ARCHIVED PRESS RELEASES

Aston Martin Racing’s FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign begins at the Six Hours of Silverstone on 13/14 April and, following a successful outing at the 12 Hours of Sebring last month, Paul Dalla Lana (CA) and Pedro Lamy (PT) will now join the team for the 2013 season.

Prodrive has introduced a significant performance upgrade to the MINI John Cooper Works engine, bringing an additional 8 bhp and a similar increase in torque for the 33mm restricted World Rally Car specification unit and around 5 bhp for the 30mm restricted S2000.

After qualifying strongly in third and fourth positions for car #97 and car #007 respectively, an early accident forced the #97 car driven by Turner, Senna and Mucke into the pits to repair the front of the car and the radiator.

HMG Paints, the UK’s largest independent paints manufacturer, has become a technical partner of Prodrive Motorsport and will supply all the paints and coatings for the company’s Aston Martin Racing and MINI World Rally cars.

The Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing team has unveiled its most ambitious motorsport programme to date as it aims to win both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), as the marque celebrates its centenary year.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 took third place in the first race of the sports car season at the Dubai 24 Hours.

Today it was officially announced that Prodrive has sold its Australian racing business, Ford Performance Racing (FPR), which competed in the Australian V8 Supercar series. Prodrive acquired the team in 2003 and has competed very successfully as the official Ford works entry in the series ever since. The company is now handing over the team to Rod Nash and Rusty French, who will retain the FPR name and existing team management and drivers. The full statement reads as follows:

Dani Sordo continued the last day of Rally Spain where he finished on Saturday, by winning four more stages in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC, taking the tally to six. He won all three stages this morning and for the afternoon, with rain forecast, Sordo gambled on running only hard Michelin tyres and it paid off winning the last stage and only coming second on the Powerstage due to the onset of rain. Meanwhile Jarkko Nikara, in his first event in a World Rally Car, finished in fifth place overall, one of the best WRC debuts in recent years, confirming what a great talent he is.

Rain on Sunday showed the strength of the MINI WRC’s chassis, helping Dani Sordo to set two second fastest stage times, before a heavy impact under the car on stage 18 led to a loss of power steering fluid and his eventual retirement from the event following stage 19. Meanwhile, Yvan Muller set two top five stage times in his MINI WRC as he found the confidence to exploit the full potential of his car, finishing in an excellent 14th place in a world class field.

Prodrive is nearly doubling the size of the workforce at its composites plant in Milton Keynes. The company is actively recruiting now and will take on a further 80 people during 2013, making it one of Europe’s largest composites specialists with close to 200 employed in its manufacturing operations.