Young Driver AMR joins Europe’s fiercely contested GT-championship this year and entered two new Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in the German ADAC GT Masters series. For one of the two V12-powered Aston Martins, the German team has already contracted two high-profile drivers. Reigning German GT-Champions and ADAC GT Masters runner-ups Ferdinand (20) and Johannes Stuck (25), third generation racers and sons of motorsports legend Hans-Joachim Stuck, will spearhead the ADAC GT Masters campaign of Young Driver AMR.

After two very successful seasons in the FIA GT1-World Championship, including six victories and a runner up position in the drivers championship, Young Driver AMR sets it’s focus onto the popular ADAC GT Masters. "We are very proud to represent Aston Martin in the currently strongest GT-series in Europe", Young Driver AMR team principal Hardy Fischer says. "With a expected grid size of more then 40 cars of twelve different brands, the competition in the ADAC GT masters is a real challenge. In this strong field, there clearly has to be an Aston Martin and a twelve-cylinder sportscar. I’m glad that we have Ferdinand and Johannes Stuck on board. They are quick are two real nice boys. I’m confident that we experience a successful season together."

"I’m very happy that we will compete in the ADAC GT Masters in a top-team for the second consecutive season", says Ferdinand Stuck, who claimed four victories in 2012 together with his older brother. "Young Driver AMR was very successful in the GT1 World Championship and offers a great perceptive. I really looking forward to work with Young Driver AMR and even more to compete once again together with my brother. The feedback we got from Aston Martin Racing so far on the new car is very promising and furthermore, the car looks fantastic."

"We want to continue our success from the past season in the ADAC GT Masters and I’m happy to share the car again with my brother", says Johannes Stuck. "I’m delighted that beside TÜV Rheinland and Carrera, we can now also name Young Driver AMR our partner. Young Driver AMR had big success in the last seasons and I really can’t wait for our first race in April at Oschersleben."

The ADAC GT Masters is no new ground for Young Driver AMR. In 2009, the Young Driver AMR sister-team Fischer Racing already started in the series. In 2012, the ADAC GT Masters-calendar features eight rounds in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. All races will be shown live on TV in Germany.

The Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 is a brand new development by Aston Martin Racing for 2012. Young Driver AMR is the only team which campaigns Aston Martins in the ADAC GT Masters.

Drivers of the second Aston Martin of Young Driver AMR and further plans for the 2012 season will be announced at a later date

Young Driver AMR

The Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Grand-Am regulars Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster showed encouraging potential by leading the early phase of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) series opener at the Daytona International Speedway.

Having qualified in third position during Thursday’s qualifying session, the #55 Multimatic Motorsports-run car passed its rivals away from the green flag in treacherous conditions to lead a field of 81 cars on what was Aston Martin’s Grand-Am debut.

The second Vantage GT4 of Hollywood star Patrick Dempsey and Aston Martin’s chief engineer Chris Porritt – making a one-off guest appearance – similarly improved on its qualifying position in the early stages as Dempsey rose from 24th to 14th.

After two and a half hours of action-packed competition – during which the track dried and many yellow flag periods interrupted proceedings – the lead Vantage GT4 of Maxwell/Foster finished in 16th position, while Dempsey and Porritt finished 32nd in the Grand Sport category after both crews suffered punishing delays.

During the first stint on a drying track, a yellow flag period allowed both Multimatic cars to pit for slick tyres without losing ground. The #55 Vantage GT4 of Foster rejoined the action in eighth overall while Dempsey’s #71 car re-entered the fray in 12th.

Foster and Dempsey pitted to make way for Maxwell and Porritt respectively, but not before the #71 Vantage GT4 was hit from behind. The exhaust, which was damaged in the incident, soon began fouling a rear tyre, forcing a long pit stop during which the crew fell down the order as the leading cars completed six full laps. Porritt delivered consistently fast laps in the #71 car for the remainder of the race to climb to 32nd in class.

The lead Aston Martin suffered similar misfortune, meanwhile, when Maxwell was handed a 30 second stop-go penalty for a minor pit stop misdemeanor. Having also dropped down the race standings, Maxwell’s fight back was hampered by several late yellow flag interruptions – his eventual 16th place coming as poor reward for some great racing.

Patrick Dempsey

Having completed the demanding Grand-Am race, Dempsey said: “It was a tremendous pleasure to be in an Aston Martin at Daytona. The Vantage GT4 handles and brakes really well and was awesome in the wet conditions at the start. Chris Porritt was a great partner – it would be nice if Aston Martin could bring him back for another Grand-Am race so we could complete our unfinished business from today.”

David King, Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport

“To be so competitive first time out in Grand-Am Grand Sport is a tribute to the Multimatic team and to the inherent qualities of what is after all an almost standard car. The Vantage GT4s were a great attraction in the paddock with the fans today and with a little more development they will be challenging the podium positions in the remaining nine rounds of the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.”

Larry Holt, Vice President of Multimatic Engineering

“I’m disappointed with the result, but really pleased with the potential the cars showed. Without the incidents we would have had a top ten car today, but this is aggressive and highly competitive racing as we saw from the many full course yellow flags today, and a couple of little issues can cost many places.”

Aston Martin Racing

Aspeed will once again compete in the Japanese SuperGT championship. The team will start the season with their GT2 spec Vantage and will then take delivery of a brand new Aston Martin GT3 V12 Vantage during the season. Members of the team were on hand at Silverstone for one of the first tests of the GT3 new racer.

2011 drivers Hiroki Yoshimoto and Kazuki Hoshino will both return after a strong season which saw them take victory in the opening round at Okayama.

The SuperGT season gets underway March 31 at Okayama International Circuit.

Commenting on plans for the team’s Aston Martin Vantage, Team owner Roald Goethe said, “We still have the Aston Martin and it’s likely that we will run in a few individual races in, for example, the European Le Mans Series or maybe even the WEC, but it depends very much on budgets and personal time commitments. We hope to have this finalised soon.”

Entered as an official partner team for Gulf Oil International and Aston Martin Racing in 2011, the Gulf AMR Middle East entry was driven by team owners Mike Wainwright, Roald Goethe and experienced French driver, Fabien Giroix. The team entered the full ILMC season including an impressive 4th in class at Petit Le Mans.

Image: Richard Leach

Speaking at Autosport International on Friday, Aston Martin Racing’s Darren Tuner gave an insight in to their 2012 program and the troubled season with the AMR-One.

"The program at the moment is the WEC, and hopefully a Le Mans entry," said Turner. "We've done a little bit of testing, and then it's just a case of getting our heads down and making sure we are competitive.”

"There's also talk of continuing in GT1, but AMR will dictate what I do and everyone is waiting to see what happens with the championship. It's been very strong in the last two years and we came away second in the championship last year, so hopefully it continues that way."

“Obviously Le Mans last year wasn’t fantastic with the AMR-One, it was a very bold attempt to try and get on terms with the diesel, and maybe with a bit more time and funding it could have got there” he said."It was basically early in its development; most big teams have the opportunity to do testing for a year behind closed doors, while still racing a previous model. We had to do everything in public, and that was effectively the problem - it was a test programme that everyone got to see.

"It's definitely a David vs Goliath situation over the years though Aston Martin has always punched well above their weight. If you think about the Lola-Aston Martin that we ran in 2009 and 2010 it was the fastest petrol car and very competitive and it had a lot of good results”

"The AMR-One was a new car in every way, and we just needed some time to go testing. If you look at everything that has been achieved since its formation in 2004, overall [Aston Martin Racing] has been a fantastic and successful programme, with just one blip."

Aston Martin Racing are expected to field a heavily updated Vantage GTE in the WEC and some selected ALMS rounds in 2012.

 After five successful seasons in Europe and elsewhere around the world, Aston Martin’s Vantage GT4 racer will at last be seen in domestic competition in North America as Multimatic Motorsports is appointed by Aston Martin Racing as its official partner to campaign two cars in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) for 2012.

Toronto-based Multimatic Motorsports has won the championship three times (2002, 2005 and 2008) since the series’ 2000 inauguration, giving the team the requisite experience and expertise to mount a competitive title bid this season. The lead car will be driven by Multimatic regulars and proven race-winners Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster. Hollywood movie star Patrick Dempsey, a talented racer in his own right, will drive the second car, partnered in the opening round of the series by Aston Martin Chief Engineer and vastly experienced Vantage GT4 racer Chris Porritt.

The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge is run by the Grand American Road Racing Organization. The 2012 calendar takes in some of North America’s most iconic circuits over ten races, which run for two and a half hours with a mandatory driver change. The series kicked off with an official test session at the Daytona International Speedway on January 6-8, ahead of the prestigious opening round at the same circuit on January 27, which will be held as a support race to the legendary Rolex 24 at Daytona. Aston Martin will compete in the headlining Grand Sport category, which is contested by six- and eight-cylinder production-derived sports cars.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT4 was born out of the company’s successful entry of an almost standard V8 Vantage in the 2006 Nürburgring 24 hour race. It is still closely based on the V8 Vantage road car, sharing its bonded aluminium chassis, 4.7-litre V8 engine, manual transmission and suspension design. With numerous 24 Hour class victories, the 2010 European GT4 Cup title, back-to-back championship victories in the Nürburgring-based VLN series in 2010 and 2011, an unsurpassed record for reliability and nearly one hundred examples produced to date, it has established itself as Europe’s most successful GT4 car and will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. The Vantage GT4 cars for the CTSCC have been modified in key areas from standard FIA GT4 specification by Aston Martin Racing to comply with Grand-Am regulations and to hone the chassis set-up specifically for the North American Series.

Aston Martin has enjoyed a long association with Multimatic. The Canadian outfit produces the carbon fibre chassis for the exclusive One-77 supercar, as well as carbon fibre components for the V12 Vantage Zagato. Furthermore, Multimatic’s UK-based four-post test rig is regularly utilised by both road and racing Aston Martins for suspension development. In addition to campaigning the two official Vantage GT4 entries, Multimatic will take on the further responsibility of supplying Grand-Am specification Vantage GT4s and providing spares and technical support to North American customer teams as Aston Martin Racing’s Grand-Am representative.

David King, Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport said: “It has long been our desire to see the Vantage GT4 in regular competition in North America. In Multimatic we have a partner we know well who clearly knows how to win races and can help us spread the message that Aston Martins are competitive and exceptionally reliable as well as beautiful to look at. Not only that but Multimatic will provide the necessary customer support on behalf of Aston Martin Racing to allow new customers to choose the Vantage GT4 with confidence.”

Larry Holt, Vice President of Multimatic Engineering added: “I am really excited about this opportunity. Aston Martin is a great brand making great products and Multimatic is proud to be a long-term partner – there is a real buzz about this project around the whole company. It may take us a little while to get the car developed to front-running pace, but for sure we will get there and make a strong challenge for the title.”

Following the season opener at Daytona, the series then takes in a further nine rounds with races at such celebrated circuits as Watkins Glen International, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Laguna Seca, with the season finale on September 28-30 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

Aston Martin

Multimatic Motorsports have débuted their Aston Martin Vantage this week at the Daytona International Speedway. The team will take part in the traditional January test before contesting the full Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Season.

Aston Martin Racing has developed a Grand Sport (GS) version of its highly successful GT4 Aston Martin Vantage which Multimatic Motorsports will campaign in the 2012 Continental Tire GS championship.  This car will be offered for sale to customers and is available directly from Multimatic.

Testing at Daytona begins today with Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster sharing the driving duties.

HRT will enter three Aston Martin V8 Vantages in this year’s Dubai 24 hours. The VLN regulars have been working tirelessly since their last race of 2011 to prepare for the challenge that awaits them.

"One of the most challenging aspects of a 24H race is the high discipline” says team manager Michael Budde “To prepare a car and race with the car for 24 hours is an exciting experience for every team and racing driver. Our goal is to bring the Astons over the finish and to get in the Top 20 overall and to conquer a Top 3 position in the SP3 class," said Budde. "Since the last VLN race we are working hard on the right setup of our cars for Dubai."

"The main reason for entering the Dunlop 24H Dubai is because of the amazing international flair. Even when in January the season in Europe has ended, it is very exciting to meet race teams from all over the world on a very nice track, in such an interesting country."

Experienced endurance racer Shane Lewis will make his Dubai 24H début with the team.

"I am really excited about this chance to race at Dubai” said Shane. I've raced all over the world but never in the Middle East so that is going to be exciting. The fact that this race has so quickly become one of the major endurance races on the world calendar adds to that. I have great teammates for this race. Vic and I have raced together so many times I have lost count. There aren't many guys out there as quick and as reliable as Vic is and you can't ask for more in a teammate. Vic and I raced together with Karl Pflanz at Nürburgring and had a lot of success and I have heard really good things about Kim Hauschild. HRT is really experienced. They know their stuff and they have put us into one of the hottest rides out there. The Aston Martin Vantage is a legendary car and one of the few makes I have never run. I can't wait to race the car!"

“The challenges for Dubai are exciting. New car, new circuit, new team and 90 cars on a three-mile lap! HRT is a well-run team with plenty of experience. Michael Budde, the team owner, has been to Dubai recently to look everything over: the track, the pit box, the lighting, everything so we will have a leg-up on that. We'll also have the added benefit of working out of the Team Oryx garage in Abu Dhabi the week before the race. Vic and I are all over YouTube watching lap-after-lap of in-car footage to learn the circuit. The track looks like it has a nice flow. So, with all the cars and the momentum of the lap, working traffic is going to be the biggest deal. If we can stay out of trouble, I think we have a great shot in the Aston Martin."

Three Three HRT Aston Martins will compete in the extremely competitive SP3 Class in which Aston Martin team HMR finished second in 2011.

Qualifying starts at 4:00pm (local time) on Thursday, with the race starting at 2:00pm on Friday, January 13.

#31  Kersten Jodexnis, Ed Nicelife, Marcel Belka, Max Braams
#125 Kim Hauschild, Karl Pflanz, Vic Rice, Shane Lewis
#127 Oliver Bliss, Harald Schlotter, Eric Vaissiere, Philippe Ulivieri