Sadly, there was nothing much to cheer for again as the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crews endured some extreme conditions at their third round of the GT4 European Series from a baking hot Spa Francorchamps this weekend.

Starting a day earlier than usual thanks to the series again supporting the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series and their Blue Ribband Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa, their first into the night race of the weekend on Friday gave the forty-four crews little solace from the extreme heat that has been affecting much of northern Europe of late.

Indeed, it was the guesting #23 Full Send Racing entry for Dan Lavery and Darren Turner who nearly stole the march on the two full season Racing Spirit of Leman AMR entries as the British crew used their British GT GT4 race winning experience of last weekend to good effect to eventually come home just off their Pro-Am podium in fourth but that luck would run out in race two on Saturday.

The #74 RSLM silver pairing of Pedro Garcia and Clement Seyler had looked to have put their misfortunes of Monza last time out behind them, but the pace within their car was simply not their compared to their class rivals – that and the fact that Gracia was racing at each European circuit for the first time this year!

Track limits would always be a ‘thing’ for all the runners in both races and the #72 RSLM Pro-Am entry of Florent Grizaud and Kevin Kullmann would soon attract the attention of Race Control and that would severely hinder their own race that would see them finish a lowly P11 in class.

Whilst race one had at times threatened heavy rain at the circuit as the humidity increased, race two on Saturday was again in the rapidly climbing heat of the morning as track temperatures exceeded fifty degrees as many drivers and teams again reported high temperature issues within their cars.

For Lavery, his race would end fairly quickly as a errant Ginetta attempting to pass on the inside at La Source only damaged the Aston Martin but his own car that saw both cars pit the next time around but for the #23 – it was the end of the line with steering/suspension issues.

The damage to the #74 cars hopes had also been shredded during Qualifying earlier in the weekend as the Brazilian could do no better than P36 overall, but after a determined fight back during that hour long race, the pairing one place higher than what they had done in race 1. It was to be a similar tail for the sister #72 car as although they had again qualified within the top half of the grid, they could again do no better than P11 in class.

The series now moves onto Misano, Italy in just three weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

A thoroughly eventful but equally confusing third rounds of the British GT Championship and FFSA GT4 Series as fifty-five cars from both SRO series shared the 7km Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgian earlier today marking the start of Speed Week and the run into the Spa 24.

In a novel way in saving track time between all the SRO governed series between this weekend and next, the idea of running the GT3 and GT4 classes of the British GT Championship with the GT4 and sub-classes of the French FFSA GT4 independently in governance but at the same time as on track with one another had all the hallmarks of something very interesting but reality sadly proved that idea needed further thought.

 

The start to today’s two-hour race started under the searing heat of northern Europe making for some very uncomfortable working conditions for the drivers, team crews and circuit safety teams as air temperature reached into the low thirties.

After yesterday’s Qualifying sessions, the #7 Beechdean Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn would be starting from the second row of the grid which would this time start along the downhill looking into Eau Rouge along the endurance pit lane. The four AMR Vantage GT4’s from the Townsend Racing, GBR Stratton Motorsport, MK Racing and Grange Racing teams mainly saw adjustments to the original qualifying position to end up starting from towards the rear of the class.

 

Eventually getting the green light coming out of La Source saw the #7 Beechdean car of Howard get jumped by a rampant Lamborghini to drop the Aston immediately down to fifth whilst (first) the British GT GT4 class came through before being eventually followed by the FFSA GT classes for what was a clean start. Such was the speed differential between the GT3 frontrunners and the slowest of the FFSA classes that the race leaders were lapping cars on only the fourth lap of the race.

The rotten weekend for the #005 Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4 car of Jodie Sloss and new co-driver Nicolas Siebenschuh continued after the pit lane contact that halted their qualifying runs before they had even begun, as the young Scot only managed six laps before retiring the car before the first drama on track saw a fellow FFSA runner hard off and into the tyre wall.

 

That would be the first of three Full Course Yellow – Safety Car interruptions for various incidents on track that would lose the race nearly half the race as the longest interruption dragged on for over half an hour and Race Control permitted all runners to make their necessary stops at the reduce circulating rate of a FCY.

The end of the third interruption left just over twenty minutes of racing to go for the (mainly) Pro drivers aboard as the #7 Beechdean with Gunn was still in fourth whilst the #27 Grange Racing GT4 of Darren Turner was now battling for the class lead despite Dan Lavery getting pinged for passing FFSA traffic before the green flag – getting them a further twenty seconds hold time in pit lane earlier in the race.

The #40 Townsend car of first James Townsend before Joe Wheeler took over was struggling in the heat, as was the #97 GBR Stratton car of John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson as the #97 would later get five seconds added to tehir race time for track limits. The final two laps would create a perfect storm for the GT3 front runners as they would find themselves coming up upon the FFSA tail enders again just at the slowest sections of the track which gave the pole setting McLaren the opportunity it needed to pass Gunn again for position into the bus stop for the final time.

Eventually all British GT runners passed the line to take the checkered flag with the #7 Beechdean crew finishing fifth overall but with the #27 Grange Racing crew taking their second class win in succession after their achievements in race two from Oulton Park last time out.

 

The #21 MK Racing silver pairing of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins would recover from their qualifying issues of yesterday to eventually finish sixth despite the additional forty seconds that they had to spend in pit lane during their stop thanks to both their silver/silver grade and their podium position from Oulton Park. The #40 Townsend car would swap positions at the end thanks to the #97 GBR Strattons final time penalty as they would finish fourth and fifth respectively in GT4 Pro-Am.

The Championship now enters their six-week summer break before it returns to its two sprint race format next time out at Snetterton in mid-August.

 

 

It will not just be the Walkenhorst Motorsport team who will arrive at the Spa Francorchamps racetrack later this week in time for this weekend’s Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa with a spring in their step after a podium winning build up elsewhere last weekend, as the Comtoyou Racing team have done similar.

Whilst the German based Aston Martin Arcing powered team did well at the NLS with one of their AMR Vantage GT3 powered crews, the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing AMR team did better as they secured their best racing results this years within both the DTM and ADAC GT Masters Series at the fast Lausitzring in eastern Germany.

 

Having been beaten quite convincingly last time out at Zandvoort, the AMR Vantage GT3 platform clearly got a more favourable BoP adjustment this time out as Nicki Thiim secured his first AMR powered pole position of the year for race one on Saturday.

An intense rainstorm just before the start however, changed matters lightly for the #007 car of Thiim to lose out at the start before regrouping to come back with still a season best so far finish in fourth with Nicolas Baert also getting his best result to date in P16.

Qualifying ahead of race two on Sunday didn’t go quite as well as before with Thiim this time being third quickest before making use of the hot conditions at the speed oval circuit to deliver his first podium finish of the year in second with Baert in P17.

Within the supporting ADAC GT Masters Series, the teams #39 AMR Vantage GT3 of Baudouin Detout and Jamie Day also did better than last time out in Holland as the young crew improved upon their P11 starting position on Saturday to come home in P9 before rounding the weekend off with a P6 overall finish after another P11 starting

position.

 

The team and drivers (with the exception of Detout) will now compete within the Spa 24 this week as both the Walkenhorst and Comtoyou Racing teams field an AMR powered entry of six cars between them (plus the Blackthorn car as well).

Photo credits - DTM / ADAC

 

 

 

 

Another crazy edition of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup now ‘safely’ in the books after yesterday’ s three hour near demolition derby left many cars in literal tatters but (more importantly) nobody injured around the Autodromo Nazionale Monza,

It was always going to be another fast and furious second round the season having started the year out at an equally fast Paul Ricard circuit in France just a few weeks back, but the ultra-fast and more traditional circuit layout of the Italian circuit would also have the probability of certainly a turn one, lap one incident for the fifty-seven-car entry.

 

The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of last time out race winners Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi were always one crew to keep an eye out for last weekend but their performance around the circuit in previous sessions and into Qualifying left them a down on the fourth row ahead of yesterday afternoons start.

Their participation within the race however was strictly limited to the distance between the start line and the entry into the first chicane as multi-car contact saw the #007 sent onto the grass before collecting an already spun out and damaged car, destroying the front end before the race has truly started.

 

That first corner incident alone accounted for the loss of half a dozen cars including the first three cars on the grid but that sadly did not tone down the driving characteristics within some driver crews as a similar incident at the same location towards the end of the race took out some other cars competing for race or class wins at the time.

The #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed entry for Kyle Marcelli, AJ Muss and Marcelo Tomasoni were also seen to be in the wars after rear end contact into the Variante Ascari that saw them run through the gravel to impact rearward into the tyre wall sustaining them significant damage in the process too. Albeit able to limp back to the pits under the Full Course Yellow, the damage had already been done to their race in more ways than one.

 

There was hope seeing the two Walkenhorst AMR Vantage GT3 crews as their names peaked towards the head of the timing screens with little over an hour of the race to go but sadly, their pit stop strategy still owed them a minimum timed stop apiece that obviously dropped them back down the order again. The #34 Pro entry of Christian Krognes, Jamie Day and Henrique Chaves could do no better than P8 in class despite the best efforts of the Portuguese racer during his stint within the chaotic final hour whilst the #35 silver entry of Mateo Villagomez, Ethan Ischer and Gaspard Simon also finished P8 in class.

The reward of racing success at least went to the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR bronze classed entry of Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonny Adam and Lorcan Hanafin who managed to stay out of trouble on track – thanks in part to their low qualifying position second last on the grid at the start to finally come through eventually P9 overall and second in class. That was however thanks in part to one class rival being taken out of the race at the second big incident at turn one.

 

Many teams now face a fierce battle to repair or replace their GT3 rolling stock in time for the Spa 24 – the next round of the Endurance Cup stakes at the Belgian circuit at the end of the month.

Photo credits _ Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

It was a frustrating trip to the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort for the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing after they arrived earlier this week for the second rounds of both the DTM Series and the ADAC GT Masters Series.

Having already had a busy couple of days at Spa Francorchamps with their Prologue testing duties ahead of the Spa 24, it was double driving duties for all but one of their drivers and a triple stint for one of those.

 

Having raced already at the faster and wider Red Bull Ring in the opening rounds of both series, the tight and twisty coastal circuit of Zandvoort was always going to be a tall ask for their three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered runners with their available BoP never going to see their cars of either series.

Race one in DTM was uneventful for the #007 of Nicki Thiim and the #008 of Nicolas Baert as Thiim qualified and finished ninth overall whilst Baert improved from his P19 start to finish P17 within the twenty-one starters.

 

Race two also didn’t go their way after Baert suffered from another tyre failure whilst Thiim was given penalty for earlier contact which resulted in both Aston’s finishing at the rear of the pack.

Within the ADAC GT Masters Series, it was still a learning curve for Baudouin Detout as he prepared to compete in only his second competitive GT3 powered race weekend under the watchful eye of Jamie Day aboard their #39 Aston Martin.

 

Starting the weekend in sixth after Day’s earlier qualifying run, Detout would start the car before handing over the Englishman to end the busy day of Saturday P11 out of the entry of fifteen cars. Race two on Sunday would start the other way around in driver rotation with Day being able to elevate their car from its P15 starting position before handing over to Detout to eventually finish P8 overall.

The next round for both series will be from the Lausitzring in mid-June.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

 

Today saw the concluding two sessions take place of the Spa 24 Prologue Test with the sixty runners of today experiencing some typical Spa Francorchamps weather by the looks.

Yesterday saw six of the seven scheduled Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews take part within yesterday’s two sessions but today did see the arrival of the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport Pro class entered car of Henrique Chaves, Jamie Day and Christian Krognes.

 

The morning sessions was rather damp to say the least after numerous shower fronts passed the circuit by making for some spectacular photos. Track conditions did however improve over the course of the day to leave dry track conditions to see out the test.

Obviously with the four sessions over the two days just being for testing purposes, it wasn’t too surprising to see that none of the Aston Martin Racing powered runners threaten the top of the class live timing before time was called on the occasion with all runners and drivers not expected back to the circuit until the week of the 22nd June to prepare for the actual 24 hour race over the 27th and 28th.

 

For some, their next track activity is just this weekend.

Photo credits - Series

 

 

Today saw the first track action of a two-day Prologue Test at the Spa Francorchamps circuit ahead of next months 78thCrowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa with fifty-nine of the expected seventy car entry taking part within today’s opening two sessions.

Whilst we thought that the seven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered entries and crews were fairly locked in before now, there have been a few more changes within a couple of these cars with six of the seven in attendance today.

For the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport team, it’s a busy week for them having just cleared up from their podium winning achievements at last weekend’s ADAC Ravenol N24 from the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

 

The #35 silver classed Vantage GT3 of Mateo Vilagomez, Ethan Ischer, Gaspard Simon and Maxime Robin was in attendance today at Spa but their #34 Pro class entry of Henrique Chaves, Christian Krognes and Jamie Day was not – or at least did not get any measurable laps in.

The Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crew was in attendance but their driver line up within their #56 car for both the Prologue and the Spa 24 has changed again slightly as Tom Wood loses his seat to Romain Leroux for both events alongside Jonny Adam, Giacomo Petrobelli and Lorcan Hanafin.

The remaining Aston Martins in attendance were from the locally based Comtoyou Racing team as they fielded the other four cars across the Pro, Silver and Bronze classes.

 

Podium winners at Nordschleife Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi (then in a Walkenhorst prepared AMR of course) swap over to the Comtoyou prepared #7 Pro entry alongside that of Marco Sorenson. The #11 bronze entry of Marcelo Tomasoni, AJ Muss and Kyle Marcelli has been boosted with fourth man Felice Jelmini whilst their #21 silver entry of Oliver Soderstrom, Kobe Pauwels and Sebastian Baud also has fourth man Arthur Dorison confirmed.

That leaves the all-Belgian car and crew of Nicolas Baert, Xavier Knauf, Sarah Bovey and Gergory Servais within the recently announced #700 Pro-Am Cup entry.

Photo credits – Series

 

 

 

 

There is obviously some serious method in their madness from the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team as they today confirm a fourth car in this year’s Spa 24.

Already fielding three such Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s into the Blue Riband event of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series, the team has today reported on a driver line up that raced one of their cars at last weekend’s visit from the Creventic 24H Series at the circuit plus one more extra-ordinary signing.

 

Their new #700 entry will again be the trio of drivers that ran so well within last weekend’s first half of the Spa 12Hr in Nicolas Baert, Xavier Knauf and Gregory Servais but they will also now be joined by Sarah Bovy in her first AMR powered race since the fall of the Iron Dames team at the end of last season.

Reporting this news upon social media earlier today, the team also confirmed a patriotic livery for the car in lieu of the more standardised green with yellow stripe that we have been accustomed to.

The 2026 Spa 24 will run over the 27-28th June.

Photo credits – Team / 24h Series

 

 

 

 

Whilst we still await for confirmation of his co-driver within the Michelin Le Mans Cup Series this season, Tom Wood has today also confirmed his participation within the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series with the Blackthorn AMR team.

Having struggled over recent years in recognition for his driving potential, the young Brit’s fortune has clearly been unlocked within the 2026 season after he and Andrew Howard secured the Silver-Am Drivers Championship in last season’s British GT Championship.

 

Announcing his SRO campaign this afternoon upon social media, Wood has confirmed that he will race three rounds of the Endurance Cup campaign (included the Spa 24) with the #56 Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 with both Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli in their bronze cup entry.

Whilst that is obviously good news for Wood, that does also raise questions with the continued association of Lorcan Hanafin with the team (certainly in a full season sense) after he was earlier confirmed as the three-man squad alongside Adam and Petrolbelli.

 

We have seen Hanafin’s name listed with racing entries within the GT World Challenge America Series, so this may be an answer to a driver logistical issue as Wood starts at the opening round from Paul Ricard, France in less than two weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

The #33 Verstappen.com Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 will literally be racing for gold as the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season comes to another dramatic season conclusion this weekend from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona in Spain.

Having placed one hand upon their Gold Class Championship last time out at the Nurburgring only to have it ripped away again after a post-race time penalty was applied to their race finishing time, the Thierry Vermeulen, Chris Lulham and Harry King driven car will obviously be looking to make a final job of it this weekend’s final three hour race amongst the expected record breaking grid of sixty cars.

 

The fifth round of the British GT Championship this weekend from Snetterton and another sprint round to the season with another two, one-hour dashes around the Silverstone 300 circuit layout.

With it being a sprint round, it’s no surprise to see just the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews from each of the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams listed with the #50 MKH Racing Vantage GT4 entry still only part of the GT4 Endurance Cup package.

 

The two full season Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews return to the DTM Series this weekend for the German series fourth round of the season from the Norisring.

Straight off the back of the Spa 24 hour event where the Belgian team had four such cars entered into that event and where none of them actually finished thanks to either mechanical defect but mainly accident induced damage (not of their making), it would have been something of a rush job to get these two cars turned around in time for this rounds track action which started today.

Nicolas Baert and Gilles Magnus are back within their familiar #8 and #7 cars respectively and both have come out looking racing during today’s earlier Free Practice 1 and 2 sessions where Magnus ended the day second quickest and with his team mate just a quarter of a second down in P8.

 

Like the GT4 Germany Series, the Thailand Super Series also returns to the racetrack for only its second time this season as the mixed class racing series serves up its latest thriller around the improvised coastal street circuit layout that makes up the Bangsaen Grand Prix.

Now racing separately between the GT3 and GT4 classes, the Team NZ Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Grahame Dowsett and newly crowned Spa 24 Silver Cup Champion Romain Leroux again return to the fold within a combined GT4/GTC grid of approximately sixteen crews.

Aston Martin targets another slice of glorious motor racing history this weekend when it returns to the world’s biggest GT3-only race, the Crowdstrike 24 hours of Spa, seeking to become the first British manufacturer to record back-to-back wins in the prestigious Belgian race.

The current Vantage GT3 model achieved its maiden twice round-the-clock victory on the challenging 4.4-mile Spa-Francorchamps circuit last year and caused a sensation as Comtoyou Racing scored an overall victory; the second for Aston Martin and the first since 1948. It also marked Aston Martin’s first overall triumph in the GT3 era of the event.

For this weekend’s 78th-running of the Spa 24 Hours, a record eight examples of the Vantage GT3, which shares its mechanical architecture with the ultra-luxury performance brand’s most focused sportscar, and is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, will hunt for the manufacturer’s third outright victory as well as a plethora of class wins.

The Spa event is the third round of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup. It is the third major international sportscar race to feature Aston Martin in June; the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) 24 Hours of Le Mans and the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nürburgring having taken place across the past two successive weekends, creating an ultra-intensive schedule for competitors.

With 99,500 spectators attending last year’s 100th anniversary running and even more anticipated this weekend for a race that features 77 entries, the Spa 24 hours is one of the key events on the global endurance racing calendar. The event begins with a traditional parade along public roads from the Ardennes Forest circuit to the nearby town of Spa. Then builds through two days of practice on the daunting track that features some of the most challenging corners on planet earth, such as Eau Rouge/Raidillon, Blanchimont and Pouhon. The race, which takes place through Saturday and Sunday, is also renowned for frequently being affected by the circuit’s unique microclimate.

Aston Martin’s relationship with the Spa 24 hours is a long and successful one; beginning in 1936 with a one-two finish in the upto 1.5-litre class for a pair of Aston Martin Ulsters and building to an outright victory in 1948 for St John Horsfall and Leslie Johnson aboard a DB1.

Following many decades as a race for touring cars, Spa re-adopted GT racing regulations in 2001; paving the way for the Aston Martin name to return to the event in 2005. Vantage claimed a maiden win in the GT4 class in 2010 and its GT3 version added two further GT3 Pro-Am category successes in 2017 and ’19 before the latest iteration scored that memorable victory 12 months ago.

Comtoyou Racing, which recorded the magnificent win in 2024 returns with the same works driver line-up of former FIA WEC GT champions Marco Sørensen, Nicki Thiim and 2023 GT World Challenge Sprint Cup title-winner Mattia Drudi. The trio, and their #007 Vantage GT3, return with their sights set on becoming the first driver line-up to win the race in successive years since 1980. For Drudi, the event marks the third 24-race in as many weekends, having taken the GT pole for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with The Heart of Racing before taking on the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring with Walkenhorst Motorsport last weekend.

Racing the sister #11 Comtoyou Racing Vantage in the Pro-Am class is a multi-national roster including Frederic Jousset - GT3 winner at last year’s Road to Le Mans round of the Le Mans Cup, Portuguese rally star Bernardo Sousa – already an FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 podium finisher in his first year of circuit racing – last year’s European Le Mans Series (ELMS) overall runner-up Sebastian Alvarez (MEX) and current ELMS LMP2 Pro-Am points leader Sergio Sette Camara (BRA).

Comtoyou’s Silver class Vantage features 2025 AMR Academy winner Jamie Day alongside regular co-driver Kobe Pauwels – a class winner at last year’s Zolder 24 Hours – Nicolas Baert, the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Gold Cup champion and Xavier Maassen, a race winner in the FIA GT1 World Championship and Le Mans class podium-finisher.

The team’s bronze-class entry will have a pair of Belgian drivers, Antoine Potty - a multiple race winner in the GT4 European Series - and Alexandre Leroy, who took a double-podium in the GT2 European Series support event last year, plus Aston Martin Aramco Formula One® Team Driver Ambassador Jessica Hawkins at the wheel. All three will be making their Spa 24 hours debuts.

Walkenhorst Motorsport is another Aston Martin partner team racing this weekend to have won the Spa 24 hours overall. The #34 Pro-class car will have a trio of Aston Martin works drivers behind the wheel. Christian Krognes, who was part of the German team’s 2018 race-winning-line-up, is joined by David Pittard for the second time in a week after the pair shared a Walkenhorst Vantage at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Henrique Chaves, the 2021 GT World Challenge Europe Pro-Am champion, completes the line-up.

The #35 Silver Cup car will be driven by a trio of event debutants. Reigning GT4 France Silver champion Mateo Villagomez and former AMR Academy winner Romain Leroux – who won the same title in 2021 – will share with impressive GT3 newcomer Oliver Söderström.

New-for-2025 AMR partner team Verstappen.com Racing have made a superb start to the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance season and head the Gold Cup class thanks to a category win at Paul Ricard and second place at Monza. Team regulars Harry King, Chris Lulham and Thierry Vermeulen will be joined in the Vantage, which is prepared by UK-based 2Seas Motorsport.

Beechdean Motorsport, the 2013 Spa polesitter, completes the Vantage line-up as the British outfit returns to the race for the first time since 2022. Two-time British GT champion and current Silver-Am series points leader Andrew Howard shares the #100 entry with a pair of Aston Martin works drivers; former British GT4 champion Ross Gunn and 2023 Le Mans Cup GT3 title-winner Valentin Hasse Clot, plus Anthony McIntosh, fresh from a podium finish in the Michelin Le Mans Cup’s showpiece ‘Road to Le Mans’ event at La Sarthe less than two weeks ago.

Adam Carter, Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “Winning last year’s Crowdstrike 24 hours of Spa at the first attempt with the new Vantage GT3 was an incredible achievement for all involved and further added to Aston Martin’s impressive list of accolades in endurance racing. Returning this week with the possibility to create history and become the first British brand to win it back-to-back is a tantalising prospect. The GT3-only nature of the race and the fact that the 77-car entry list is overflowing with high-quality cars and drivers makes this an incredibly difficult challenge, but last year’s event was a proper endurance race in the truest sense of the idea and Vantage was equal to the test. In Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport we have two partner teams who have won this event before and can use all that experience to help them this weekend. Verstappen.com Racing and Beechdean are already class winners in 2025 with Vantage, so we have all the ingredients in place to challenge for success in multiple classes.”

Source material - AMR

 

The success for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s within the British GT Championship continued today at Spa Francorchamps as both crew took the race to a near lights to flag class win apiece earlier today.

Having both qualified at the top of their respective classes yesterday, the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam laid on what could nearly have been described as demonstration laps as the Italian opened the three-hour proceedings to something of a clear advantage as others were left to squabble in their wake.