Austins Team Hunter Racing

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.

Last Sunday saw the second round of the TORA ISCC European Championship from the Montserrat Extreme circuit in the Spanish mountains. This would defernately be the most difficult event on the ISCC calendar and would be a true test of a drivers skill.

Unfortunately for ATR, only team boss Daniel was the only driver present as both Zach and Ben had other commitments which forced them to miss this race.
Things took a turn for the worse in qualifying as Dan was only able to complete one flying lap. Coming out of the...

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest newsletter from ATR.

We first of all apologise for the lack of updates recently. Every member (including the press organisers) here at ATR have been occupied recently and have been unable to release any official info about the races or from the team themselves. But now, we are more than making up for the lost time.

We start first of all with the news where the LMP1 team have offically announced a new sponsor to carry with the rest of the year in the 2012 ISCC. Clothing giant Hackett have decided to pull the plug on the sponsorship deal...

Hello one and all.
Whether this will catch on or not, I have no idea. But it's a basic experiment to see another side to TORA media. Basically instead of myself making up the interview, I'm gonna leave the questions to you guys in the community. You can ask me anything you like about the races I've taken part in, the re-formation of ATR or just TORA championships in general. Think of this as a different version of the "FOTA Fans Forum".

If you have any questions, fire away! I'll be more than happy to answer them. Please make sure that your questions are sensible and relevant.

...And then my emotions hit an all time low.

Yep, Last sunday last year, I went through the joy of joining the few men who won on their first try. Fast forward to a year later and Im lying on my back from smashing my head on my own helmet in furious rage after threatening a reporter that I'll go "medieval" on him.
Anywho, qualifying, and I wanted to give Dans tune a tryout; Unfortunately this decision was a rather bone headed one from me, since I was just sliding around the circuit. No wonder I wanted to throw the wheel onto the circuit, but decided not to.

The race though...

Hello everyone! Happy New Year and welcome to the first ATR newsletter of 2012.

After a delightful christmas break for everyone involved in the team, it was time to open the factory in Devon once again to prepare for the first round of the 2012 GT Championship at Indianapolis this Sunday. To mark the occassion of travelling to the world famous circuit, the team has decided to create a livery in tribute of Dan Wheldon's finest achievement of winning the 2011 Indy 500. The teams new sponsor, William Rast, was all too delighted to collaberate with ATR in this special project just for the...

Hello everyone and welcome to the final edition of the ATR news update.

Even though the ISCC and GT24 championships have now been concluded, there was still one major event left on the calender for all involved in TORA. It was time for most of the teams to travel to Germany for the 2011 edition of the TORA N24 to tackle the world famous 13 mile Nurburgring Nordschleiffe circuit.
After a hugely sucessful second half of the year for the squad, team boss Daniel (ATR DAN) was determined to carry the form on and take the overall victory at the notoriously demanding event. ATR turned...

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.
Or shall we say, welcome everyone to the early than anticipated christmas and celebrations party all rolled into one at the teams head-quarters in Devon, England because it's been an extraordianry week for the team as a whole.
Kicking things off with the TORA ISCC Asia series where ATR DAN and iZ GunDaM clinched first and second in the drivers championship as well as sealing the teams championship at the world famous Le Mans circuit; which has somehow been shipped over from France to it's temporary location in Japan just for this...

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.

Last weekend saw a very busy & action packed events for everyone involved in TORA with the second round of the ISCC Asia leg at the very demandingly tight and twisty Tsukuba race track as well as the third round of the GT24 championship.
The second round of the ISCC was a very sucessful meeting for the team with ATR DAN notching up his second victory in sucession with team mate Ben just falling short of the last podium finish in fourth place. The two drivers experienced an epic tustle between each other after the first stops...

Hello one and all.
I hope that everyone is wrapping up warm now that the temperatures have decided to drop all of a sudden.

Speaking of plummiting, this last month in motorsport has been a testing time for everyone involved. Whether you're a team manager, driver, a mechanic, technician or even a fan of the sport, the death of a driver is always a tragedy. But to lose someone who is well loved and highly respected, then words really can't explain the emotions you feel inside. Certainly, the deaths of Marco Simoncelli and Dan Wheldon has shocked the world over. It's certainly been...

Ben "009" Chalk has learnt the first lesson of Suzuka: No matter how much you love it, it'll always find a way to hate you. Our track reporter spoke to him.

Track Reporter: Ben, a dissapointing early end to what could have been a good race.

Ben Chalk: Yes it is, especially as the Aston Martin felt really good today. That, and I think Suzuka is one of my 10 favourite tracks in the world.

TR: Can you tell us what happened with AMR Garage?

BC: Yes I can. Adrian and I were coming off the 130R, and his car suddenly lost it. He lost control of it, and I was...

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.

Last Sunday saw the last round of the Ferrari 458 Challenge as well as the first round of the GT24 held at the Hockenheimring in Germany. It was an exellent night all round for the group as Daniel (ATR DAN) was crowned the 458 Challenge champion with Mark (Rollin InAn STi) finishing as the runner up in the series. This was a title that has no doubt been hugely satisfying to the co-founder and driver of ATR.
In the main event of the evening, Daniel continued his exellent form the 458's by finishing in third place after an exellent...

.....our challenger for the 2011 TORA MSA GT24 Championship. We present to you the Gulf ATR Aston Martin Virage, as well as the teams three drivers, Daniel Austins (ATR DAN), Connor Johnson (Stonewall458) and Matt Hunter (Jenson09).

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.
Last Sunday saw the second round of the Ferrari 458 challenge at the Infineon Raceway in the good old U.S.A. It was a sucessful meeting overall for the ATR members with Mark claiming two exellent podium finishes. Johnny's flight was delayed so he could only arrive to compete in the second race of the meeting. And with no testing, he finished a credible 7th place.
However, a new TORA record was set at the race meeting. With victory in both races, ATR DAN has become the first member of TORA to notch up an incredible 60 race victories...

Down in ATHR's garage, we speak with Ben after placing third in the final ever chapter of ISCC in 2011.

Leigh Diffey:
Ben, an astonishing job, third overall on a race you've never even visited. How does that feel?

Ben Chalk:
Feels fan bloody tastic! Especially as I didn't have a great qualifying session, so to turn that into a podium place is just the most amazing thing in the world.

LD:
What happened in that one?

BC:
Don't know what happened. I just had a terrible run, and then spun out. It didn't improve much since then, despite...

Hello and welcome to another one of my driver blogs.

Just a short one this time and I would like to kick off by apologising to the TORA staff and Berty for my comments the other day about Berty's laptime around Tsukuba. My reasoning is because I wasn't feeling too great on that particular day and was absolutely cheesed off. I shouldn't have gone onto the forum that day when I was feeling really down in the dumps. So sorry once again guys.

Round one of the ISCC couldn't have gone any better for us at Austins Motorsport. Managing to finish not only on the podium but to be first...

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news from ATR.

Yesterday evening hosted round 4 of the American leg of the ISCC at Sebring. It was predicted that ATR would struggle for the top step of the podium where a balance of downforce as well as speed is required. Despite these issues, a very strong performance from the team was always going to be guaranteed. And sure enough, team boss rounded off a win last time out with a superb second place on the podium after troubles from VVV's Micko when the Audi pilot suffered damage about half way into the race. Mean while, Ben had a tremendous...

We sit with iZ GunDaM (or as called by his pit members and teammates, Special Agent 009), who's hoping for the biggest honour of them all; Victory here at Sebring, Florida.

Auto Week- Ben, you pulled off one of the best laps ever on the ISCC on your first try with the Lola Aston, do you think that good luck will continue?

iZ GunDaM- I believe it can continue, though Sebring tends to favour the ones that can get the last corner to perfection. Trust me, you make one wrong move with that turn, and believe me on this. You are going down in a blaze of shuddering pain.

Hello one and all and welcome to a very quick news update from the ATR team.

There's no doubt that the atmosphere within the team is still electric after the organisations first ever win in a sports car championship. But only yesterday morning, it was time for the team to start loading their cargo onto the plane for the next round at Sebring this Sunday. The team are not feeling so confident for this round, particulary for team boss DAN 2605 recieving a 5% power handicap after his win last time out. JohnnyBoy3600 also recieves a handicap but is unable to make the meeting due to other...

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest news update from ATR. Usually we report weekly in order to regroup everything. Well we're doing it a bit earlier today.

Special Agent 009 (or Sixth Element) is here to report from Penisula, Texas. And at last, we've scored a win! Now where's the women?

Anywho, in the qualifying for this race, I... well, I think John will tell his reaction via live commentary:

"Now we've just been given an update for the qualifying... And well, where did Special Agent 009 come from?! He's gone 3 tenths slower than Dan! But... But he wasnt...