Aston Martin Racing is born
Aston Martin has officially announced its return to motorsport and the foundation of a new division to be known as Aston Martin Racing. The first DB9 racers should hit the tracks before the end of next year.
The new programme will be run in conjunction with Prodrive - a company with a strong recent track-record in this area through its successful Ferrari 550 Maranello race cars. Aston Martin's product development and motorsport director Jeremy Main will oversee the project.
Design and build - at Prodrive - will begin shortly and Aston plans to race the first car towards the end of 2004.
Aston Martin Racing intends to run a number of teams in various sports car series around the world and will be evaluating these during 2004. It will also offer cars for sale to private teams and collectors.
The company favours production-based GT race series. Dr Ulrich Bez, chief executive officer of Aston Martin. Commented: “Production-based sports car series are growing in stature with many leading manufacturers returning with their own factory programmes. By competing with them we can demonstrate that our cars are not only the best on the road, but also on the racing track.
"We are keen to see new regulations for 2004 that will allow true production-based sports cars to compete on a level playing field. The new rules from the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) clearly provide this; we hope other sporting organisations will follow their route and encourage sports car racing to grow in importance and profile."
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