Autoblog

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It's pretty incredible to think that three years ago there were no Aston Martin race cars. Now we can watch them in the European Le Mans Series, American Le Mans Series, FIA GT racing, as well as endurance races like the 24 Hours of Nurburgring and the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. To celebrate both the factory-backed and privately-owned teams, Aston Martin hosted all of its racing cars at the Paul Ricard circuit in France for a little preseason test. The product of that event, aside from many famous drivers taking their turn behind the wheel of each and every car, was this family portrait of Aston Martin Racing. Front and center is the Gulf livery DBR9 flanked by the new Vantage GT2 on its left (our right) and one of many V8 Vantage N24 cars on its right. See that white car being left in the dust way in the back? That's the V12 Vantage RS concept that just got off a plane returning from the Geneva Motor Show. Since we know you want to make this pic your desktop wallpaper, we've included an extra special 1,980-pixel-wide version for you to download, and there are more Aston Martin Racing galleries after the jump.


[Source: Aston Martin]

It was less than entertaining to watch the Corvettes race themselves in the GT1 class year, void of any competition from the Aston Martin teams that left the series to race exclusively in Europe. It was a shame, since the GT1 class has always been one of the best to watch. Despite Corvette's dominance over the past several years, they've always had great competition from the Vipers, Saleens, Maseratis, Ferraris, and Aston Martins. In 2006, the last time they faced competition from another team, Corvette Racing just barely captured the manufacturer's championship in the last race of the season at Laguna Seca.

This week, just in time for the initial testing sessions for the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the ALMS announced the return of the Aston Martin DBR9 to the GT1 class thanks to Florida-based Bell Motorsports. Team principal Jim Bell has been involved with ALMS since it inception, and even raced against the Corvettes in 2005 with the ACEMCO Saleen S7R. Other details about the team will be announced at a later date, including the driver lineup, but we should know the full details by the Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

[Source: ALMS]

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Under its new ownership, Aston Martin continues to forge ahead into a brighter independent future. In addition to the production announcement of the Rapide and the rumors of an upcoming "DBX", Aston is not missing a beat on its racing agenda, which should come as no surprise considering the background of its new chairman, David Richards.

To headline its Le Mans endurance racing program, Richards has brought in a big-name former F1 driver. Johnny Herbert, who in his eleven-year Formula One career drove for the likes of Benetton, Lotus, Sauber and Jaguar, will be driving the Aston Martin DBR9 for the Prodrive-run team at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Herbert is no stranger to endurance racing, having won the race for Mazda in 1991 and having driven the dominating MC12 for the Maserati factory team and Audis for customer teams, before briefly returning to the F1 paddock as Jordan/Midland's sporting relations manager. Richards withdrew Aston from the American Le Mans Series for this season, so they'll only be competing in the title race at Le Mans, leaving Herbert with enough time to consider other possibilities, including the Grand Prix Masters. (Aston also announced a new sponsorship deal with luxury hotel chain InterContinental.)

Recruiting Herbert, however, is about as close as Aston Martin will be getting to Formula One anytime soon. David Richards quelled any speculation that the Aston Martin name would be linked to his upcoming re-entry into F1 with Prodrive. Likely taking a page from former corporate cousin Jaguar's unfortunate experience in F1, Richards has wisely decided to leave Aston out of his grand prix venture rather than risk dragging its valuable name through the mud.

[Source: Aston Martin]