Nearly fifty cars and a massive NINE Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s from three generations will be competing within this weekend’s opening salvo of the Iberian Supercars Series from Portimao.Just two weeks since the series official test at Estoril, the expected grid list for the opening race weekend has increased still further, enough for the series to now split the field between the GT4 and GTC/TC classes for (at least) this event.Both series regulars Araujo Competicao and Racar Motorsport teams return with Araujo due to turn up with two AMR Vantage GT4 Evo’s plus one older 17A variants whilst the Racar team are due to compete still with their fleet of four 17A variants that were all up for sale at the end of last season.They in turn will be joined by the 17A Vantage from the new (to AMR) Gianfranco Motorsport team as well as the venerable older Vantage GT4 from the NGT Motorsport team. Will multiple classes available, we will see these nine entries compete within the Am, Bronze, Pro Bronze and Pro classes.With private practice on Friday, the more serious business will be with Free Practice and Qualifying on Saturday ahead of two fifty-minute races on Sunday.Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media / D Burgin

 As with the European Le Mans Series before it, the Le Mans Cup Series also completed their pre-season Prologue Test at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona yesterday with eyes now all set upon this weekend’s opening round of the season from the Spanish circuit.This time restricted to just seven hours of track time over a single day, the forty-two-car full season entry is this time made up of cars from both the LMP3 and GT3 classes with just another solo effort from the Aston Martin Racing stable.Confirmed by the Code Racing Development team just hours before the cars were due to hit the track for the first time saw drivers Rory Van Der Steur and Philipp Sager announcement to world as competing within the French based team’s #11 car entry.Whilst Van Der Steur name has been associated within the AMR family thanks to their IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and more latterly, the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, the same cannot be said for the elder Austrian driver who comes with a differing racing pedigree of his own.Hitting the track for the first time yesterday, the #11 crew clocked up seventy-seven laps after the morning session with a further thirty-one in the afternoon giving a representative best lap time of 1:43:457 to end their day. Free Practice for round one of the season kicks off tomorrow followed by the bronze driver test and the second Free Practice session before moving into Qualifying and wave off on the opening race later on Saturday afternoon.Photo credits – Team / series / social media

 Its finally time for the first round of the British GT Championship this weekend as they open with a two-hour endurance round from Donington Park in a change this season to its usual Easter Bank Holiday weekend visit to Oulton Park.Just two weeks since Media Day from Silverstone, most of the thirty-six strong 2025 entry have been busy getting to grips with the performance characteristics of the new Pirelli control tyre, particularly within these still cooler months of the season.For Aston Martin Racing, there will still be just the three full season entries – two cars within the GT3 class for the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Jonny Adam and Giacoma Petrobelli within Pro-am and the #97 Silver-Am entry from the Beechdean AMR team for Andrew Howard and Tom Wood. Within the slightly smaller GT4 entry for this season sees the Endurance Cup entered #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall as the former AMR factory driver aims to elevate his latest gentleman driver up to the highest level in UK GT racing.Building up to Sunday’s two-hour race will see the grid undertake private testing on Thursday before moving to more formally timed sessions on Saturday morning with Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying with individual qualifying sessions later in the afternoon. Morning warm-up on Sunday morning will precede a 12:45hrs local start to the season.Being the first round of the season, there will be no pitstop time penalties to cover off during the race but (as usual) both minimum and maximum drive times will be in operation which won’t let any crew go too far with their Pro drivers aboard.

 The European Le Mans Series completed its second day of a two-day Prologue test at the Circuit de Catalunya with the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 the obvious centre of our attention.Driven by the French trio of Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard and AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot, the beautifully liveried #59 car manged to get in over one hundred and twenty laps on day one with a further one hundred and sixty-five laps between them today posting an overall best time of 1:41:994 4.65km circuit.Track action for the ELMS entry steps aside tomorrow for the Le Mans Cup Prologue test giving the teams just over a couple of days to refettle their cars ahead of scrutineering on Thursday afternoon ahead of the first Free Practice and Bronze Driver test sessions later on Friday.Free Practice 2 and Qualifying will fill Saturday ahead of a midday start to this four opener to the season on Sunday.Photo credits – Team / social media

The GT World Challenge Australia Series kicks off its six round 2025 season this weekend with a two race visit to Phillip Island for its eighteen strong GT3 grid.As per previous posts regarding the Volante Rosso entry, they will indeed remain the sole Aston Martin Racing entry for this round and possibly the season as the KMB Motorsport team have elected to run their Bentley GT3 this time around rather than their V12 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3.Still racing within the Pro-Am class, the Volante Rosso AMR V8 AMR Vantage GT3 will be driven by GT World Challenge Australia Sprint Cup racer Liam Talbot alongside Supercar’s racer Declan Fraser within a car that will be displaying its third livery design since coming to the team from the USA last year.Judging by the team attire at the recent Bathurst 12hr, we cannot assume that it will be red related either and you can see the car behind the drivers in white!!Photo credits – Team / social media

 That long standing question over the Code Racing Development Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entry into this seasons Le Mans Cup has finally been answered by the team today.As they look forward to their Prologue test this week from the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, the team have confirmed their driver line up of Rory Van Der Steur and Philipp Sager within their #11 entry.Whilst we are very familiar with the racing development of young American racer Van der Steur, Sager is a new name to the realms of Aston Martin Racing but the bronze ranked Austrian comes fully equipped with a diverse range of racing experiences – mainly within the GT World Challenge Europe Series but also within the Asian Le Mans Series and national Porsche championships.We’ll surely find out a little more about this as they build up to their opening race of the year in Spain at the weekend.Photo credits – Team / social media

 Things weren’t quite so straight forward for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo’s competing within the opening round of the GT World Challenge America Series from Sonoma as both the Heart of Racing and Racers Edge Aston Martin Racing powered crews found out.With two crews stepping up to the topflight of SRO America racing for the first time, you wouldn’t ever expect much more than perhaps consistency and a decent learning curve as both crews amateur drivers looked for guidance and inspiration first time out from their respective pro drivers.Again, it would be too easy to sit back and perhaps criticise the apparent inconsistencies within the series Balance of Performance criteria between the competing chassis in class that apparently allowed amateur drivers in one or two platforms to simple drive away from the pro drivers in another, but we have learned that there are simply too many variables for that to actually happen.This time around Jason Bell would be joining his driver coach Michael Cooper for the season aboard his #2 Racers Edge prepared AMR whilst Gray Newell would be stepping to full time GT3 racing in America alongside AMR factory driver Darren Turner and their #26 Heart of Racing entry.Racing two, ninety minute and compulsory pit stop punctuated races, the qualifying positions were determined earlier on Saturday but with Q2 being red flagged curtailed that stopped several cars (including the #2) from posting no time at all and with the #26 car being listed with a time equivalent to determine what turned out to be their lowly race two starting positions.For race one, both Ams started the two Aston Martins with Newell starting from P9 and Bell from P14, but Newell lost most of that early advantage going wide on the opening lap before being mugged for positions as he recovered. The two Astons would then interchange positions as their opening stint passed by but within their Pro-Am class, their lead competitors were already making an escape way up front to them.Pitting from P13 and P14, the Racers Edge went according to plan as Cooper made for a quick exit on new rubber but for the Heart of Racing team, something went wrong with their  wheel gun air system that only allowed them to change one tyre before being forced to send to Turner back out on otherwise used rubber.Whilst others would struggle double stinting tyres, Turner would be outwardly nonplussed about the situation losing and then gaining back places as the race unfolded. Despite everything, the #2 Racers Edge would finish race one P10 overall/P6 in Pro-Am with the HoRT finishing just behind P12 overall/P8 in class.Race two was a different affair as they still picked up the remnants of the earlier rain but with the pro drivers starting most of the cars this time around there was at least a little more control of the situation on track with all the cars on slicks for the start. For Turner, his second time around the Sonoma racetrack was certainly a bumpy one as nobody gave him any room with many encouraging him to move on or move out the way but pushing his car in that direction. Cooper meanwhile was having none of that as he did the encouragement as he moved up to P11 overall with Turner down to P14 before Turner eventually settled in and retook position from Cooper.Pitting from P8 overall at the time, this time there were no errors from the Heart of Racing team, but Cooper left it to nearly the very last second before entering pit lane to allow Bell to coming out P10 overall whilst Newell was further back in P15.Despite a brief Safety Car intervention for a Ferrari stranded in the tyre wall belt at the final hairpin corner, the natural positions of both Aston Martin Am drivers would pan out across their forty-five-minute stint with Bell eventually dropping back and getting passed by Newell to earn them P11 and P12 finishing positions in class at the end.Next time out for the series with be from CoTA in a months’ time.Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 Faith was restored within the GT4 America Series at the weekend as another bumper grid of twenty-nine cars went for glory around the Sonoma Raceway in California within the three available classes.Within that midst were this time five Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews – two from the new to AMR JMF Motorsport team and a returning entry apiece from the Heart of Racing, Skip Barber Racing and Archangel Motorsport teams.Testing at the circuit prior to the race weekend had fortunately included some very wet weather testing and that knowledge and understanding would prove important over the two, hour long races as race one would be under clear blue skies and sunshine (although chilly) with race two in what was left of another overnight deluge.With the grid set for race one earlier on Saturday, it was the #3 and #4 JMF Astons of Jesse Webb and Braydon Arthur who stole the march upon the more experienced AMR crews as they both started from the third row as the starting line was delayed due to a stranded car upon the grid. Inevitably with so many cars circulating around sometimes a very tight track profile, there was contact in the early stages between three cars that brought out the Safety Car for the first time.Getting back to green however, unseen contact for the #4 JMF car saw Webb stranded trackside as five to six other cars met with a crashing end to their race through the tight turn one to two sequence – another Safety Car.That clean-up operation took until the halfway stage, so Race Control elected to allow all cars to pit under caution before getting back to green again with twenty minutes remaining. By then Hannah Grisham was up to P3 in Silver after a steady, accident avoiding stint from Hannah Greenemeier within their #26 Silver entry whilst Michael Garcia was up to second in Am within his #007 Am entered Skip Barber Racing car.All was looking good for the #007 car until just two minutes from the end when technical issues within the red Aston Martin surrendered a certain class podium in Am but at least the #4 JMF Motorsport Aston Martin of Arthur and Mike David Ortmann hung on for a P3 finish in silver with the #26 HoRT crew just behind. The #15 Archangel AMR of Adrian Comstock and Thomas Merril finished their first race together P9 in Pro-Am.Sundays second race was a wholly different affair as the track was still being doused by heavy rainfall that had been over the circuit all night. Again, Qualifying had already been determined earlier on Saturday but again, it was the two JMF AMR’s leading the way on the grid in P4 and P5.This time a single file start because of the track conditions with an early spinner into turn 2 narrowly avoided by both JMF cars as the pack roared through with spray making for track navigation almost guesswork for the drivers.Despite the conditions, the race stayed green as Grisham found herself fighting for track position with the #007 of Alex Garcia and the #15 Archangel car finally getting inside the top ten with Comstock aboard.Just before the pit window, a BMW was forced into the concrete wall and with that stopping on the track infield a Safety Car intervention was inevitable. Judging that rightly or wrongly, the #26 Heart of Racing car was already in pit lane as the Safety Car came out and the pits were closed – missing what precisely happened next, the car was either forced to stop at pit out for the Safety Car train to pass or their stop was a particularly long one as once all the other cars had pitted, the #26 was waved around to the complete rear of the pack!After that, track conditions began to improve as the spray volume reduced and a distinct change in colour appeared on the preferred line on track with now Greenemeir on something of a charge from the rear of the pack for the twenty odd minutes that she had left. The #007 Skip Barber car of Garcia was a distant second to its Am class leader, but that car had already received a thirty second post-race penalty for cutting a corner earlier in the race in accident avoidance and the margin to one another was there or there abouts!With just minutes to run, the #15 Archangel AMR disappeared from the timing screen (due to issues unknown) and an Mclaren off into the tyre wall and a puncture for another would all help the #26 and #007 in their final efforts.Eventually the chequered flag dropped, and it was the turn of the #3 JMF team to take to the podium with their P3 silver result, the #4 car just behind in P5 and with the #26 HoRT car up to P12 overall/P7 in class for their efforts. The query still resides around the finishing position of the #007 SBR car as on track, they were listed as still finishing two seconds behind the leader after their post-race penalty time deduction but social media posts from the series later said that the #007 had claimed the Am class win??Next stop anyway for these guys will be from the Circuit of the Americas in a months’ time.Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 That was an SRO America debut to be proud of for GT4 racer Max Hewitt and his Van Der Steur Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo at the opening round of the GT America Series from Sonoma.One of two AMR Vantage GT4’s within this season’s full season entry saw the former karter, single seater and tin top racer have to pull upon his already limited GT4 racing experience to come away from California with a pair of podium finishes to get his season off to a flying start.Racing with Tim Savage and his #007 Prosport Competition Aston Martin, there was twelve other runners within this weekend’s two race opener and whilst Saturday’s forty-minute opener would be run within the dry, Sundays finale was a much-shortened affair with two Full Course Yellows and an early end thwarting the efforts of many within the atrocious weather conditions.For Savage, his return to the series with his Vantage GT4 didn’t last much longer than four laps before (?) technical issues aboard his 17A variant forced him to a halt. Hewitt, meanwhile, was making the most of his new opportunity to push hard from his P4 start to take second in class.Then pushing a bit too hard for P1, a wide line cost the #39 driver time for Hewitt to spend the rest of the race defending his position from the more experienced Porsche driver behind. Hewitt would eventually finish P9 overall, P2 in class.Race two on Sunday was a wholly different affair as the rains from earlier in the week had returned and with a vengeance. Out early for their race, the GT America grid would start in single file formation in the hope of avoiding any unnecessary incidents on track considering the entire grid was made up of bronze ranked drivers.Whilst the SRO3 (GT3) cars in front was losing their heads, both GT4 Astons picked their way through to be snapping upon the heels of the SRO3 runners even before the end of the opening lap. As the race leader and two other SRO3 cars spun off, Hewitt was already up to second in class with Savage not too far behind either.Lost time with that FCY was quickly increased with further Safety Car intervention as the restart simply lead to more cars going off but Hewitt had already made his move. Utilising the experiences of his earlier GT4 Winter Series endeavours in Europe, the wet was no stranger to him and a bullish move had seen the #39 move up into the class lead before the second double waved yellow caution had come about.This time however, there was tyre wall damage to repair and despite twenty minutes still being on the clock, the track workers were unable to facilitate repairs quick enough for the now much reduced grid size to get back to racing.Calling time seven minutes early, Hewitt secured his second podium finish of the weekend P4 overall and P1 in class whilst Savage made up for his disappointment on Saturday with a P7 finish overall, P4 in class.The series will now move onto the street circuit of Long Beach, California in two weeks’ time where all hope the weather will be a lightly more seasonal for them!Photo credits – Team / Series / social media  

 It was something near a triumphant return for the two Aston Martin Racing powered crews at this weekend’s opening round of the GT Cup Championship from Donington Park.Welcoming back both the #82 Feathers Motorsport and the #95 Oselli Motorsport Aston Martin Racing powered teams with their new look driver pairings saw both sets of crews score well within their respective classes over this weekend’s two sprint and one endurance races.Feathers Motorsport had their new look and much younger pairing of Tom Canning and Archie Clark as the latter stepped into the racing shoes of James Guess less than a couple of weeks ago. Despite his younger years (even in comparison with former AMR Drivers Academy winner, Canning), it was a class GTH podium each time after both of Saturdays two twenty-five-minute sprint races for Clark with a P1 and P2 respectively.For the more venerable #95 Oselli entry of Matt Eddolls and Sam Maher-Loghnan, it was a same story again for their GTA classed entry as they also replicated that 1-2 finish.Over to Sundays final 100-minute endurance race, it sadly wasn’t to be a triple header for the #95 crew as they were forced into retirement at the halfway mark, but the #82 Feathers crew did achieve that feat themselves with their P9 overall – P1 in class finish to round off a good weekend for them.The next round will be from Brands Hatch in six weeks’ time.Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

That’s now pre-season testing over with for the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing team as their prepare for their next chapter within their domestic Super GT Series this season.Testing their AMR Vantage GT3 Evo again at their home track of Fuji International Speedway, the #777 only had Tomonobu Fujii on hand again to do what was necessary over two opposing days as in track running conditions.Saturday’s opening sessions were severely limited thanks to the torrential rain that fell but better, drier conditions on Sunday at least allowed the team to work further with their Dunlop tyre technicians ahead of the season start just two weeks away Okayama.For this eight-round season, we will again be seeing Charlie Fagg compete alongside Fujii within their slight variation to the usual green livery design within the GT300 class.Photo Credits – Team / social media

 It was to be a perfect four out of four top step podium finishes for Swiss racer Kevin Kullmann and his #74 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT4 as he signed off upon his 2025 racing preparations in style.Competing within the opening round Ultimate Cup Series GT Sprint Cup from Paul Ricard in the south of France, the fresh liveried #74 was seen testing alongside last season’s Forsetti British GT GT4 racer Will Orton but it was to be a solo racing effort from Kullmann for the four twenty-five-minute sprint races.Opening the account on Friday afternoon with a UCS3 class win, that was doubled by the end of the day when he did likewise in the night race. Although never finishing higher than P6 overall, Kullmann rounded off his racing duties yesterday with a pair of further class wins and to round off the racing weekend as the fastest GT4 based entrant within the fifteen strong, multi-classed entry.Now we just need to wait for confirmation of his actual 2025 full season intentions which just maybe a little more European!Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 Both the European Le Mans Series and the Le Mans Cup Series will be at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona early next week for its annual pre-season Prologue test at the circuit and ahead to a flying start to their season’s their next weekend.Whilst both AC rules series celebrate large to capacity grids within both multi-platform, multi-class series, we Aston Martin Racing fans will sadly have to make do with one just AMR Vantage LMGT3/GT3 within each series this time around.The #59 Racing Spirit of Leman LMGT3 entry within the ELMS needs no real introduction as last season’s D’Station Racing World Endurance Championship racing partnership in Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard join forces behind the wheel this time with their driver coach and AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot.The entry list for the Prologue test shows a healthy forty-four car entry with thirteen of those being within the LMGT3 class.Then within the support Le Mans Cup Series, we have the #11 Code Racing Development AMR Vantage GT3 for which still only has driver Bailey Voisin hinted at from when the entry was first confirmed although the official entry list shows both driver names as still TBC. Whoever will be aboard this car will also be amongst another healthy forty-four car entry with just eight of those competing within the GT3 class with the remainder within the two available LMP3 classes. Balance of Performance wise, the Vantage GT3 will run with the same boost as it did at the last round of the last season in Portimao but 10kg lighter to that event whilst within the ELMS, the Vantage LMGT3 will run with a new minimum base weight and power characteristics and wing angle available to them. Like always, these parameters are subject to change at the behest of the series technical committee. The ELMS Prologue test will run across Monday and Tuesday of next week before the LMC Series have theirs on Wednesday before the first official sessions of the collective new season starting on Friday 4th April. Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 Just before we settle down ahead of this weekend’s racing with more than a handful of Aston Martin Racing powered teams competing within both the USA and Europe, we just need to catch up upon a few things that came to light earlier this week.Down under sees the Volante Rosso AMR team confirm their strongest driver line up to date within their Vantage GT3 that will run again within the GT World Challenge Series Australia – starting next weekend from Phillip Island.No stranger to an Aston Martin, sees Liam Talbot join forces with young gun Declan Fraser aboard the teams older 16A variant for this six-round season. This re-alignment in driver personnel comes after Mateo Villagomez, Jamie Day and Jaylyn Robottom did so well within the car at the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge from Bathurst earlier in the year.From the head image, we can see in the background that the 17A car has change livery design again!Staying within the SRO family of World Challenge Series, this week’s entry news from its Asia Series sadly saw no return of the D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 (not as a full season entry anyway) but we are hoping for entries within the latter Japan Cup element of the season. Talking of whom, they will be at Fuji this weekend for the final two day Super GT test at their home circuit.After last weekend’s Iberian Supercars Official Test Day from Estoril, the Racar Motorsport team have gone onto confirm two of their three AMR Vantage GT4 crew who they had testing at the circuit. Regulars with the team Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria will run again within the Pro class in their #77 machine whilst the #78 Pro entry will be driven by GT4 graduates Henrique Oliveira and Luca Savu.That leaves the third Racar crew to be confirmed as well as whether NGT Motorsports will be running their older Vantage within the Series.Familiar AMR related teams across Europe have also been out testing this week – the Team Spirit Racing team are back with one of the Vantage GT4’s competing with Mathias Villadsen within the FX Series GT4 Italy Series. They will be racing at Mugello this weekend.The Earl Bamber Motorsport prepared Team New Zealand AMR Vantage GT4 of Grahame Dowsett was also back in business this week with testing for the forthcoming Thailand Supercar Series at the Chang International Circuit alongside Romain Leroux. Just who will be his co-driver this year is yet to be seen.Finally, the Racing Spirit of Leman have been busy testing at Paul Ricard today amongst their Ultimate Cup Series entries. Each posting the same video clip had Will Orton and David Kullman more than hint of some Vantage GT4 testing with the team there too for maybe even some racing this weekend?Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media