- Comtoyou Racing clinches double class victory in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Silver class at Magny-Cours
- D’station Racing dominates GT300 class of AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series double-header at Fuji International Speedway in Japan
- The Heart of Racing team survives bruising Road America IMSA encounter to move up to second in the GTD class championship and close on the leaders
Aston Martin Vantage proved the dominant force in the fourth round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Magny-Cours, in France, this weekend, winning the Silver Cup class in both hour-long races with Aston Martin partner team Comtoyou Racing.
The Belgian outfit, running a latest generation Vantage GT3 for Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy winner Jamie Day (GBR) and 2025 candidate Kobe Pauwels (BEL), have emerged as the combination to beat in the class and, having won Saturday evening’s night race from second on the class grid, they went one better and clinched Sunday’s race from pole position. This second victory marked the team’s third in succession, having also won Race 2 at Misano (ITA) at the last round, where they finished third in Race 1.
This run of results placed Day and Pauwels in the Silver Cup championship lead by six points with 84.5 in total. Each win is worth 16.5 points. Comtoyou Racing now heads to the series finale at Valencia, in Spain, on 19-21 September, as the form favourites to win the title.
Vantage also achieved its first AUTOBACS SUPER GT GT300 class triumph of the season in the prestigious Japanese endurance series, thanks to another partner team D’station Racing. The Fuji-based Aston Martin squad dominated the Sprint race double-header weekend, with Charlie Fagg (GBR) winning his race from second on the grid on Saturday before team principal Tomonubu Fujii stepped into the Vantage GT3 on Sunday to claim victory from pole position. The success marked D’station Racing’s first in the SUPER GT Series since the team became the first to team to win an international race with the latest iteration of Aston Martin’s most successful racing car – the Vantage GT3 – as well as the first to win with Aston Martin in the championship, at Suzuka in June 2024.
The Heart of Racing (THOR) endured a bruising encounter in the latest IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Road America. The US-based team, with British drivers Tom Gamble and Casper Stevenson, qualified second in the GTD class for the 160-minute race, and ran well early on. But the #27 car, which won its class at Watkins Glen last month, was damaged avoiding a rival’s accident while running second, being sent airborne as Gamble swerved onto the grass along with another car.
In a testament to the strength of the Vantage, which shares the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury Vantage road car and is powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, it recovered to finish the race ninth in class ahead of both its nearest championship rivals. THOR is now third in the standings, 117 points behind the series leader with a victory counting for 350 points and three rounds left to run.
