Fourteen crews return for this weekend’s third round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series as Queensland Raceway this time plays host to the SRO series.

Having had something of a great start to the season, the Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing team of Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser has something of a reality check last time out as the series raced both a night and day race from Sydney Motorsport Park.

Having scored a near maximum twenty-eight points at the season opener from Phillip Island, SMP only delivered the #1 AMR Vantage GT3 crew with just seven points over the two, hour long races which has dropped them down to fourth in their Pro-Am class.

Since then, Fraser has just been named within this year’s Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy process which will see him get both remote and personal driver coaching assistance which will hopefully see the #1 car elevate itself within the championship by the end of the weekend and at the halfway stage to the season.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

It was to be something of a reality check for the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing powered crew at last weekend’s second round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series at the Sydney Motorsport Park after their herculean efforts at the opening weekend of the season.

Eager to continue their early visits to the podium, the Liam Talbot/Declan Fraser driven 16A variant of the Vantage GT3 had, like the thirteen other crews, a night race to contend with on Saturday before normal GTWC service resumed for the second race on Sunday.

 

The return of the GT World Challenge Australia Series to Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend completes our expected Aston Martin Racing powered team participation this time around with the Volante Rosso team looking to replicate their performance of last time out at Phillip Island.

This time gunning for outright glory, the Sydney based team has taken on board the racing talent of both Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser within their older 16A variant of the AMR Vantage GT3 but that certainly didn’t hold the duo back at the opening races at the start of the month.

 

It was a dramatic first round back to the GT World Challenge Australia Series for the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin Racing team with their all new 2025 season look from Phillip Island at the weekend.

Sporting a brand-new livery and a new driver pairing of Liam Talbot and Declan Fraser, the team sadly hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after Qualifying when the car failed its post session technical inspection through not being able to produce enough of a fuel sample for the stewards. 

 

It appears that Volante Rosso’s recent string of misfortune followed them into their preparatory work ahead of this weekend's three-hour GT World Challenge Australia race from Sydney Motorsport Park.

With the locally based team initially posting that Andre Canard would be joining their young Alex Gardner behind the wheel of their #14 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3, that was later changed to Jamie Day joining Canard as Gardner would be sitting out the final two rounds of the series to concentrate upon his academic studies.

 

It was another mixed bag of results for the two Aston Martin Racing powered teams competing within the GT Festival from Phillip Island that was the fifth round of the GT World Challenge Australia Series.

Season long entrant again saw the #38 KMB Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 of Valentin Astuti and Darren Currie within the Trophy class as well as the new #14 Volante Rosso 16A version of the car for drivers Alex Gardner and deputising driver Ross Poulakis running again in Pro-Am.

After whats been just about a year's sabbatical from the marque, Scottish born New Zealand resident Tony Quinn returns to the Aston Martin Racing fold for the next round of the Australian GT Championship from Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend.

Having swapped his own V12 Vantage GT3 in favour of his son's former 2016 championship winning McLaren 650S instead back in March last year, racing performances didn't always go exactly to plan for the then main stakeholder in the Australian GT Championship.

Having relinquished that controlling interest in the Championship only a few weeks ago, the Championship has confirmed an entry for the main Aston Martin Lagonda protagonist in Australasia with a car undoubtedly brandishing more logos of another one of his food empires.


Quinn rejoins the Miedecke Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 entry for Andrew and George Miedecke for what is expected to be (at the moment anyway) a one off entry for the father/son duo in the main championship.

The fifth round of the season will kick off with practice, qualifying, and an opening 40-minute race on Friday August 3 followed by two more 40-minute races on the Saturday August 4.
Photo credit - Australian GT / Miedecke Motorsport

Family run team Miedecke Motorsport will return to the venue of their only national series overall  race win next weekend as at the father and son duo make a temporary return to the Australian GT Championship.

Having put their family businesses before their racing pleasures over the past eighteen months or so, the team have confirmed that Andrew (father) will be again joining George (son) aboard their near new (chassis #39) V12 Vantage GT3 when the Australian GT meets again at Sydney Motorsport Park - the event that they won outright back in 2016 seen again

Australian based Miedecke Motorsport are taking their eldest Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 car for a thrash this weekend in their local State Championship as the team keep working on an entry into the local round of the Australian GT Championship later next month.

Father and son duo, Andrew and George Miedecke are out in their chassis #11 car (the one that we believe is still up for sale) at the event at their local Sydney Motorsport Park in the latest round of the New South Wales Motor racing Championships - entered int the Production Sports Class. SMP is where the duo also took an overall race win at the corresponding round of the Australian GT Championship two years ago.

A post shared from George M earlier today confirmed that he had secured pole ready for race one and his dad was then due out in Qualifying for race 2.

Thanks to George Miedecke for sharing these latest images of their freshly constructed Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage that he shook down at Sydney Motorsport Park yesterday ahead of any decisions of returning to the Australian GT Championship.

Previous post is available HERE



Photo credit - G Miedecke

This naked Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 is the latest of Prodrive's creations (but not the newest) to hit the tracks having been only just pieced together this month over in Australia.

This is chassis #39, an acquisition made by Andrew and George Miedecke nearly a year ago and at the same time as another GT3 was supplied via the Miedecke Stone Motorsport team to fellow Australian John Kaias - which is itself another car that we have yet to see!


Seen here in its semi constructed state going for a dyno test this week, this GT3 will debut/shakedown at this weekends New South Wales Racing Championships event from Sydney Motorsport Park in the hands of George Miedecke. After that it is hoped the team can make a decision after whether or not to enter the car at that circuits round of the Australian Endurance Championship later in the year.

Just a couple of weeks after taking delivery of their latest Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 acquisition, Australian based Miedecke Stone Motorsport scored their first racing podium in the car this weekend.

Having sourced this early iteration of Vantage GT4 from somewhere in Asia (they are not saying where) a couple of weeks ago, Andrew Miedecke tested the then multi-coloured car at the Queensland Raceway in readiness for Round 7 of their state New South Wales Motor Racing Championship event from their local Sydney Motorsport Park track.


Its the second time this year that Miedecke Snr has competed in the state championships, last time out was back in May when he shared a similar Vantage GT4 (which they had secured on behalf of a client) with tiptop racer Jeremy Gray.

Having elected to sit out the entire Australian Endurance Championship this year, recent events are being to show the beginnings of a ramping up from the team in readiness for next years Bathurst 12Hr event where the team hope to enter two V12 Vantage GT3's as well as their V8 Vantage GT4.

Photo credits - MSM