- Aston Martin is aiming to debut the Vantage GT3 in the new LMGT3 class
- Aston Martin is celebrating 96 years since it first raced at la Sarthe
- IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class team that won the Heart of Racing title returns for a second start at the legendary French race
- D’station Racing aims to add to the first international win for the new Vantage GT3
- Countdown begins for Valkyrie AMR-LMH debut at Le Mans in 2025
MondayJune 10, 2024, Le Mans: Aston Martin’s new Vantage GT3 is set to make its debut at the world’s most prestigious endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this weekend (June 15-16) as the ultra-luxury British sports car manufacturer targets an incredible 20u category win at the event.
Two examples of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which shares the mechanical architecture of the new Vantage road car unveiled earlier this year at Silverstone, and which is built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminum chassis and powered by the fearsome twin-turbo V8 4.0 liters. engine, will compete in the ‘twice around the clock’ race in central France. Both will compete in the new LMGT3 class for 2024 as Aston Martin continues to lay the groundwork for its return to the top class with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH in 2025.
Aston Martin’s full-time FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC] partner teams, Japanese outfit D’station Racing and US-based entrant Heart of Racing bring the marque’s honor to Le Mans – the world’s most prestigious race – which features representation from an incredible nine GT manufacturers. all time high.
D’station Racing made history earlier this month as Tomonobu Fujii (JPN) and Charlie Fagg (GBR) took the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to a new victory in an international race in the SUPER GT GT300 class at Suzuka. Fujii, in his role as team CEO, will oversee a line-up led by Aston Martin driver Marco Sørensen (DEN). three-time FIA World Endurance Champion and Le Mans class winner in 2022.
Sørensen will share driving duties in the #777 with Le Mans debutant Erwan Bastard (FRA), title winner in the GT4 European and GT4 France series, and Team Principal Satoshi Hoshino (JAP), who is making his debut in FIA WEC since finishing second. at the 8 Hours of Bahrain season finale last year.
Heart of Racing, who will run the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH works in the Hypercar class in 2025, recorded their best result at the WEC season opener at the 1812km Qatar with a second place in the #27 Vantage to kick off the LMGT3 season . He aims to go one better at La Sarthe, where he finished sixth on his Le Mans debut last year. Team principal Ian James (GBR) will be central to the team’s driving force, with singles champion Daniel Mancinelli (ITA) and Spanish IMSA race winner Alex Riberas (ESP) racing alongside him.
Significantly, Le Mans – the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship – offers double points due to its length and difficulty. This gives both Heart of Racing and D’station Racing, who are third and fifth in the Team Championship, the opportunity to take over the top of the standings as the European leg of the season comes to an end.
Aston Martin endurance racing is indelibly linked to Le Mans. Just 15 years after the brand was created by Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin, it was competing in la Sarthe. Its debut came in 1928 with a pair of AM415 ‘Internationals’. Three years later he took his first win when Augustus Cesare Bertelli and Maurice Harvey won the 1.5 liter class at an International. He took classes in 1932 and ’33 as well. Two more wins in the 1930s for Ulster meant that Aston Martin ended the pre-war era as one of Le Mans’ leading manufacturers.
The race was not run between 1940-1948 with Europe affected by World War II, but once it returned in 1949, so did Aston Martin, making the 3-litre class its own until the 1950s. It won class six times, finishing first, second and third in the DB2 in 1951. This halcyon era culminated in a glorious overall victory for Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori in the DBR1 in 1959. It was also during this period that Aston Martin became known as haven for legendary racing stars. Among the many aces who have raced Aston Martins at Le Mans are Jim Clark, Sir Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Sir Jack Brabham, Shelby, Salvadori, Tony Brooks, Phil Hill, Sir John Surtees, Innes Ireland, Graham Hill and Bruce McLaren.
This century saw Aston Martin once again come to the fore as one of the truly great GT manufacturers. Returning to GT1 podium action in 2006, Darren Turner, Rickard Rydell and David Brabham scored a famous victory over Corvette in the mighty V12-powered DBR9 in 2007. Aston Martin Racing repeated the win the following year.
In the WEC era, which began in 2012, Aston Martin has five class wins with the Vantage. The V8 Vantage GTE won the GTE Am class in 2014 with the Danish line-up of Nicki Thiim, Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeier Hansson. Then in 2017, Jonny Adam (GBR) made a famous last-lap pass on a rival Corvette to take a dramatic GTE Pro win alongside teammate Turner (Aston Martin’s most successful Le Mans racer with 15 starts and three wins) and Daniel Serra (BRA).
The Vantage GTE made its debut at Le Mans in 2018 and took a thrilling double-class win in 2020. Alex Lynn (GBR), Maxime Martin (BEL) and Harry Tincknell (GBR) edged Ferrari to a famous victory without stopped for a traditional Sunday morning brake change, while TF Sport won GTE Am with Salih Yoluc (TUR), Adam and Eastwood. The team won again in 2022 in the world championship year with Ben Keating (USA), Henrique Chaves (POR) and Sørensen.
A podium finish for TF Sport in last year’s centenary race – also in 53rd when an Aston Martin had contested the event – it brought down the curtain on the GTE era at Le Mans and prepared fans for the dawn of the new LMGT3 class. The Vantage GT3 will be on the 28thu different Aston Martin chassis/engine combination to compete at Le Mans. No venue has given Aston Martin as much success, or proven more firmly that our DNA is forged from the very essence of competition, than Le Mans.
Adam Carter, Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most iconic races in motorsport, so it’s only right that Aston Martin’s competitive history is so indelibly linked to it. As we prepare for our return to the top class with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH Hypercar in 2025, this year will see two outstanding partner teams, D’station Racing and Heart of Racing, debut the new Vantage GT3 at Le Mans . This in itself is an important circumstance. This is 54u Le Mans has the Aston Martin name, and throughout that time we’ve learned that to conquer this race, it takes more than just speed. It requires performance, sustained technical excellence and no small measure of fortitude. All features that Aston Martin will look to maintain as we head into the race for 20u class win in this famous race.”
This year’s Le Mans will feature a 23-car LMGT3 field. the biggest of the WEC season this year. The event runs over two weekends with public scrutineering and the Official Test taking place between June 8 and 9. Practice and qualifying will run through Wednesday and Thursday, with the race starting at 15:00 CEST on Saturday 15 June.
Follow the details of the event via the official WEC website and app.
-END-