Aston Martin Prepares for Grand-Am Daytona Debut - Web Exclusive

As we previously reported on the News pages at www.eurotuner.com, Aston Martin’s North American Grand-Am racing campaign will begin on Friday (January 27) at the opening round of the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC). This race takes place alongside the famous 24-hour at the Daytona International Speedway.

Making its return to domestic competition in North America, Aston Martin Racing has joined forces with Toronto-based Multimatic Motorsports to enter a pair of Vantage GT4s in the Grand-Am Road Racing series.

Multimatic race-winners Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster will drive the lead car, while Hollywood movie star Patrick Dempsey will drive the second car alongside Chris Porritt, Aston Martin’s Chief Engineer.

The first round of the 2012 CTSCC will run in support of the 50th anniversary Rolex 24 at Daytona. It will be a 2.5-hour race with a mandatory driver change. The team will compete in the Grand Sport category, which is contested by six- and eight-cylinder production sports cars.

The opening round follows a successful three-day test session earlier in the month, during which the newly delivered Vantage GT4 impressed the Multimatic team with encouraging lap times.

The race gets underway at midday after a qualifying session on Thursday 26. Aston Martin Racing updates can be found during the race on Facebook at www.facebook.com/astonmartinracing or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/amr_official

Multimatic has lots of experience in the CTSCC having won the championship three times (2002, 2005 and 2008) since the series’ inauguration in 2000.

The Vantage GT4, meanwhile, has numerous 24-Hour class victories to its credit, as well as the 2010 European GT4 Cup title and back-to-back championship victories in the Nürburgring-based VLN series in 2010 and 2011. As such, the Vantage GT4 established itself as Europe’s most successful GT4 car, with an unsurpassed record for reliability.

The Vantage GT4 cars for the CTSCC have been modified in key areas from standard GT4 specification by Aston Martin Racing to comply with Grand-Am regulations and to hone the chassis specifically for the North American Series.

Multimatic will also supply Grand-Am spec Vantage GT4s and provide spares and technical support to North American customer teams as Aston Martin Racing’s official Grand-Am representative.