Aston Martin DBR9/01

If you’re going to make a major splash in motor racing, win your first race. The Prodrive-prepared Aston Martin DB9R chassis 01 did just that at the 2005 Sebring 12 Hours: the pre-race expectation had been that the new Chevrolet Corvette C6.R would clean up, as Corvettes had done during the past few seasons. Instead, the freshly minted Aston, evocatively dressed in metallic green with a yellow nose-band akin to DB racers of yore, took GT1 class honours, with David Brabham, Peter Kox and Stéphane Ortelli at the wheel.

At the FIA GT Tourist Trophy at Silverstone that May, chassis 01 repeated its winning ways, with Kox joined by Pedro Lamy. And at the Le Mans 24 Hours the following month, the car was well on the way to another important class win: late race mechanical issues pushed it back to third, a still respectable result in its first season.

For 2006 the running of the team was taken over by talented French outfit, Larbre Competition, and in the Le Mans Series Europe it took both the team and drivers’ championships. In 2007 Larbre again contested the LMSE, and also the FIA French GT Championship. Chassis 01’s sole victory was at the season finale in Brazil, the car driven by its current owner, Gregor Fisken, and Steve Zacchia, Fernando Rees, and Roland Bervillé.