Aston Martin Racing's Partner Teams Primed For Action-Packed Fortnight

GAYDON, UNITED KINGDOM – March 30, 2012: With the opening round of the ADAC GT Masters and the second race of the 2012 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) due to run at the end of this week, as well as the opening round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship scheduled for the following weekend, the forthcoming fortnight will be a significant one for Aston Martin Racing and its partner teams.

The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will make its competitive debut in the hands of Young Driver AMR during the first round of the 2012 ADAC GT Masters at Oschersleben in Germany on April 1 while a pair of Vantage GT4s will continue their Grand-Am CTSCC campaign with Multimatic Motorsports at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, North America, on March 31. On April 9, meanwhile, Beechdean Motorsport will give the V12-powered Vantage GT3 its UK debut at Oulton Park on round one of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.

This truly international fortnight for Aston Martin Racing and its partner teams highlights the breadth and depth of the marque’s involvement in motorsport, coming as it does in the wake of the factory squad’s fine performance at the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, where the Vantage GTE – which sits at the top of Aston Martin Racing’s Vantage-based range of competition cars – achieved a podium result at the 12 Hours of Sebring during its own debut outing.

The factory’s partnership with Young Driver AMR began in 2010 with a two-car assault on the FIA GT1 World Championship. The following two seasons yielded six race wins, with the team narrowly missing out on the 2011 Drivers’ World Championship. The relationship with Young Driver AMR now progresses to an exciting new chapter in the ultra-competitive German ADAC GT Masters, with the partner team exclusively fielding a pair of Vantage GT3s for Ferdinand and Johannes Stuck – sons of legendary German racer Hans-Joachim Stuck – and Christoffer Nygaard and Kristian Poulsen. Nygaard has long been involved with Young Driver AMR’s racing projects, while Poulsen is switching disciplines to GT racing having won the 2011 World Touring Car Championship Independents’ Trophy.

“I’m really happy that we could sign a strong driver pairing for our second Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the ADAC GT Masters“, said Young Driver AMR team principal Hardy Fischer. “Christoffer Nygaard is a key member of our team and Kristian Poulsen is a great addition and a perfect fit. With our ‘Danish Dynamite’ and the Stuck brothers, we have a strong driver line up and I can’t wait for the season to begin at Oschersleben.”

The second round of the North American Grand-Am CTSCC follows the season opener at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida last month, where Aston Martin Racing launched its partnership with Multimatic Motorsports as the marque returned to domestic competition in the United States. The #55 crew of Grand-Am regulars Joe Foster and Scott Maxwell will be bidding to repeat and build on their impressive feat in the opening round; having qualified in third position, Foster found himself leading the race outright in the early stages before unfortunate delays dropped both cars down the field.

The #71 Vantage GT4 will be crewed by Hollywood move star Patrick Dempsey – an experienced racing driver in his own right – and Tonis Kasemets, a veteran of open-wheel motorsport. The 2.5-hour race, with a compulsory driver change, will witness 36 Grand Sport cars battling for honours around the 2.38-mile circuit. Larry Holt, Vice President of Multimatic Motorsports, said: “We’re looking forward to running the Aston Martins at Barber this coming weekend as the track has always been very good to us. We’ve won there many times, including last year. Of course, everything is new with the Vantage GT4, but I’m optimistic of a good result based on the strong pace we showed at Daytona. It’s also great to add Tonis to the team after working with him for many years when he competed in open-wheel racing.”

During the Easter weekend, Beechdean Motorsport will give the Vantage GT3 its debut UK outing at the first round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Oulton Park. The well-established partner team took a pair of race wins in the hotly contested series during 2011, with drivers Jonathan Adam and Andrew Howard prevailing at Rockingham and Silverstone. Having traded up to the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from the DBRS9 for 2012, Howard was optimistic ahead of the opening round of season, which incorporates the first two races of the championship: “Having worked with Aston Martin Racing over the last few years and driven almost its entire range of competition GT cars, it has been a pleasure to be involved with the new Vantage GT3. Taking delivery of the first one is very special and it’s a real step forward from the DBRS9. The new car is easier to drive and the better balance allows the gentlemen driver to get so much more from the car. I am very excited about driving the Vantage GT3 in the British GT Championship this year and hope we can build on the success that we had with the DBRS9.”

David King, Head of Motorsport at Aston Martin Lagonda, said of the forthcoming fortnight: “The sports car racing season is relentless from here onwards until nearly the end of the year. Aston Martin is proud to be so strongly represented by quality partner teams in so many championships around the world and we wish all of our partner and customer teams the very best of luck.”

Aston Martin Racing has overhauled its range of competition cars for the 2012 season so that every Aston Martin racer is now based on the V8 or V12 Vantage – the most dynamic and sports-focused road cars in the company’s range. The ‘works’ Aston Martin Racing team is competing in the new-for-2012 FIA World Endurance Championship with a V8-powered Vantage GTE, while Aston Martin Racing also builds the V12-engined Vantage GT3 and V8 Vantage GT4 for customer use. All three variations share the Vantage road car’s bonded aluminium structure, base engines and fundamental suspension design, and will be seen competing around the globe throughout 2012 in the hands of either the factory squad, official partners or privateer teams.