Heart of Racings fightback podium at Daytona
The Heart of Racing (THOR) finished third in the GTD class with its #27 Vantage GT3 after a stirring fightback in the closing hours while series newcomer Van der Steur Racing made it two Aston Martins in the category’s top six positions. These results were achieved in the final IMSA event before the debut in the top GTP category of the all-new Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie at the 12 Hours of Sebring, in March.
The Phoenix-based Aston Martin Racing partner team, which will lead the works Valkyrie programme when it embarks on its dual FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC] and IMSA campaign in 2025, was among the GTD pace-setters throughout the 24 hours. From seventh on the grid, Zacharie Robichon (CDN), Tom Gamble (GBR), Mattia Drudi (ITA) and Casper Stevenson (GBR) led by the fourth hour as they ran a different pit sequence to most of their class rivals.
This, coupled with excellent speed on-track and execution in the pits meant that the car was still in a podium position when it was spun off the track by a rival with three hours to go and fell to sixth. Buoyed by Aston Martin works driver Drudi, who drove a masterly final stint in the closing hours of the race, #27 Vantage relentlessly climbed the order and with half an hour left was part of an intense three-way fight for victory.
After swapping the lead several times in a dramatic final 20 minutes, Drudi took the chequered flag in third place on his IMSA debut; his result giving the newest version of Aston Martin’s most successful racing car – the Vantage GT3 – its first podium finish at Daytona.
Joining THOR in the top six at Daytona was Van der Steur Racing, which made its GTD debut following two impressive seasons with the Vantage GT4 in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse Clot (FRA), Maxime Robin (FRA), Anthony McIntosh (CDN) and Rory van der Steur (USA) were contenders for a strong result throughout the 24 hours. Remaining around the top-10 positions from the third hour, the foursome gained pace and momentum in the final quarter of the race. Hasse Clot crossed the finish line sixth, just eight seconds from victory.
Ian James, The Heart of Racing Team Principal, said: “What a great way to end the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. It's a special place for the team and to get on the podium is an amazing achievement. Everybody on both our car crews really joined together and we executed as well as we possibly could. The team did 100 per cent what they needed to do and to be leading with 15 minutes to go. We dared to believe for a while, but a podium is a great way to start our IMSA season.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “We’re delighted to see Vantage on the podium for the fourth time in four years at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and for the first time with the new model. The Heart of Racing was one of the fastest and best-prepared teams in the race and adapted its race strategy brilliantly to fight back to the front despite some setbacks. Van der Steur Racing’s top-six finish is remarkable for a team on its category debut against such a deep GTD field. That it achieved this is a testament to the job it has done, but also reflects the depth of the engineering support we provide to our AMR partner teams and the strength and accessibility of the Vantage platform. We congratulate both teams and hope to share more successes in future rounds of this year’s championship.”
The IMSA season continues with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring – featuring the series debut of the Aston Martin Valkyrie – on Saturday, 15 March 2025.
Source material - AMR
Source material - AMR
Monday, January 27, 2025 |
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Van Der Steur complete their Rolex 24 driver line up
Announced by the team back in mid-September of last year, sees the Van Der Steur add an IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship Endurance Cup racing commitment to their plans for 2025 with what was then a step up to the GTD class for Rory Van Der Steur and his part 2024 Michelin Pilot Challenge GT4 season co-driver Valentin Hasse-Clot.
Fellow Frenchman, Maxime Robin was later added to the driver roster for of this season’s Rolex 24 opener from Daytona and today’s news also confirms that American racer Anthony McIntosh will join the #19 crew for this prestigious event as well as the other endurance rounds this season.
The Rolex 24 will be run over the weekend of 25th and 26th of January, but before that we will of course have the Roar before the 24 official test and Qualifying weekend the weekend before the main event for the extended IMSA grid which will also have three further Aston Martin’s from both the Heart of Racing and Magnus Racing teams amongst the sixty-one strong grid.
Having already tested at the Daytona circuit either side of the new year in a gorgeous bare carbon format, the #19 car will eventually be out in its more familiar GT4 based livery.
Photo credits – Team / IMSA / social media
Photo credits – Team / IMSA / social media
Tuesday, January 07, 2025 |
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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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New AMR Partner team posture for position with talent matching GT3 crews this season in GTWCE
Whilst the Belgium Comtoyou Racing team announced a full Pro driver line up of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattea Drudi within one of their new 2024 AMR Vantage GT3 cars to be entered into this season’s GT World Challenge Europe Series Endurance Cup, todays sees the German based Walkenhorst team confirm both a Pro class entry for divers Ross Gunn, Henrique Chaves and David Pittard to go alongside their silver class entry of Romain Leroux, Lorcan Hanafin and Maxime Robin.
What’s just so exciting about these sequence of 2024 announcements is that none of the above drivers need or warrant any introduction as all three (so far announced) have the potential to combat for overall race wins as far as the AMR factory driver Pro class crews are concerned as well as class wins as far as the silver entry.
As intimated later last year, the potential for multiple AMR Vantage GT3 entries into both the Endurance Cup as well as potential the sister Sprint Cup from the SRO organisation is already being realised with the six full or part entries already confirmed from the three AMR Partner teams who have so far gone public.
In terms of the Walkenhorst team announcement today, they join the already announced bronze class crew of Tim Creswick, Ben Green and Mex Jensen and with the team who have now moved on from Barcelona and onto Paul Ricard today.
2024 is looking rather brighter already!!
Photo credits – Teams / Social media / Paragraph 5
Friday, February 23, 2024 |
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Championships earned over the weekend
In Germany, the #1 Prosport Racing Vantage GT4 entry of Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse made something of championship history as they retained their overall ADAC GT4 Germany crown with the same line up, car and team as they did last season.
Entering the final round of six round season at Hockenheim, the #1 crew retained a sizeable forty-three-point lead within the Driver’s Championship so only a catastrophic disaster would have stood in their way.
Unphased by that pressure, the #1 duo managed to get the job done by the end of Saturday’s opening race where they converted a pole position start into a P6 finish, enough points to seal the deal with one race remaining. Not being satisfied with that, they then Qualified again on the front row to round the season off with yet another podium finish in P3 to see their year out very much on a high.
However, despite their dominance on track, the team failed to win the Team’s Championship title, eventually finishing second to the Avia W&S Motorsport team by just thirteen points.
Then in Portugal, the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman crew of Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse-Clot managed to claim the top honour within the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series as the French duo toughed it out around the rain soaked Autodromo do Algarve circuit to claim the GT3 title.
Having already experienced varying track conditions throughout the weekend thanks to their dual European Le Mans Series endeavours, Robin was still able to Qualify his car third in class despite the deluge that interrupted that session.
An early Sunday morning start behind the Safety Car (thanks to the latest weather system that passed the circuit by) saw the forty-car grid eventually take up the pace under some atrocious conditions with Arnold again completing the opening stint at very much a conservative pace.
Handing over the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 to Hasse-Clot for the closing stint, the weather again closed in bringing out the red flag with just over the ninety minutes completed. That would soon be called the result with the #10 finishing the race in second, enough for them to also claim the GT3 Driver’s title by twenty points from the #51 Ferrari winning the GT3 Team’s title by the same margin too.
Congratulations to all concerned.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / Social media
Monday, October 23, 2023 |
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Racing Spirit of Leman looking for Le Mans Cup GT3 glory in Portimao tomorrow
Racing within the GT3 class of the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series sees the #10 car retain a slender twelve-point point lead going into tomorrow’s final race around what is expected to be a rain-soaked Portuguese circuit.
Having already raced at the circuit once this weekend within the European Le Mans Series (with another four-hour round of that Series tomorrow to round off that season) saw the French duo run a very calculated build up again into this LMC race despite finishing fastest again in both Free Practice sessions earlier this weekend.
Going into today’s Qualifying, the rain again returned to the circuit just as the GT3 cars left pit lane and another spinning car (or two), like at Spa Francorchamps last time out again brought out an early red flag. That at least allowed the GT3 grid to change to full wet tyres for the remainder of their session which saw all the remaining crews exercise caution.
Such was the deterioration of track conditions between class Qualifying sessions at the end results saw the fastest two GT3 cars secure the front row for tomorrow overall grid with the #10 car listed P7 overall as well, well within the midst of the LMP3 field!!
Eventually finishing third fastest for tomorrows race, the biggest issue moving forward will be the weather for tomorrows championship deciding race which starts early at 09:00hrs local.
Game on !!
Photo credits – Series / Team
Saturday, October 21, 2023 |
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A change of driver line up at Bullitt Racing sees out the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series
The final round of the SRO GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season beckons this weekend from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain where another fifty-five GT3 car entry will entice a large crowd to the circuit and a larger audience to its live stream.
Having competed at a previous five rounds including the flagship 24Hrs of Spa Francorchamps, the locally based Bullitt Racing team remain the solo Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 competing team at this final round albeit with a slightly differing driver line up.
Remaining within their chosen silver class that they have competed within all season, the #33 car’s season long regulars of Romain Leroux and Jacob Riegel return to Spain to see out the year but this time they see Jeff Kingsley stepping aside for the pair to be joined by young French racer Maxime Robin.
With many of the series Championship classes already decided, this weekend’s round will be more about ‘setting their stall out’ ahead of any 2024 programme within both the GT World Challenge Series and others.
Since the last round from the Nurburgring back in late July where the #33 car finished with their best result of the season so far in P4, Leroux has been back to the Asian racing arena he knows so well to claim another double F1 Singapore support race (Thailand Super Series) within an AMR Vantage GT4 whilst Robin competed within the latest round of the European Le Mans Series only last weekend.
Tomorrow sees the first of the track action for the series with the first Paid Test session before the more formal sessions starting on Saturday with Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying before Qualifying and the final three-hour race of the season on Sunday afternoon.
Having had to bear considerable challenges of their own this season, it will be great of the team can go out with a podium finish this weekend!
Photo credits – Team / Series
Thursday, September 28, 2023 |
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Early pace fades after an incident and accident packed race for the AMR runners at the ELMS visit to Spa
Having started the proceedings with a private test day at the circuit on Wednesday which was attending by two of the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE crews scheduled to take part, a full contingent and officially timed sessions did not start until Friday with the first Free Practice session.
With TF Sport again supporting a two car ELMS entry for that of Arnold and Max Robin with Valentin Hasse Clot aboard their all French supported #72 car and the #95 car of John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Jonny Adam, they were of course joined by the Danish #44 GMB Motorsport crew of Jens Moller, Gustav Birch and Nicki Thiim.
Whilst both the #44 and #95 cars head recent track data from their earlier test to run mid table within their class during the opening session, it was something of a game of catch-up for the #72 crew as they built up their own momentum and used cross series data available to them from their dual Le Mans Cup Series entry with the Racing Spirit of Lemans AMR Vantage GT3.
Next came the Bronze Driver test session and the first signs of real pace from the Aston Martin as both Arnold Robin and Moller took control of the first two places on the timing board with a gap of just over half a second to the chasing pack ahead of Saturday’s second Free Practice and Qualifying sessions.
Declared a wet track in the morning, track limits blighted the #44 crews position where Race Control forced them to sit time out within pit lane whilst the #95 moved up to a mid-table position with the #72 maintaining its momentum to end up P5 as the bronze rated drivers about to perform again in Qualifying.
This time the Aston Martin’s would not get everything their own way as Arnold Robin had to settle for a front row P2 start with Moller immediately behind in P4 whilst Hartshorne again struggled for pace, eventually starting from last in class.
Race day, and with the words of Race Control about the race being a four-hour affair and not just the first corner already in distant memory in the minds of some – the chaos ensued as the now collective forty strong grid hurtled its way into La Source for the first time.
Scattering LMP2 an LMP3 cars around the first corner, the chasing GTE field did at least avoid the carnage, but the race was immediately brought back under the control of the Safety Car for the first time whilst the debris was cleared having already seen a change to the running order with the #44 up to P2 and the #72 down to P3.
Twenty minutes were lost to that caution as the first racing laps showed a great dual in the making between the two lead Aston Martin’s whilst Harthorne had already pitted for a splash of fuel and a change to his cars strategy under the Safety Car.
At the top of the first hour, the first FCY was called for debris on track after which saw both #44 and #72 cars pit for the first time (for only fuel and tyres each) whilst the #95 car inherited the class lead thanks to their earlier stop. Once that sequence had cycled through, the biggest problem for the Aston Martin’s at the time was the pace of the #16 Proton Porsche which was doing more than enough to keep the chasing pack at bay.
The earlier challenging #66 JMW Ferrari meanwhile had clipped the tyre wall at Raidillon have spun coming up from Eau Rouge and their damaged steering would see that car stop on track bringing the Safety Car back out for a second time. Whilst the #72 benefitted with track position after their misfortune, the #44 GMB car would get a Drive Through Penalty for track limits (again), and that would cost the Danes heavily in terms of track position by the time that Nicki Thiim had come out for his hour stint at the midway point.
A further FCY was called for a stranded car in the barriers with 100 minutes remaining, a place in the race where the #72 car was P6, the #44 car was down to P8 and the #95 in P10. Those places would soon change again however as on the restart, small rear contact from Thiim with the #72 car of Robin saw the #72 get turned around but was thankfully able to re-join, albeit twenty or so seconds in arrears.
Ninety minutes to go and a heavy impact in the barriers for an LMP3 car saw another, prolonged appearance of the Safety Car as debris and repairs were made by the ever-efficient circuit marshals. This gave the #95 crew the chance to make their final stop under the slower pace of the caution as Ben Tuck got his first racing laps of Spa in an Aston.
An hour to go, and Thiim pitted the #44 car for their final driver change as the young Gustav Birch stepped aboard form their now P8 position in class. Unfortunately, the combination of cold tyres and over exuberance from the young Dane saw him ride the kerb at Les Combes to get spat back out to nose and tail his #44 car into the tyre wall whilst trying to catch the end of the Safety Car train ahead of the packs impending release.
Losing the rear wing, damaging the defuser amongst other things saw that car limp back to the garage and into immediate retirement leaving just the #72 of (then) Hasse Clot and the #95 of Tuck to see what each could both rescue from their P8/P9 places respectively.
Despite their best of efforts and the further intervention of two further Safety Car periods within the final half hour, the capabilities of those aboard the cars ahead and the gaps between them were too much to overcome in such little time for the #72 and #95 cars to finally come home in P6 and P9 respectively.
A disappointing end to the race and the GTE’s final appearance at the Belgium circuit for the AMR Vantage powered crews as the series now looks ahead to its final two quick fire rounds of the series at Portimao in late October.
As far as the Championship goes – that has already been determined that it won’t be going to any AMR powered team unfortunately – not this season anyway!!
Monday, September 25, 2023 |
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Racing Spirit of Lemans Le Mans Cup endeavours turn into a recovery drive after a great start to their Spa weekend
Before that however, drama was never too far away as the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse-Clot controlled the class pace during yesterday’s Free Practice 1 and Bronze Driver Collective test sessions before finishing mid table after the second Free Practice.
Going into todays Qualifying session very optimistic of a good starting position, Robin was one of the first out of pit lane for the GT3 class’s fifteen-minute session only for yet another LMC session to be red flagged on the first lap.
Holding old pit lane whilst a GT3 car was recovered, the #10 was unable to power up again once the session had gone back to green forcing team mechanics to push the car back uphill to its garage for closer attention. Eventually, the car was restarted whoever, it was too late for Robin to post a competitive lap time so the #10 would have to start from the rear of the grid having been granted permission by Race Control to participate.
Compounding the issue was the fact that Pro driver Hasse-Clot also needed to start the race whereas his skills were ideally needed for the end of the race. Like so many sessions before it, the race also came under the immediate need of a Safety Car as several LMP3 cars tangled at the first corner which allowed the #10 car to pit and swap over to the Am driver of Robin without losing ground to the pack. The only question was whether the team had done what was required to complete their mandatory timed stop of driver change, refuel and tyre change?
Back to green but less than two laps later saw further contact between two LMP3 car that allowed other GT3 crews to complete the same switch (if chosen) as many had already started with their Am’s. More racing time lost to another clean up exercise, but things were already not looking great for the Spirit of Leman strategy as by then, minimum driver time for a starting Am had now been passed.
As most of the grid pitted with just over an hour remaining, the #10 car led not just their class by also the race but they still needed to swap back to Hasse-Clot under what would soon be green flag running conditions. Five minutes later and the #10 car pitted, travelling agonisingly slowly along pit lane so that Robin could also fulfil his own minimum driver time before Hasse-Clot climbed aboard.
Back to green but then straight back to another Safety Car with another LMP3 off with barrier damage too saw the race clock count down still further but with the #10 car still at the back of the pack. Back to green and back again to another Safety Car – things were starting to get a little tedious for all watching on as by the fix, just short of twenty minutes remained.
Despite a further FCY for a GT3 having suffered a blow out later, Hasse-Clot had just nine minutes to haul the #10 car up the order which he did as each lap passed the Aston Martin Racing Vantage rose up the timing screen.
Running out of time, the #10 car eventually finished P5 in class after a five second time penalty was applied to at least recover what will become valuable Championship points come the final race of the season from Portimao next month – a fine achievement considering where they found themselves during Qualifying earlier today.
Saturday, September 23, 2023 |
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Spa Francorchamps all set for ELMS and Le Mans Cup this weekend
Having started in Barcelona, then across to Paul Ricard and then back to Aragon last time out, the forty-two entries of the ELMS and thirty-nine cars of the Le Mans Cup Series will both be back in action this weekend from the infamous Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.
With this weekends round and then two back to back rounds still to come in Portugal, the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE’s of the ELMS are sadly effectively out of championship contention (although mathematically possible) but for the sole Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 within the Le Mans Cup, they certainly still has everything to race for!
No changes aboard the three Vantage GTE runners this weekend as the venerable platform sadly counts down to its last visit to Spa as a mainstream chassis but with its replacement presently under test this week somewhere in Spain, there are still good times to look forward to.
John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and Ben Tuck lead the AMR trio within the GTE Champiosnhip, presently standing in twelfth place in their #95 TF Sport prepared car having failed to score for the first time this season last time in the heat of Aragon. Much cooler and perhaps even wet conditions in Belgium across the weekend will certainly help to spice everything up within the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE grid.
The #72 TF Sport Aston Martin GTE of Max and Arnold Robin with Valentin Hasse Clot alongside stand below them in P14 having endured a very difficult start to their short GTE career this season, something that started with a first lap crash and elimination in Barcelona. Since then, something could have been on for them at Paul Ricard before late contact put that hope to bed before also struggling in the heat of Aragon.
Finally, there is the #44 GMB Motorsport AMR of Jens Moller, Gustav Birch and Nicki Thiim – a team who have probably suffered the most with both younger and novice drivers suffering with incident and accident along the way both in this series and at Le Mans itself.
They will come into this round with certainly nothing to lose and with a Pro driver already seat ready after his secretive two-day test with the factory team as they continue to develop this evolution of the Vantage platform in time for next season.
The more ‘spirited’ news comes with the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse Clot as the French duo maintained a slender lead at the top of the GT3 Drivers Champiosnhip after they managed to secure a P3 in class finish at Aragon.
With two lower place finishes over the course of the Road to Le Mans races in June blighting their otherwise podium-based record, the remaining races at both Spa and Portimao will need to be on their best form if they are to stop the #86 Porsche and #51 Ferrari from snatching that top prize from them at the death.
The circuit of Spa Francorchamps can be difficult enough for some at the best of times so the autumnal weather within the Ardennes will be pivotable to the success (or failure) for both grids going into race day on Saturday for the Le Mans Cup and Sunday for the ELMS.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / A Lofthouse
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 |
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