Finally, there is someone racing a track-day specialty.
We ran a feature a few months back that looked at what it would look like if track day supercars were entered into races.
Aston Martin must have noticed, as its track-only toy, Vulcan will make its Le Mans debut next month. It will be competing in Saturday’s Aston Martin Festival race, just before the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Although only a few of the 820-hp cars were made, none were built according to race regulations and have not been entered in any competitions. They’ve been exclusively used in Aston Martin-organised track days.
It was initially supposed to compete in the July 2016 Aston Martin Owners Club Race at Snetterton, but despite plans for “one or two”, none of them entered the club event.
David King, president of Aston Martin Racing, stated that the company has been running the track-day program for some time now with customers and that there are still a few people who want to race them. “The cars have been built to full race specifications in terms of safety so we are happy that they are given the chance.”
The event will feature three Vulcans. They will likely be represented by GT1-spec Aston Martin DBR9s and Vantage GT2s. GT3s and GT4s as well as their newly-replaced Vantage GTE.
A number of prominent drivers have signed up for the race, including David Richards (ex-chairman of Aston Martin), whose Prodrive organization manages the racing activities of the company since 2005.
Television personality Paul Hollywood, Sir Chris Hoy, Olympic legend, and Martin Brundle, ex-F1 race, will all be taking part in the event.
There will also be some drivers who have connections to the factory team, in addition to celebrity pilots. Lasse Sorensen (and Benny Simonsen) – younger brothers to Marco Sorensen. Allan Simonsen died in 2013 while driving an Aston Martin. Alex Lynn, a former Aston racer, also signed up.