8R over at the ADAC Total 24 Hour at the Nordschleife, Yoluc Eastwood and crew have made their way back down to Monza in Italy for the fourth round of six of the GT3 series which will this time feature GT4 cars as well.

German team PROsport Racing have made a comparatively short trip over between races from the Nurburgring and Nordschleife where they competed in last weekends NLS 5 event to the Hockenheimring for the latest round of the Creventic 24H Series this weekend.

Originally slated to be held in Barcelona, the 24H Series had to find a new home for their latest round in Europe after it was earlier forecasted that Spain might be on a 'sticky wicket' with COVID related travel restrictions.

Trouble is, the current climate has again left the series somewhat lacking in overall numbers with just two true GT3 cars and two GT4 cars amongst the total expected grid of fifteen cars. PROSport's driver line again includes the teams Belgium clients with Rodrigue Gillion, Nico Verdonck and Tim Heeren all looking to improve upon past performances together in the Series at Portimao which sadly ended for them with a DNF.

Photo credits - GT Open Cup

With now a confirmed eleven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 and GT4 race cars now competing around the world this weekend, early track sessions have already got off to a flying start for some as those Series running a double header race weekend have already ran one Qualifying session today.

For those Series competing in France, they have come away with the best performances so far with Charlie Eastwood this morning securing overall pole for himself and 'birthday boy' Salih Yoluc in their red liveried TF Sport prepared AMR Vantage GT3 that they both running again at  Le Castellet for the second round of the GT Open Series.

Progressing lap times from these guys going through the Private Test and then the three Free Practice sessions has seen them stay in the top four throughout, so an overall Pole position comes as no surprise.


In the supporting GT Cup Open Series we have two AMR GT4's running out of the Team Virage and PROsport Racing stables to also look out for this weekend.


Joining them at the front of their respective grid start for todays first race will be the #161 Am Class AGS Event Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Didier Dumaine who secured his first class pole at the first round of the FFSA GT4 Series from Nogaro in south western France. The Series has the team racing three AMR Vantage GT4's with clientele who already race with them to great success in the parallel GT4 European Series as well as (new for the series) returning faces like AMR Academy Driver Akhil Rabindra.


Further afield, a strong P10 Qualifying slot for the #23 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GTD car of Ian James and Roman de Angelis yesterday puts them in good stead for a healthy return to racing in IMSA's Weathertech Sportscar Championship from VIR today. Their last race unfortunately ended before not even began with technical issues before the race meaning that their car had to be withdrawn.

The team will also be very keen to get back to the other part of their racing business plan in fund raising for the Seattle Children's Hospital - a difficult proposition as race fans are still not allowed entry into the VIR circuit at the moment.


We also understand that their regular second driver Alex Riberas indeed remains in New Zealand (due to CV-19 travel issues between New Zealand and the USA) as they wait for the start of their own parallel programme, racing another AMR Vantage GT3 in NewZealand Endurance Series next month.


Supporting the main IMSA package is of course the three AMR Vantage GT4 cars that compete in the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series. A swap around in timing schedules means that this series is now effectively running a day late so Qualifying will be later tonight (Saturday) with the two hour race on Sunday.


Finally, the Pacific D'Station Racing AMR of Tomonobu Fujii and Kei Cozzolino race at the third round of the Japanese Super GT Series at Suzuka.  With the car not matched in performance to that of the Fuji Speedway Circuit where the Series held the opening two rounds of their CV-19 adjusted season, early Free Practice times look promising as the cars go into Qualifying mode later today.

Best of luck to them all.

Photo credits - GT Open / HORT / GT Open Cup / D'Station Racing / CSJ Motorsport / IMSA

With international track action now coming in thick and fast with many series around the world trying to start off the remnants of the revised 2020 calendars, there is just enough time to finish off news of last weekends events involving some of Aston Martin Racing customer teams.

Snetterton was the venue for last weekends opening four races of the GT Cup Championship with Chris Murphy's Whitebridge team again in attendance furnishing both himself and new race partner Steve Birt with a 2016 normally aspirated V8 Vantage GT4.


Despite a deficiency on pre-season testing on what they would normally have done seemed not to have affected the guys too badly with Murphy claiming a P3 position in the shorter first race and then a joint P3 finish with Birt in the final endurance race of the meeting.

It was great to see long term AMR racers Chris Kemp and Stuart Hall also at the meeting, but things didn't go too well for these guys despite a P3 podium in the first endurance race on Saturday as the cars beautiful engine expired on them during the third race on Sunday.


There was a similar tail for the #176 PROsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4 competing in the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie (VLN of old) double header at the weekend.

Drivers Guido Dumeray and Alex Walker went racing alone for these two consecutive rounds having competed in the previous round under the watchful eye of team professional Nico Verdonck. Things ran well for the team in that race before a puncture left the car stranded out on track just after the final stop.

Whilst the guys did finish Saturday's race P5 in the SP10 class and a lap down to the class winner, Sundays race wasn't so productive with the car failing to finish just before the halfway point in the four hour race.


Finally some more disappointing news for this weekend that AMR factory driver Nicki Thiim will again NOT be able to travel to Japan for this weekends opening round of the Super GT Series at Fuji with Pacific Team D'Station Racing AMR as self isolation upon arrival into the country still apply.

The replacement to drive alongside Tomonobu Fuji is yet to be confirmed.

Photo credits - Inked Hand Images / D'Station Racing / VLN

Aston Martin has announced that it will enter in to an important new partnership with the successful German racing team PROsport Performance based near the Nürburgring, close to the home of the British brand’s AMR Performance Centre in Germany.

The agreement, which features the highest level of partner support from Aston Martin Racing, includes a two-car attack on Germany’s leading GT championship – the ADAC GT Masters – in 2019 with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Moreover, one of those two Vantage GT3s will be driven by a pair Aston Martin Racing works drivers.

 In addition to this, PROsport Performance, the newly-crowned European 24h GT Series Drivers and Teams champion, will enter two Aston Martin Vantage GT4s in the new ADAC GT4 Germany series. It will also enter two in the GT4 European Series – where the team has collected three championship titles (Drivers PRO/AM and Team in 2016 and Drivers AM in 2013). Some of PROsport’s younger drivers will also be eligible to be part of the AMR Young Driver Academy.

This latest partnership announcement from Aston Martin represents a strong advocation for the new Aston Martin Vantage, of which the GT3 variant underlined its potential on its competitive race debut in the eighth round of the VLN on the Nürburgring Nordschliefe last month, running trouble-free and finishing fourth overall.

PROsport is a highly-decorated motorsport organisation that specialises in GT racing with a record of consistent success that charts all the way back to its formation by team owner and former racer Christoph Esser in 2006. Among its accolades, are five class victories in the Nürburgring 24 Hours and more than 50 class wins in the circuit-based VLN Championship.

Esser said: “Aston Martin has a unique tradition in motorsport. To represent this brand makes us very proud. In close partnership with Aston Martin Racing, PROsport Performance will do its utmost to continue its successful history. The new Vantage has everything it needs to compete against the strongest competition in the GT3 and the GT4.”

President of Aston Martin Racing, David King added: “We are delighted to add PROsport Performance to our race partner team roster with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars. The introduction of our new Vantage comes at a time when Aston Martin is expanding our motorsport and customer racing activities around the world. Adding teams the calibre of PROsport Performance signifies a clear statement of intent not only to demonstrate our capabilities as a leading producer of GT racing cars but as one that competes to win at the highest level.”


Source material - AMR