This year Aston Martin is introducing a new one-make racing series for the Vantage GT4 Challenge and Vantage N24 owners in Britain. The cars that compete in this series are all made under FIA GT4 regulations and have a glorious history including class wins in the Dubai, Nürburgring and Spa 24 Hours, numerous class wins in the Nürburgring VLN endurance series and four wins out of six in the FIA GT4 European Cup.
Now Aston is treating their Design Director, Marek Reichman by entering him in Oulton Park race of GT4 Challenge!
It is actually a very cool tradition at Aston Martin that executives and even top branch managers are involved in company’s motorsport activities. If you remember at this year’s Nurburgring 24 hour race, Aston’s boss Dr. Ulrich Bez himself was one of the main drivers for the entire event.
Speaking ahead of the race, Marek said: “The design team has been closely involved in the design of all our race cars, from the works LMP1 prototype to the Vantage GT4, but I’ve always longed to get even more closely involved and the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge provides the perfect introduction to GT4 racing for me.”
Marek’s co-driver, Chris Porritt, added: “Most of my GT4 experience with Aston Martin has been at the Nürburgring, but Oulton Park is my home track and while I’ve raced my own cars there many times, I’ve never had the opportunity in an Aston Martin. The standard of racing in the series so far has been extremely high so Marek and I will have our work cut out to keep up with the front runners.”
Aston Martin’s Head of Motorsport, David King commented: “The Aston Martin Vantage N24/GT4 has been the outstanding performer in GT4 and other classes around the world since 2006. Whether in 24 hour races or short sprints, its performance, reliability and ease of handling deliver class wins and podiums time after time.
“The Aston Martin GT4 Challenge of Great Britain, in its first year, is providing a focal point for our customers to make a first step into GT4 racing with high quality events on challenging circuits with comprehensive organisation and technical support from Aston Martin Racing.”
Could this be a novel way of design – if he crashes it, he will easily come up with a better looking design than the Lagonda, and maybe even One-77 🙂