Automatic Racing Finds Aston Martin Ideal For Continental Tire Challenge

Subtitle:Russell's Vantage Shakes Up GS And Stirs Fans' Hearts

Mention Aston Martin, and the first thought for many people is an exotic supercar, like the cars James Bond drives in the movies with many hidden gizmos and gadgets.

Automatic Racing’s David Russell thought that as well when he was approached about fielding an Aston Martin Vantage in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. No way could it be a cost-effective race car!

But the owner of the Orlando, Florida-based team took the leap and decided to race the Aston. Looking back, he’s happy he did.

“It’s definitely unique,’ Russell said. “Three years ago we took on the project to run the Aston. For me it was a no-risk deal because I had a customer who owned one and that gave us an opportunity to learn the car. In doing so, we learned that it’s surprisingly cost effective, simple and very true to the road car.”

Automatic Racing is currently fielding the lone Aston Martin in the Continental Tire Challenge. His No. 99 Invisible Glass/Rogue Engineering/Red Glare Records Aston Martin Vantage opened the season with a fourth-place finish by Rob Ecklin Jr. and Al Carter in the lead Grand Sport (GS) class in the BMW Performance 200 at Daytona International Speedway. The pair then placed eighth in GS in the Sebring 150. Ecklin was running second at the time of his pit stop, with Carter working his way up to fourth before the car’s retirement.

Beginning with Watkins Glen, Russell is planning to two cars in the remaining races with the exception of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, returning the No. 09 Aston for Charlie Putman and Charles Espenlaub.

The team came close to finishing on the podium several times in 2015. Carter and Brett Sandberg finished seventh at VIRginia International Raceway in the No. 99, running out of fuel while leading on the final lap. Putman and Espenlaub placed fifth at Circuit of The Americas.

Russell found that fielding a “supercar” has its advantage in terms of some of the components.

“Having some supercar parts on it, like the suspension, hubs, bearings and wishbones, are very really durable. I’ve had some of the hubs and bearings on the car for three years because they’re so high quality and manufactured so well. The wishbones and the axles are the same way. So for us, it’s been even a more cost-effective car to run than my BMW that I switched out of. That’s surprising; I never would have guessed that in a million years.”

But what about damage from contact that sometimes is the result of the regular fender-to-fender competition that the Continental Tire Challenge is known for?

 “I was afraid of running the car off the road when we first got it, because it’s all aluminum,” Russell admitted. “Continental Tire is obviously full contact, and you’d think it would be able to take to that very well. But actually, the car is very good on the maintenance side; surprisingly, it’s really good on the crash side as well. It’s got crumple structures, and you change a crumple structure, as opposed to having to cut the frame horn off like on a BMW.

“It was a risk for us, because we had won the championship in a BMW and came close a couple of other times. But a transition from the M3 to the M4 is a massive development project, and the Aston Martin was fairly turnkey. We’ve also developed a relationship with Prodrive – Aston Martin racing of the U.K. – has been a very rewarding project. When they come over to run Daytona and Sebring in the U.S., they use my shop over here. I look forward to the new car coming in 2018.”