The European Le Mans Series also kicked off its opening round to their season at the weekend with another four-hour endurance race at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain to follow on from their Prologue test at the circuit earlier in the week.Like the supporting Le Mans Cup Series before it, this year sees just one Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 within its midst, this time from the Swiss based Racing Spirit of Leman team who step up to the main ELMS series for the first time having impressed so well within the Le Mans Cup Series last year.For this year, the #59 entry is also an all-French affair as AMR factory driver Valentin Hasse-Clot remains and he has brought last season’s D’Station Racing World Endurance Championship drivers Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard with him for their assault within the ultra-competitive LMGT3 class.Lasts week’s Prologue Test appeared to be productive for the team as whilst Hasse-Clot has already had racing duties this season, we don’t believe that either Mateu or Bastard had turned a racing lap on track up to this point so going into Saturday’s Qualifying for the opening round – all appeared well.That confidence transpired through Qualifying as Mateu delivered the goods to slot his #59 car onto the second row of the grid for Sunday’s four-hour opener within their thirteen-car strong class.Under blue skies with a cooling breeze, forty-four multi-classed cars took the start with the #59 Aston looking to replicate the feat of the Code Racing Development AMR within Saturday’s opening round of the Le Mans Cup where they finished a magnificent second in class for their debuting efforts.With the speed differential between the LMP2 protypes and the slower LMGT3’s as such, it wasn’t long before the leading prototypes started passing through the LMGT3 field for the first time of many as Mateu had by then slipped to P5 in class as the teams bronze rated driver held onto that position throughout his first hour of driving. Back out again for his second hour long stint, Mateu quickly looked to regain ground lost to his earlier stop as the first Safety Car was called for a Ferrari LMGT3 car backed into the gravel trap at the ninety-minute mark. Losing twenty minutes to that, the race soon got back to business with the #59 car hanging onto P4 in class.With sixty-four laps now under his belt, Mateu day was done as he handed the car over to silver ranked driver Bastard as it was clear now that the car to chase was the #85 Iron Dames Porsche who were by now maintaining a healthy lead from their present fifth position. A spin and an excursion through the gravel at turn ten compounded their own issues as the car lost ground during both the spin and the time it took to clean the Goodyear tyres up again.Eighty minutes to go and another Safety Car for the extraction of a stranded LMP3 car in the gravel at least brought the gaps back down again but the race only got going again just before the final stop to allow Hasse-Clot into the car in the chase to the flag from what was now P9.Two late yellows for stranded prototypes raised the pressures on the class leaders as the opening race entered its final half hour before another Safety Car in the final fifteen minutes as Hasse-Clot pushed – first for P8 before the final Safety Car before grabbing P7 by the chequered flag for six valuable championship points.The next round of the series will be from Le Castellet in France at the beginning of May.Photo credits – Team / series / social media

 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. That lost the car pole position for Talbot’s Q2 session and would place the 16A variant of the Vantage GT3 at the rear of the grid for both races within the fifteen strong grid for the opening two, hour long races.What happened next however was nothing short of remarkable as Talbot took the opening stint for race one as he quickly established a top ten running position within the opening laps. A Safety car for a stranded Audi in the gravel only helped to close the gaps for when the race went back to green just a few minutes left to the opening of the put window with the #1 car in P8.Stops over and the #1 car resumed its P8 running position with Fraser now aboard before a second Safety car intervention was required (unsure why) which again, closed everyone back up. A late puncture for one car and a post-race time penalty for another was enough to lift the Volante Rosso AMR up to P5 overall at the end.Sunday’s second race was much of the same as the Aston Martin again started from the back of the pack with Fraser this time behind the wheel where this time, he gained significant early places within the opening laps.Getting into the top ten overall at the midway point to his stint, Fraser was also hanging upon the heels of those in front looking for that further passing opportunities before pitting from P11.Starting their final stint of the day, Talbot was immediately on that charge as he passed into P10 and up to P6 overall with still fifteen minutes remaining. A puncture and spin for the Porsche and a DTP for the race leading Audi all helped again to lift the #1 into a podium contending position with just seven minutes remaining as rain threatened overhead. With drops of rain now steadily falling, Talbot was the fastest car on track with just two laps remaining but the distance to first was just too great with diminishing grip for him to push safely for the win. Last to second on the podium would be their ending to the opening race weekend!Next stop Sydney Motorsport Park at the beginning of May.Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 The racing rewards were widespread for the many Aston Martin Racing powered entry at the weekends opening round of the Iberian Supercars Series at their Iberian Racing Festival event from Portimao.With nine AMR Vantage GT4 crews listed throughout the GTX, GT4 Am, Bronze and Pro classes, these cars returned seven podium finishes between them at the end of their two fifty-minute races.With a dry track on Sunday morning but with menacing skies forming around the circuit, the race got underway with the usual degree of inter-car action between the differing levels of drivers but before the halfway mark the rain had arrived, and a long Safety Car was soon required to retrieve one stranded Porsche from the gravel.Presuming that most cars stayed out on slicks despite the earlier drizzle, the grid would have been happy just to get that race completed by the end as the heavens opened!! Race one saw the #77 Racar AMR secure P2 in Pro, the #777 Gianfranco Am car a class win in their debut event with their 17A Vantage, P3 in Bronze for the #28 Araujo and a P1 within with GTX for the venerable 15A #700 NGT Motorsport Aston Martin.The final race of the day gave the drivers the same issues as the first as the rain had eased/stopped and the sun had reappeared as the twenty-eight GT4 cars took to the grid with the #77 Racar and #007 Araujo AMR’s again at the head of the pack.With a McLaren stopping on track at the halfway stage, the race was under the temporary control of the Safety Car whilst that car was removed but that caution extended into a red flag period. Getting back to green, it was a case of quickly around the track before pitting again for the river change leaving little over twenty minutes of racing to go.We no further incident of accident to speak of it was a double for the #77 Racar entry of Roberto Faria and Mathieu Martins behind the wheel as they scooped another P2 in Pro whilst the #777 Gianfranco AMR effort of Rubins Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende another P1 finish in Am for their efforts whilst the #28 Araujo Competicao secured two steps up the bronze podium with a class win for drivers Vasco Oliveira and Franciso Carvalho.Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

 With copious amounts of springtime sunshine on offer again today, the opening race to the 2025 British GT Championship kicked off in form under the watchful eyes of a large and appreciative crowd at Donington Park although not all went the way of the three Aston Martin Racing entries.Although bright, ambient temperatures were still only within the single digits as morning warm up too on another meaning. Being the quickest of the three Aston Martins in Qualifying, the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Giacoma Petrobelli and Jonny Adam was again at the sharper end of the GT3 pack although the McLarens and Mercedes AMG GT3’s looked eternally faster.With crowds still queuing to get within the circuit at the lunch time pit walk, race organisers soon elected to run that within the paddock area to avoid the inevitable crush and frustrations that a twenty-minute exercise would create within pit lane – that all went down well with the crowd, especially with a carton of Beechdean mint choc chip ice cream!With the cars getting to the grid, an unusual event took place within the #50 MKH Racing Vantage GT4 as a supporting Stuart Hall was surprised not to find Peter Montague within his car having took heed to a required call of nature.Eventually getting down to racing it was a smooth start from all that surprisingly saw nobody take to the gravel on the opening laps and that quickly allowed all to find their rhythm in the opening laps.Whilst the #7 car of Petrobelli was holding station in fifth overall, the #97 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard was getting baulked by the #86 Honda both on track and in class but biding his time, Howard soon got passed.Twenty minutes in, the GT3 leaders were soon passing the GT4 tail enders just as an error from the #66 Porsche out of the Old Hairpin saw the #1 Lamborghini spin out in avoidance – only to return to the track directly in front of a battling #97 and #86 that saw the Aston lose out and drop back behind their class rival again.Just after the opening half hour, the race all went wrong for the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Petrobelli after a hopeful lunge down the inside saw contact with the #88 Lotus GT4, contact that left the Aston with heavy front-end damage and a GT4 stuck in the gravel – Safety Car!! Whilst the team kept the car out on track, the inevitable penalty was coming their way as well as a front end to the car that the factory had never intended!Eventually getting back to green just before the opening of the pit window, the #7 car was indeed given a ten second stop/go penalty for the earlier contact plus having to revisit pit lane again for the mandatory driver change and necessary repairs to avoid that ‘meatball’ flag for the cars condition on track.With GT4’ss pitting first, the #50 MKH Racing Vantage was first in as Montague was swapped out for Stuart Hall with investigations of their own hanging over them for their Safety Car/FCY procedures. Beechdean however, made their decisive move within the pit lane after Howard’s swap out to local racer Tom Wood saw the #97 car take the Silver-Am lead by a considerable margin as knowledge and experience saw the AMR crew beat the Honda crew on turn around. Racing up to the top 10 overall with 45 minutes to go, Wood looked more than comfortable in class but was unable to move up any further overall.With the race counting off their final laps, it would be a P8 overall and P1 in Silver-Am finish for the Howard/Wood/Beechdean crew whilst the #7 Blackthorn crew would have to settle for a disappointing P12 overall/P10 in Pro-Am finish for them. The MKH Racing team would see out their first Endurance Cup outing within the Championship with a P21 finish overall, P2 within their own class behind that of the #12 Team Parker Mercedes.It’s been a great start to 2025, next stop will be from Silverstone in three weeks’ time.AMENDEDPost race penalties have again affected the results with the exclusion of the #67 McLaren GT3 which lifts everyone up one place overall and the #7 Blackthorn car up to P9 in class. 

 It was a start to the 2025 Le Mans Cup Series that the French based Code Racing Development team could have only dreamed of having swapped to the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 platform over the winter but confirmed their driver line up just before the series Prologue test earlier in the week.Eventually confirming both Philipp Sager and Rory Van Der Steur, lap times from the #11 car pairing at Wednesday’s Prologue test at the Circuit de Catalunya circuit may have raised an eyebrow or two with the car featuring then, at the wrong end of the timing results page after the then available sessions.That continued into yesterday’s first officially timed Free Practice session when the #11 car was over three and a half seconds off the GT3 class pace before Sager turned his element around with the second fastest time in his bronze driver session and by the time that Qualifying came about, the Austrian had upped the pace again with a lap time just a quarter of a second off pole for a P2 start to this afternoon’s race.Racing what would be into sunset at the Spanish circuit, the LMP3 runners ahead again didn’t give their reputation any favours as multiple cars clashed with each other on the opening lap to bring out the Safety Car for the first time. Losing fifteen minutes to the clean-up operation, the race finally got back to green although the #11 Aston Martin of Sager had dropped to fifth.Whilst other LMP3 and sometimes a GT3 car continued to make contact with one another, the #11 AMR at least managed to avoid all of the incident and accident on track before a stranded car in a gravel trap brought the Safety Car out for a second time with forty-five minutes gone – immediately before the pit window opened.With pit lane opening, the #11 car elected to miss the ensuing chaos for one more lap before the race went back to green with just over an hour remaining which dropped them down to P7 but there was to be further drama later on around the restart lap involving the class leading Porsche and Ferrari GT3’s slight contact from the Ferrari behind spun the Iron Dames Porsche heavily into the tyre wall and was only narrowly avoided by the chasing pack as it spun back across the track.An immediate red flag was called with 57 minutes left of the race clock which of course continued to tick despite the temporary cessation of track action. Whilst that driver was seen to be otherwise OK for the impact (driver was later taken to hospital for evaluation and checks), the race finally got back underway with little over thirty minutes remaining with another Safety Car restart leaving a 20-minute sprint to the flag.As the light faded, further Full Course Yellow intervention was required for the removal of debris from the track just as Van Der Steur snatched third on track with just seven minutes remaining. To complete an amazing debut within the series, the American managed to secure P2 in the final laps to finish just twelve seconds behind the class winning Kessell Racing Ferrari.Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

It was a very bright and sometimes very breezy start to the official business of the British GT Championship today from Donington Park where most of the original twenty sex runners did at least continue from where they had left off after Media Day at Silverstone a few weeks ago and private testing on Thursday.For the three Aston Martin Racing powered teams, it was very much business as usual as the #7 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of Giacoma Petrobelli and Jonny Adam started they second chase of the Pro-Am title whilst the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and local gun Tom Wood were again running within the smaller Silver-Am class.The #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall are this time the sole AMR representation within the GT4 and only then within the Endurance Cup rounds of the Championship (all except rounds with two sprint races) – very disappointing but a notable trend within many series this season.Anyhow, after this morning’s Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying, there were not notable events that affected any of these three except the deletion of lap times for exceeding track limits for the #50 car and possible a slight kiss from the #7 car to the car in front (tell-tale bodywork damage), so all was good going into this afternoons individual Qualifying sessions.Out first were both Petrobelli and Howard where the Italian made good his intent from media day to post a time quick enough for P3 whilst Howard was further back in P12 (P2 in class) at the end of their ten-minute stint. Next out where their opposite numbers where even the likes of Adam could only achieve a best time worthy of P8 overall, despite being two seconds quicker than Petrobelli which aggregated them a starting position of P5 overall for tomorrows two-hour opener.Local racer Wood (and Howard) would go onto get an early haul of class honours as his best lap time of just one tenth behind that of Adam was enough to lift the #97 crew up to P12 overall and pole position in class.That left just the #50 MKH Racing crew to do their part where both Montague and Hall set about their first full season qualifying session apiece to earn themselves a P12 overall – P2 in class to end the day.Tomorrows forecast appears to be much of the same from today – very bright, perhaps a degree or too cooler but with also a little bit less wind speed to help them all on their way through morning warm up and into the start of the race at 12:45hrs local.

 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