Racing and Competition

The 12-turn, 2.5km Puerto Madero circuit is the only track on the Formula E calendar to have featured in all three seasons, but it provides a new challenge for Panasonic Jaguar Racing, as the team builds on a solid start to its debut season. Racing in the hot Argentinian sun makes the Buenos Aires ePrix a tricky test, requiring a careful balance of race pace and thermal management, which led to some of the championship’s most thrilling and unpredictable races. The British team is looking forward to the challenge of racing on a track that pushes cars to the limits and rewards clear communication between driver and engineer.

The Aston Martin-Red Bull Advanced Technologies concept hypercar; AM-RB 001, will make its first appearance in North America — and global auto show debut — at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto later this month. The unique and groundbreaking AM-RB 001, introduced in July 2016 at the Aston Martin headquarters in Gaydon, England, is an unprecedented fusion of form and function the likes of which has never before been seen in a road-legal vehicle. It will be accompanied to Toronto by Dr. Andy Palmer, the President and CEO of Aston Martin, who will be speaking at the Opening of Manufacturers’ Media Preview Day and the Automotive News Canada Congress on Thursday, February 16, 2017.

Defending Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Champions Tekno Autosports claimed a hard-earned top five finish, and a podium in the Pro class, in the 2017 edition of the race. McLaren Factory Drivers Rob Bell, Côme Ledogar and Alvaro Parente staged a valiant never-say-die effort in the #1 650S GT3 at Mount Panorama, Australia after early setbacks left the trio at the back of the field.

Bentley Motorsport has finished in third place in the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Bathurst 12 Hours, in a race that was packed with dramatic action from the outset. The #17 Continental GT3 piloted by the all-British trio of Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Oliver Jarvis rose from 22nd on the grid to finish on the podium in Bentley’s first race of 2017. Australia’s largest and highest-profile endurance race began at 05.45 on Sunday morning, and it was the #8 Continental GT3 piloted by Maxime Soulet (BE) that was gaining most attention as it climbed from fifth to third on the opening two laps.

Aron Taylor-Smith and Dan Lloyd will race for the MG British Touring Car Championship team in 2017. The duo replaces last year’s rookie pairing of race winner Ashley Sutton and Josh Cook with the British manufacturer. Taylor-Smith, who used to race under his unmarried name Smith, will step across from the Team BKR VW CC. His Rockingham win last year was his fourth victory in the category since he joined the category in 2011. It will be the first time that Taylor-Smith, 27, has driven for a factory team. “It’s a real shame in one way to leave BKR who did such an amazing job last year in their first season, but now I am fully focused on the 2017 season and excited to ensure I deliver the results that MG not only deserve but are capable of,” said the […]

Aston Martin’s Vantage GT8 will make its second competitive outing this weekend, as the marque’s special edition takes on Australia’s famous Bathurst 12-hours GT race at Mount Panorama. Having competed in last year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours in Europe, the close-to-production specification Vantage GT8 will be operated by Aston Martin customer team R-Motorsport this weekend in the event’s invitational class.

Aston Martin Racing is once again ready to take on the world’s premier endurance series, with the team announcing its three-car line-up for the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) today. Fielding two V8 Vantage GTE cars in GTE Pro and one in GTE Am, the team’s entry to the series and this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans was confirmed during a web conference held by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest in Le Mans.

We decided to go a little more toward the sporting side this week – guess that is still a carry over from Daytona this past weekend. So, our Video of the Week this time is titled “Brits Who Made The Modern World: The Lotus 25”. In this 22 minute film, Peter Snow finds out how Britain’s successful Formula One industry has its origins in a remarkable amateur racing club and a visionary group of motor enthusiasts. He meets the surviving members of the Lotus Engineering team whose revolutionary car, the Lotus 25, changed the sport forever. To quote our old friend Wikipedia: The Lotus 25 was a racing car designed by Colin Chapman for the 1962 Formula One season. It was a revolutionary design, the first fully stressed monocoque chassis to appear in F1. In the hands of Jim Clark it took […]

Bentley Motorsport has traveled 17,000km from its Crewe headquarters to New South Wales in Australia to take on its first challenge of the 2017 season – Bathurst 12 Hours – where the team is looking for a win on the world-famous Mount Panorama circuit. A pair of Bentley Continental GT3s is entering the endurance race that sees more than 50 cars from the world’s leading manufacturers battle it out on the tight and twisting walled roads that wind over the mountain.

The MINI JCW Team took the checkered flag earlier today at Daytona International Speedway, winning their first race ever in the Street Tuner class of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge series. With LAP Motorsports Team Owner Luis Perocarpi on top of the pit box, drivers Mat Pombo and Derek Jones held off heavy pressure from a number of competitors for more than four hours in order to bring the #73 MINI JCW to victory lane. The 2017 season is only the second full season for the team in the series. We knew going into the race today that we were going to be fast and that we’d have a good chance to win this race. I am so proud of everyone on this team for their hard work. A win at the high banks of Daytona to start the […]

The 570S GT4 will make its North American competitive track debut this weekend at the iconic Daytona International Speedway, as the first customer-run examples of the latest GT model from McLaren take on the four hour Continental Tire BMW Endurance Challenge. Six examples of the 570S GT4 are set to contest the championship throughout the 2017 season, which commences at the famous 3.5-mile circuit in Florida. Customer teams VOLT Racing, C360R and Motorsports in Action will each field a pair of cars in the CTSC Grand Sport (GS) class. The category has attracted some of the world’s best GT4 outfits, and features 20 cars on the entry list for the season-opening round. This historic debut this weekend for the 570S GT4 continues the long-standing tradition of McLaren sportscars racing Stateside which dates back to 1966. McLaren has fielded cars in […]

Aston Martin Racing is set to kick off the 2017 racing season early, with the marque set to contest the Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend with its V12 Vantage GT3. The IQ Option liveried V12 Vantage GT3 will take on the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship’s opening round with four of the team’s regular FIA World Endurance Championship drivers at the wheel.

In the annals of motor racing, few machines are as iconic as the Lotus-Climax Type 33, chassis number R11, the car driven by Jim Clark to first place in the 1965 Belgian, British, German and Syracuse Grands Prix and the Lotus in which he won his second World Championship. It is only right that this amazing piece of motorsport history be the centrepiece of the Motor Sport Hall of Fame at Race Retro, the international historic motorsport show, held at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, from 24 – 26 February, where R11 will make its first public appearance in over four decades. 

A new era will begin for McLaren Automotive this March with the launch of the second generation of its Super Series at the 87th Geneva International Motor Show. The first of the 15 new cars cited in the company’s Track22 Business Plan, the second-generation Super Series is also the first replacement of a product family by the British manufacturer of luxury sports and supercars. “Super Series is the core of the McLaren business and personifies the blend of extreme performance, crafted luxury and unparalleled driver involvement that is the McLaren heartland,” explained McLaren Automotive CEO, Mike Flewitt. “This is the first time we have replaced a product family and the new Super Series will be absolutely true to McLaren’s pioneering spirit in being a revolutionary leap forwards, both for our brand and the supercar segment.” The new Super Series is […]

A truly incredible collection of Formula 1 heritage is set to go on display for the first time at Autosport International in January. Classic Team Lotus have confirmed all seven remaining Lotus type 49 racing cars will be present at Europe’s foremost motorsport show between 12-15* January. The late Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe designed the Lotus 49 with a Ford Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine at its heart. The show at the NEC in January 2017 marks 50 years since this pioneering F1 car first raced – and won – with the legendary Jim Clark behind the wheel at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.

Next summer’s Silverstone Classic will feature more than eight decades of glittering motorsport history, with confirmation that the acclaimed Kidston Trophy for Pre-War Sports Cars is returning to the packed on-track program in 2017.

The Jaguar Classic Challenge returns in 2017 with two brand new events confirmed in the five-race series for pre-1966 Jaguars. A new date for the Jaguar Classic Challenge calendar is the Silverstone Classic on 28-30 July. This special summer weekend will be the third round in the Challenge and is expected to draw a full grid of stunning classic Jaguar racing cars.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT8 will make its debut at the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour race in February 2017 with R-Motorsport, competing in the invitational class for production cars. Aston Martin works driver, Darren Turner (GB), will lead the charge and will be joined by one of the R-Motorsport team owners, Florian Kamelger (I), and Markus Lungstrass (DE). Held annually at Mount Panorama in New South Wales, Australia, the Bathurst 12 Hour is technically a street circuit that presents a multitude of challenges, not least the tight and narrow section that runs across the top of the mountain. In stature, it is as notorious as the Nürburgring 24 Hours and the Spa 24 Hours.