Aston Martin will field what it describes as its “our most ambitious and competitive entry yet” in this weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hours led by a works backed GT3 car in pursuit of the overall victory.
The GT3-spec V12 Vantage will be driven by a quartet of Aston Martin Racing works drivers. Long-time Aston men Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke will be joined in the Bilstein sponsored car by Allan Simonsen and Pedro Lamy, men recruited to the team as part of AMR’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign.
Alongside the marque’s now five car effort at the 24 Hours of Le Mans their commitment to the Nurburgring 24 Hours is part of a centenary year for the manufacturer packed with racing. Though only entering their first 24 hours at the famous German track in 2006 Aston Martin have considerable history around the Nordschleife having notched up three wins (1957, ’58 and ’59) in the 1,000km race at the track.
“This remarkable race, with more than 200 starters, has grown enormously in status since we first entered a nearly standard V8 Vantage back in 2006,” said Aston Martin’s David King. “It is fitting that our most ambitious and competitive entry yet coincides with our centenary year, but we face a tough challenge from more than 30 world-class GT3 entries, with the German sports car manufacturers in particular represented in force.”
In the GT3 class – effectively the premier class in the race – the lone Aston Martin will face strong opposition from Porsche, Audi, BMW and Mercedes.
Aston Martin are also entering a Hybrid-Hydrogen Rapide S – set to the first hydrogen powered car to compete in and FIA sanctioned race as well as a near production spec V12 Vantage – the road going sister to the GT3 entry.
Several customer teams will also enter Aston Martin machinery, with three teams entering GT4 variants of the Vantage in the SP10 class where there will compete against GT4 teams representing BMW, Lotus, Ginetta and Porsche.
theCheckeredFlag.co.uk will have full coverage of the 2013 Nurburgring 24 Hours, including updates throughout the race, which starts at 5pm local time (4pm UK) on Sunday May 19.
