Volante Rosso do themselves proud around the Mountain in the Intercontinental GT Challenge
Having started the race still in the dead of night at The Mountain, reigning British GT GT4 Silver Champion had the honour of starting Volante Rosso’s one-off entry within their ‘local’ event from eighteenth of the grid of twenty-two remaining cars. Having never tested at the circuit in the dark in the build-up to Sunday morning’s start, the young Englishman did what he needed to do the get the car through into more sustainable daylight racing hours and preserve that position whilst others were failing to do so.
By the end of the opening stint, Day had survived one little brush with the concrete retaining wall to have raced his way into the top ten overall before handing over to car and event debutant in the FFSA GT4 Silver Champion Mateo Villagomez to get his first GT3 racing laps under his belts to run as high as second overall thanks to the sequence of their pit stop intervals and Safety Car interventions for three quick successive incidents for others over the mountain.
Unfortunately, the #14 was blighted with a number of avoidable penalties in the first half of the race for pitstop and Safety Car procedures which then pushed the car back down the order as the race hit the heat of the mid-day sun but by the halfway stage, they were still running within the top ten and leading their silver class too.
Unfortunately, the #14 was blighted with a number of avoidable penalties in the first half of the race for pitstop and Safety Car procedures which then pushed the car back down the order as the race hit the heat of the mid-day sun but by the halfway stage, they were still running within the top ten and leading their silver class too.
Passing through their usual driver sequence of Day, Villagomez and back to Aussie racer Jaylyn Robotham, trouble finally came their way with just three hours and fifty minutes remaining when Robotham brought the car into pit lane for an unscheduled visits, and to be wheeled back into their garage with transpired to be clutch related issues.
Despite the herculean efforts of the team, the #14 Aston Martin lost over an hour in the garage whilst repairs were made but with just three cars circulating within silver, any finish would at least earn all a deserved podium finish, so their battle quickly became that of race preservation to be able to be classified at the end.
Eventually being able to repass the tail of the GT4 class, Day was able to bring the #14 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 home in P13 overall and P3 in class for all their efforts – a great undertaking considering their ages and experience against the best cars and drivers in the world.
All we need to find out now is just where will both Day and Villagomez emerge within the European based GT scene (with GT3 we are sure) and who will Volante Rosso have within the car for their return to the GT World Challenge Australia Series that starts on Phillip Island in early April.
Photo credits – Team / social media
Sunday, February 02, 2025 |
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Volante Rosso showing the pace of their older AMR Vantage GT3 at Bathurst
Fielded by the ‘near’ locally based team from Sydney, the older generation 16A variant of the successful AMR platform competes within the silver class with its diverse young gun driver line up of Jamie Day, Mateo Villagomez and Jaylyn Robotham.
Revealed earlier this week sporting a very fetching and discerningly familiar orange, blue and black livery of the Gulf Oils company, this entry is the first Aston Martin to compete at the circuit in this series since R Motorsport and Garage 59 did likewise back in 2020.
Six Free Practice sessions later (and with Jamie Day leading the field after the second), the twenty-two-car mixed car grid went into Qualifying yesterday to set the grid ahead of Sunday’s early start to the Meguire's 12 Hours of Bathurst.
Six Free Practice sessions later (and with Jamie Day leading the field after the second), the twenty-two-car mixed car grid went into Qualifying yesterday to set the grid ahead of Sunday’s early start to the Meguire's 12 Hours of Bathurst.
With the ‘world-class’ professional drivers unsurprisingly at the top of the timing screen, the #14 Volante Rosso AMR will start from P18 on the grid with a lap time just 1.7 seconds off that of pole position. Their first marker of success would be to ‘survive’ those opening hectic laps around the circuit in the dark of Sunday morning.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Saturday, February 01, 2025 |
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Next stop Bathurst for just one AMR around The Mountain
Whilst last weekend’s IMSA opener from Daytona did lead to one class podium finish for one of the four Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTD entries, this weekend’s twelve-hour race will feature just the lone bullet entry from the locally based Volante Rosso Motorsport team but with an international flavour behind the wheel.
Amongst the twenty two other entries, you will find the #14 Silver class AMR Vantage GT3 entry of Jamie Day, Mateo Villagomez and Jaylyn Robotham with the British GT GT4 Silver Class Champion of Day continuing his impressive GT3 experience after his AMR GT3 racing debut within the GT Masters late last season before doing both 24H Series Middle East events this year plus at least two rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series next month alongside the Ecuadorian born FFSA GT4 Silver Class Champion Villagomez about to embark upon his first GT3 race anywhere.
At least they will have some ‘local’ knowledge alongside them as the similarly aged Aussie in Robotham who comes fresh to the team as well but with a racing knowledge of this legendary public highway cum racetrack from his Supercars and Aussie Production cars experiences alongside that of his GT World Challenge Asia experiences.
They will be coming within a three-car strong silver class alongside that of the GT3 Pro, Pro-Am and Bronze classes as well INV for GT2 runners and that of the few GT4 entries within what is still being listed as an older 16A iteration of the Vantage GT3 that the team raced last season within their domestic GT World Challenge Australia Series.
Track action will begin on Thursday for the 12Hour runners with the first of six Free Practice sessions before Qualifying on Saturday before the start of the race early doors on Sunday morning (local time).
Photo credits – team / series / social media
Monday, January 27, 2025 |
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Just some of this weeks AMR powered announcements
There has been however, some other news coming out of other AMR powered camps that contained some rather more robust news to suggest that they are actual plans rather than desires moving forward.
Earlier this week, we saw the historic racing Oselli Motorsport team confirm their venerable #95 AMR Vantage GT4 into the GT Cup Championship’s for their gentleman driver Matt Eddolls and today, the Feathers Motorsport team have also confirmed the return of both James Guess and Tom Canning aboard their slightly newer #82 entry.
Whilst we saw Oselli look for willing participants this time last season (to no avail), it will be great to see at least two generations of the Vantage GT4 compete within the six round season starting at Donington Park in late March. We may even get to see a new 2024 Evo model run as well if that different team elects to go that way. None the less, two cars is a great start to the year.
Then, perhaps the bigger news came out today that the Australian based Volante Rosso has backed up upon their earlier disclosure and confirmed their three-driver roster into their entry into the Bathurst 12hr in just two weeks’ time.
Sporting a young but dynamic line up in British GT GT4 Silver Cup champion (and recently disclosed winner of the AMR Drivers Academy process for 2024) Jamie Day and FFSA GT4 Silver Champion Mateo Villagomez. They will race alongside local Supercars and GT World Challenge Asia racer Jaylen Robotham within what we still assume to be a 16A version of the Vantage GT3.
Day was supposed to have raced with the team within the Sydney Motorsport Park round of last seasons GT World Challenge Australia Series but technical issues with the car doing the early stages of that meeting put paid to that with Day then racing one of the team's Radicals at the event after that.
With Bathurst again featuring as the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, this crew will be running against some formidable opposition around The Mountain.
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Friday, January 17, 2025 |
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