In case you haven’t already noticed, the debut of the all-new Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a pretty big deal. Not only is it an outstanding road car, but it’s also now a proven race track competitor. The Aston Martin Vantage GTE has just completed a trouble-free debut at the Total 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the FIA World Endurance Championship Super Season opener. Not only did Aston Martin’s competing cars complete the endurance race itself, but also scored a double-points finish.
In the GTE Am, the reigning champions drove a V8 Vantage GTE to a one-two finish, beating a customer-owned TF Sport example.
The team had an objective over the weekend to learn as much as possible about the turbocharged V8 race car by specifically focusing on various strategies, such as pit-stop procedure, and, for the first time, gathering important data under competitive conditions. Both competing cars ran faultlessly in the beginning of the race, and further took advantage of rivals who began to experience various issues. This was the GTE AM drivers’ fourth consecutive victory at Spa. Team Principal Paul Howarth summed up the very successful race:
“This weekend was all about executing and we brought home all our cars in point-scoring positions and secured a classic victory in the GTE Am class. The drivers delivered the maximum performance and we delivered on the potential available from the package we came here with. 14-points is a good haul from this brand new car. The GTE Am victory was exciting and it was great to see that two Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTEs finished a lap ahead of the competition.”
