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Nürburgring Endurance

Aston Martin to Pursue N24 Overall Honors with TF Sport

TF Sport enters Vantage GT3 for Aston Martin’s first Nürburgring outright bid since 2018…

Photo: Aston Martin Racing

Aston Martin will make a bid for overall victory at this year’s Nürburgring 24 with a Vantage GT3 entered by TF Sport and with a lineup involving three factory drivers.

Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen, Maxime Martin and David Pittard drive for TF Sport in the Eifel enduro on May 28-29, marking Aston’s first entry in the top category of the race since a fourth-place finish for the previous-generation V12 Vantage in 2018.

FIA World Endurance Championship team TF Sport is set for its N24 debut, having previously won the GTE-Am class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Aston in 2020.

The British squad last year expressed interest in fielding a high-profile Aston Martin entry in a major endurance race.

Its Nürburgring entry forms part of Aston Martin Racing’s target to compete for major endurance race wins through its customer teams. In 2021 former customer squad Garage 59 claimed a TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa podium with factory support.

TF Sport will take part in the next two NLS rounds, starting this weekend, and the N24 Qualifiers on May 7-8 as part of its preparations for the 24-hour race.

Thiim, Sorensen and Pittard form the lineup for this weekend’s NLS race, while Martin will replace Thiim for the third round of the season.

Factory drivers Valentin Hasse-Clot and Charlie Eastwood will step in for the N24 Qualifiers before stepping aside for the full lineup at the 24-hour race itself.

Thiim and Martin won an NLS round last year in a factory-prepared Aston Martin Vantage GT3, while both raced in last year’s N24 edition driving Audi and Porsche machinery respectively. Sorensen was with the pair for the 2018 race along with Darren Turner.

Pittard, meanwhile, is a Nürburgring GT3 race lap record setter and has two NLS victories to his name with Walkenhorst Motorsport. Like Thiim and Sorensen, the Brit is driving an Aston in the WEC GTE-Am class this year.

In October 2018, Martin and Turner gave current-gen Vantage its race debut at the Nürburgring, as part of its pre-homologation testing program.

However, since then Aston Martin’s N24 efforts have concentrated on categories below the top SP9 division, such as SP8T which it won with a GT4 Vantage in 2019.

Huw Tasker, Head of AMR Partner Racing, said: “Whenever an Aston Martin has competed in the top class of the Nürburgring 24 Hours it has proven to be a competitive force, and this time around we have a world-class GT3 contender in the Vantage, proven winners in TF Sport running the car and a squad of champions driving it.

“This is arguably the best chance yet for Vantage to secure a maiden podium in the world’s toughest GT race and thus establish it as an excellent choice for potential partners looking to succeed on the Nordschleife in [the] future.”

Belgian squad PROsport Racing is also representing Aston Martin at the N24, while its Vantage GT3 model is only set to compete in the NLS this season.

The team will run multiple Vantage GT4s and a Vantage GT8R in the 24-hour race, with one of the GT4s set to feature an all-professional driver lineup.

Toksport Commits to Porsche Entry

Another recently announced high-profile SP9 entry for the Nürburgring 24 is Toksport WRT’s commitment to the race with a Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The German squad has entered ADAC GT Masters and SRO races with Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos in recent years, but will make its N24 debut with a new manufacturer.

Factory drivers Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, who race together in IMSA’s GTD Pro class, will team up with Porsche-contracted Julien Andlauer.

Toksport will contest this weekend’s NLS race with two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and Glickenhaus LMH driver Romain Dumas partnering Andlauer.

Campbell and Jaminet are unavailable due to their IMSA commitments at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, but they will rejoin Andlauer for the N24 Qualifiers.

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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