Whilst it feels like it’s been an absolute age since we last saw them out – it has in fact been an absolute age since we last saw the runners and riders of the SRO America trilogy of series as their last race was way back in mid-June from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. There we saw two Aston Martin Racing powered entries compete and it will be the same again this weekend – just in another configuration.

Sticking with what will be a constant first and that will be the #71 Rebel Rock Racing AMR Vantage GT3 car and crew of Frank DePew and Robin Liddell who will be competing within the fifth round of the GT Word Challenge America Series this weekend from Road America – although they have of course only contested within the last three rounds of the series so far since stepping up from the GT4 category.

 

For this crew (and particularly DePew), 2026 is all about development in the GT3 platform in a year that has seen steady progress so far with the duo catching a top ten finish in class last time out.

This weekend will see another three-hour race on Sunday after Practice and Qualifying starting on Friday.

 

Then for this weekend at least, we do not see the #2 Racers Edge Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of Jason Bell competing within the GT America Series, but we do have the team fielding the same car into the GT4 America Series for the first time. Just why Bell is now absent when that was supposed to have been a remainder of the season entry we do not know, but the teams remaining presence in the paddock within the other series is only good.

Helping to swell the grid of that series back up to twenty-four cars, the teams #54 car of Christian Bach and Billy Johnson will be competing within the Pro-Am class for their two one-hour, pit stop punctuated races over the weekend.

 

Bach is a young emerging American racer, no stranger to modern GT4 based racing with recent experience within the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series with a Ford Mustang but this weekend shall be his first within the AMR Vantage GT4 Evo – alongside that of Johnson who needs no prior introduction to his experiences really.

Quite what the object of this exercise is (beyond just going racing) is yet to be seen as this grid will get their first track action of the weekend on Thursday before race one on Friday and race two on Saturday.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

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

 

 

 

It’s another case of just one of each for Aston Martin Racing as they support another Vantage GT3 and Vantage GT4 into next weekend’s GT World Challenge America and GT America Series visits to Road Atlanta.

Featuring as their fourth rounds to the 2026 season already, it will again be the #71 Rebel Rock Racing team supporting the headlining GT World Challenge America Series with another three-hour race whilst the Racers Edge Motorsport team field their GT4 entry into the solo driver GT America Series for only the second time this season.

 

Frank DePew alongside Robin Liddell again populate the distinctly green #71 car after the Pro-Am pairing showed remarkable resolve and improvement since stepping up to the SRO series in GT3 from the second round of the season.

  

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

 

 

Having finally debuted within the GT World Challenge America Series last time out at the second round of the season from the Circuit of the Americas three weeks ago, the #71 Rebel Rock Racing is again back in business this weekend as the series visits the Sebring International Raceway.

Having skipped the season opener from Sonoma in favour of getting back up to speed after the winter break within their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4, the team’s first full racing experience within the SRO series in Texas proved itself to be a productive one.

 

With drivers Frank DePew and Robin Liddell more familiar with running a two-hour race with their Vantage GT4, the GT World Challenge series new three-hour race format was something else that the Pro-Am pairing had to get used to as well as the bigger and faster race platform.

Out of the twenty-two runners last time out, DePew would qualify their #71 car P20 overall before taking most of the racing seat time before delivering the car back to the team in one-piece P17 overall.

 

This weekend’s visit to the Floridian circuit infamous for its bumps will be the same format as last time with one three-hour race to prepare for on Saturday. This weekend sees twenty-one provisional runners ahead of the scheduled race start at 17:00hrs local on Saturday evening.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a good days work for the Rebel Rock Racing team at the weekend as they embarked upon their first round of the GT World Challenge America Series with their new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 around the vast and winding course of the Circuit of The Americas.

Having procured their next step up the racing ladder late last year, the team found themselves back running in the two opening rounds of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with their AMR Vantage GT4 as they built up a head of steam ahead of their season opener within the SRO ran series.

 

Featuring a very familiar green and red livery, the number #71 upon the door panel and two familiar drivers names in Frank DePew and Robin Liddell – it was purely an exercise of survival and learning as they headed towards their first three-hour GT3 powered race of the season.

Although the weekend starting slowly for the car as they failed to turn any laps within Free Practice one, the Pro-Am entered car then got their new season underway in FP2 and FP3 resulting in a P20 starting position for Sundays race at the end of the combined qualifying sessions.

 

Whilst the race itself was full of its usual incident and accident, DePew ran a faultless opening stint to move up to as high as P10 overall before he pitted at about the hour mark. Liddell then ran the middle hour to the hour before handing back to DePew for the majority of the driving effort before he brought his car home P17 overall, P12 in class.

The next round will take them back to Sebring in just over a week’s time, a place where their GT3 career starting together last year.

Photo credits – Halston Pitman

 

 

After a couple of GT4 powered freshers to the new season, the Rebel Rock Racing team will be out in their new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 for the first time in the SRO sanctioned GT World Challenge America Series from the Circuit of the Americas.

Having debuted in their new car at Sebring last year, the Frank DePew and Robin Liddell driving partnership did revert back to more familiar grounds of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at their season opener from Daytona back in late January before returning to the bumps of Sebring in late March.

 

Although Sebring didn’t even get over the start line for them before a multi-car accident coming onto the start straight removed the #71 Aston Martin from the proceedings, the team did upset the form book at Daytona by winning that four-hour season opener with Andrew Davis.

This weekend at CoTA will see DePew take to unfamiliar grounds for the first competitive occasion outside of the IMSA support series as the #71 car competes amongst a twenty-two strong grid within the dominate fifteen strong Pro-Am class.

 

It’s certainly a refreshing change to see an Aston Martin powered crew compete within any of the three SRO series that will race in Texas this weekend after none materialised for the season opener from Sonoma a couple of weeks ago.

Track action for the #71 crew will begin on Friday with a test, bronze driver test and Free Practice before Practice 2 and Practice 3 taking place on Saturday. Individual Qualifying and the (new for 2026) three-hour race will be waved off at 12:30hrs local on Sunday.

All we now need is a fully liveried AMR Vantage GT3!

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!!

 

 

There was disappointment all round as far as the four Aston Martin Racing powered contingent were concerned as an opening lap multi-car crash took two of those cars out of the running before later pit lane penalties thwarted the efforts of the remaining two at the second round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series from Sebring earlier today.

With thirty-three GS (GT4) cars taking the start, an incident within the midfield of that group saw nine cars end up in a crumpled heap, still short of the start line that saw the race go immediately into a prolonged Full Course Yellow period.

The #26 Heart of Racing will lead the charge for the Aston Martin Racing powered entries in today’s two hour second round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge from the Sebring International Raceway after their earlier qualifying efforts.

The omission of #8 89X Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 from the thirty-three GS (GT4) classed entries means that there are now ‘just’ four such entries from the likes of the Heart of Racing, Van Der Steur, Rebel Rock Racing and Circle H Racing teams.

 

Just two Free Practice sessions lead the combined GS and TCR classed entries into yesterday’s Qualifying where the #26 car of Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeir finished eight fastest with a best lap time 1.6 seconds off the pole setting pace from new Toyota GR Supra Evo 2 entry.

The new #66 Van Der Steur entry for drivers Trenton Estep and Allen Patten ended their first IMSA Qualifying session together just outside of the top ten in P13 with the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Vantage of Frank DePew and Robin Liddell next up in P24. The Circle H Racing pairing of David Hampton and Thomas Merrill will be frustrated with their P28 starting position for this afternoons race, but they and the #71 crew of course headed the class podium at the opening round from Daytona in early February.

 

 

Sharing the IMSA visit to Sebring next weekend is again the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series which this time around, sees a number of changes within the ranks of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered runners since the season opening from Daytona in January.

Whilst the opening round at Daytona saw a healthy five AMR car representation amongst the fifty-one-car entry, the provisional entry list for Sebring still shows five similar cars although there are a few changes to last time.

 

The four-hour opening race to the 2026 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series delivered another racing classic earlier this evening as fifty-one GS and TCR based crews battled it around the 3.56mile road circuit that makes up the Daytona Speedway.

Having ran Qualifying earlier yesterday, it was the #26 Heart of Racing car that would lead the GS class charge for Aston Martin Racing in those opening laps as Hannah Grisham was just one of many drivers taking the start being new to the series.

 

 

Surprisingly, the race ran very cleaner for the first forty minutes before debris on track forced the implementation of the first Full Course Yellow having seen Grisham already stick her elbows out at the sharp end of the field whilst the Circle H Racing, Van Der Steur, Rebel Rock and 89X Motorsport Aston Martins continued to build up a head of steam towards the rear of the class. The timing of this caution period also allowed those bronze graded drivers to see out their mandatory forty minute minimum driving time at the earliest opportunity and without badly affecting their overall race strategy either.

Those stops saw Grisham remain within the #26 car whilst all of the others featured a driver change as well as fuel and tyre service – more so for the #10 VDSR Aston which was seen entering the pit again just a few laps later for what would turn out to be on-going technical issues for them.

 

 

There would then be trouble getting back to green flag running as a multiple car incident in the Safety Car queue would see the caution period extended for another ten minutes or so before getting back to green before going almost immediately back to FCY no2 with a TCR car in the tyre wall of turn one.

Finally getting back to green at the two hours twenty minutes to go point saw Andrew Davis quickly take over at the lead of the race in his #71 Rebel rock car with the #26 of Grisham still close behind in P7 but with the #14 Circle H Racing AMR now steadily moving up the class order to P11 with the #10 and #8 bronze cup runners P26 and P28 respectively.

 

 

Minutes later, FCY no.3 and then FCY no.4 saw more opportunity for service where Davis retained his race lead, but both the #14 and #26 cars dropped back slightly thanks to their driver changes. Getting back to green at the halfway mark saw the #8 89X Motorsport crew get pinged for the first of two pit lane transgressions – each one earning themselves another trip down pit lane but up front, we now had an Aston Martin 1-2 with the #14 Circle H joining Rebel Rock at the important end of the pack. The VDSR Aston Martin would again revisit pit lane and then go behind the wall for further works during which they would lose ten laps to their peers.

 

After FCY no.5 at the ninety-minute mark saw Mike David Ortmann take over the #26 car from Hannah Greenemeir after he #92 BMW induced spit at turn one to lead something of a resurgent charge through the order from his then P28 position in class to nearer P10 going into the final half hour of the race whilst the #71 and #14 cars still did battle royale with each other at the front.

 

 

All GS cars made their final stops for fuel and tyres (in varying options of fitment) with just forty-five minutes remaining – still with the two #14 and #71 cars (in that order again) still arguing over just who was going to take the chequered flag but at least they both never threatened each other’s position within the race with any uncalled-for late lunge for example. 

 

With just fifteen minutes remaining, a wide line out of turn one for the #14 car was enough for the #71 to pass them for position and for the lead of the race that they would retain until the chequered flag to account for another timely Aston Martin Racing win (and second place) at Daytona with Rebel Rock beating Circle H by just 2.5 seconds at the end.

 

 

The recovery drive by Ortmann placed the Heart of Racing crew just ousted the top ten in eleventh with the #8 89X Motorsport and #10 VDSR AMR’s still claiming P2 and P3 places respectively within their Bronze Cup class finishing P26 and P29 overall in class.

Another great start to another season with the series now moving on to its next round at Sebring.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year we see a constant ebb and flow of team moving between series and this closed season is certainly no different to any other as today sees the Rebel Rock Racing team confirm their intention to race their new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 within the SRO GT World Challenge America Series this year.

In previous years we have seen the likes of Flying Lizard Motorsport and the Heart of Racing teams be the main AMR powered stalwarts within that series but with the former already having left the series and the brand and with the latter leaving the SRO America family of series altogether, there seemed a possibility of their being now Vantage GT3 representation in that series this year – until now.

 

 

Having already conducted a live racing (testing) experiment at Sebring last year with their Vantage GT3, the team have today confirmed that both Frank DePew and Robin Liddell will now compete within the series new for 2026 single three-hour endurance races per event format in lieu of their older two ninety-minute races.

Team Principal and co-driver, Robin Liddell, is relishing the new challenge for 2026. “I’m really looking forward to campaigning our new GT3 Aston Martin Vantage with Frank in the GTWC series this year. We had a lot of fun driving the car in a recent test at Sebring, but we also recognise it is a decent step up in terms of increased performance as well as a new technical challenge. So, after some deliberation we decided that the GTWC series would be the ideal place for us to compete in 2026 as we look to make that jump and get to grips with the new car.”

 

In the meantime, the team and crew have the four-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge Series opener from Daytona tonight to concentrate upon within one of their AMR Vantage GT4 platforms.

Photo credits – Team / social media