LMP1:
Never a moment’s rest for the team at Aston Martin Racing. Not since Prodrive chief David Richards took over with his consortium of investors, at least. With the announcement of the V8 Vantage GT2, the team has expanded into every class of GT racing in the Le Mans Series, campaigning racing DB9s in GT1 and GT3 and competition-spec V8 Vantages in GT2 and GT4. But now that the regulations for the Le Mans Prototype class have been modified to allow for GT1 engines to power LMP cars, Aston Martin is turning its attention to that class, too.
Hot on the heels of the team’s unveiling of the retro-tastic Gulf livery for its DBR9 GT1 cars, Aston Martin Racing has announced a collaboration with Charouz Racing Systems, which will campaign a Lola chassis with the DBR9’s 6-liter V12 in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the broader European Le Mans Series. Tomas Enge, Stefan Mucke and Jan Charouz will drive the car, and in addition to working in partnership with Lola’s engineering team to repackage the V12 for the LMP chassis, Aston Martin Racing’s engineers will support Charouz Racing System’s cars at the races.
We’re looking forward to seeing the car in full race trim and to witnessing Aston Martin taking on the entire field at this year’s Le Mans 24. Press release after the jump.
GT1:
Aston is rocking Gulf livery this year and going head to head again with the C6R
GT2:
An Aston Martin Vantage GT2 car has been added to Gigawave MotorSport’s line-up for the 2008 FIA GT Championship. This follows the announcement that the new, UK-based team will be racing an Aston Martin DBR9 in the GT1 class.
The Gigawave MotorSport Vantage GT2 will be the only Aston Martin in the Championship’s GT2 category.
The decision to race a second Aston Martin shows just how determined Gigawave MotorSport is to succeed, and the huge potential the team sees in the future of the FIA GT Championship.
The team is in the process of finalising its drivers for the GT2 entry and an announcement will be made shortly.
For those out of the loop, Gigawave just hired Nigel Stephney of the Ferrari F1 scandal fame.