Oman Racing with TF Sport looking for another repeat of last time as the ELMS visits Monza
Forty-two cars spread across the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE classes again grab our attention as the two Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE’s punctuate the otherwise ‘stereotypical’ hoard of Ferrari 488 GTE’s along with the two Porsche 911 RSR’s amongst a GTE grid of twelve cars.
Aboard those two Aston’s, we have two drivers who figured prominently upon the GTE Am’s winning podium at this year’s Le Mans 24Hr with the #33 TF Sport entered car for Ben Keating but for this series, Marco Sorenson and Henrique Chaves will again feature in opposing cars within the Sussex based team.
First time out in the south of France, the #69 car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Marco Sorenson briefing enjoyed the raptures of a front row class start ahead that race before De Haan was cut up and impacted upon by some squabbling LMP3 cars at the end of the very first lap, forcing the Englishman into immediate retirement.
The #95 car of John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and Henrique Chaves however enjoyed the bets result of Hartshorne’s racing comeback endeavours so far, after having started last on the GTE grid, the red liveried car came through to claim a P6 position by race’s end.
Better however was to come from Imola just a few weeks later with the series return to the picturesque but compact circuit at Imola where the #69 crew ‘had their revenge’ by taking a very near lights to flag class win with the #95 again coming through from near the rear to claim a 1-2 on the class podium for Tom Ferrier’s latest batch of ELMS clients.
These results have both Oman Racing with TF Sport crews tied for the lead with the #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari with both the #32 and #69 crews having claimed a pole position and a class win each (with also a DNF) and with the #95 crew having scored in both previous races to all have twenty six points – five above their next rival in the Championship.
This weekend’s four-hour race around the ultra-fast 3.6-mile circuit will begin on Friday with their first Free Practice and Bronze Driver test before a second Free Practice and Qualifying on Saturday before the start of the race at 11:30hrs local on Sunday.
Photo credits – Andrew Lofthouse / ELMS
Team Speed Monkeys look for further silverware at DTM Trophy visit to the Norisring
Four races down, and the first silverware for the drivers and team came last time out at Imola as their #63 car of Jacob Riegel stepped up a gear of the ability he showed at the opening round of the season from the Lausitzring to come hope second overall in race one before claiming pole and another second-place finish in race 2.
Teammate and driver of the team’s #99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 (Nick Hancke) saw his race performance drop slightly in Italy by claiming his first DNF of the season in Race 1 after contact with more than one car going into the first corner of lap 1. Whilst he did then have a better race in race 2, he couldn’t match the pace of Riegel and had to settle for fifth.
This compactness of Imola last time out will be changed by the speed rush of the bespoke street circuit of the Norisring where three long straights are punctuated by only six corners ranging from a kink to a tight hairpin bend and with Riegel having been busy at the latest round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series with the team at Zandvoort last weekend – he should be even faster!!
If the previous four races are anything to go by – this weekend’s round will be eventful!
Photo credits – Team
Scattered success for the Aston Martin FFSA GT4 entries at Albi
The third round of the French FFSA GT4 Series from Albi also concluded yesterday after another two action packed races for what was scheduled to be from ten Aston Martin powered teams thanks to two further Vantage GT4 entries from the GPA Racing team.
However, for the #89 AGS Events Racing crew of Loris Cabirou and Nicolas Gomar were sadly unable to participate within the weekends two one-hour races after Cabirou suffered an accident during Qualifying that left him inverted upside down inside his car having impacted into the tyre wall and returned to the racing line.
Thanks to a selfless act of fellow GT4 racer Michael Blanchemain who protected the stricken Aston by parking his Audi in harm’s way from the oncoming traffic, Cabirou was able to free himself from his car and to a place of safety without further event, but their car was unracable from that point on.
Another great early display of consistency from the #72 GPA Racing crew of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud saw them claim another Am Class pole position for Saturdays race 1 which they duly converted to another podium with a P3 finish at the end.
The #13 Mirage Racing AMR of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romano Ricci also fared well in race one starting from third in their Pro-Am Class to eventually finish second at the end.
The two new GPA Racing entries of #48 Didier Sirgue and Gilles Colombani and renumbered #8 David Pouget and Matthieu Casalonga each did well in their debut races together with the #48 Qualifying P12 in Am Class before finishing eighth in class whilst the #8 Am class car started from 17th in class to finish twelfth. They returned similar placements for Sundays race which equated to a great opening day for the extended GPA Racing team.
Sundays race was not quite as productive for the AMR runners as the #72 GPA crew proved that they were indeed human by failing to finish whilst the #161 AGS Events Am car of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere returned to class winning ways with a P2 finish just ahead of their #79 AGS teammates Stephane Desbrosse and Lauris Nauroy in third.
The next round of the season takes the expected forty runners to Spa Francorchamps in Belgium for the start of the SRO’s annual Speed Week.
Photo credits – FFA GT4
Rounding off the ADAC GT4 Germany Series visit to Zandvoort
Rounding off the action from the third round of the ADAC GT4 Series from Zandvoort at the weekend strangely saw little more Aston Martin success beyond that of the PROsport Racing success at the front of the pack and that in the Trophy class.
This time featuring nine AMR Vantage GT4 powered teams with the introduction of the cars from the Team Speed Monkeys squad for the first time, Saturday’s first hour long race also only proved successful for the #7 Dorr Motorsport AMR of Ben Dorr and Romain Leroux who managed to hang on to the coat tails of the #24 PROsport Racing car of Hugo Sasse and Mike David Ortmann to claim a 1-2 for the marque.
Strangely enough and despite the radical change in track conditions between the rain of Saturday and the Sun of Sunday, the #7 crew duplicated that result again on Sunday – again following the #24 PROsport car for another 1-2 finish which takes Dorr/Leroux up to third in the overall Championship table so far.
Holland proved itself to be a frustrating mistress for many of the other AMR crews including that of the #6 Racing One crew of Tom Wood and Euan McKay who suffered greatly in the changing conditions of Saturday having pitted early but remained on slicks but then improved themselves for a P8 finish in race 2.
The two Team Speed Monkeys crews of (#63) Jacob Riegel / Marc de Fulgencio and (#99) Paul Aural-König and Konstantin Lachenaur both returned a solid audition in the Series together with the #63 improving over the weekend from P20 to P18 and with the #99 car a few places ahead in P14/15 thanks to their prior series knowledge.
The #69 Dorr Motorsport entry of Phil Dorr and Indy Dontjie surprisingly failed to capitalise upon the change in conditions of Saturday, eventually finishing P12 after the red flag, weather related stop and then fifth on Sunday – results which narrowed their lead in the overall Championship.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4
Team of the Week - PROsport Racing
If there was an award for “Team of the week”, then that would have to go to the PROsport Racing team whose Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crews absolutely dominated the latest round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series as well as two of their other Aston’s doing equally well at the latest round of the NLS from the Nordschliefe.
Full season entries of course for the ADAC GT4 Germany Series saw their Junior Class #24 car of Hugo Sasse and Mike David-Ortmann run with their Trophy Class crew of Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Christopher Rohner as last weekend’s third round of the season at the Dutch coastal circuit of Zandvoort.
There, the #24 car made a clean sweep of overall pole positions of each of the weekend’s one-hour races but then followed that up with two overall victories despite all the full course cautions and weather that the circuit and the series could throw at them.
That in turn was backed up by the #48 crew taking P3 and then P2 in their own Trophy class thanks to their P25 and P19 race finishes respectively.
These results have taken Sasse and Ortmann up to second in the overall Championship table behind that of the Dorr Motorsport AMR crew of Indy Dontjie and Phil Dorr but also to the top of the Junior Class for Sasse and up to second in the Team’s Championship table – again behind the Dorr Team. Sokolovskiy also moves up to third in his Trophy Class as the series moves onto their local circuit at the Nurburgring in early August.
Also running this weekend was another of the team’s AMR Vantage GT4’s as well as their Vantage GT3 which were running again within the Nurburgring Langstrecken Series (ex VLN Series) from the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife.
Having taken something of the sabbatical for the ADAC Total 24H race at the end of May, the third round of the NLS was again ran over four hours with the team’s ‘resident’ driver coach, Nico Verdonck who again joined Maxime Dumarey and Jean Glorieux aboard their #17 SP9 Pro-Am entry to end their Saturday race day P4 in class with their #176 Vantage GT4 car Guido Dumarey and GT4 newcomer Emil Heyerdahl finishing P3 I their SP10 class.
Like many European based GT4 teams these days, PROsport Racing move across to Italy for next weekend’s third round of the GT4 European Series from Misano with their two-car entry, again involving Sasse, Ortmann and Verdonck.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 / NLS / Teams
Heart of Racings double delight at the Glen
While THoR’s GTD PRO crew of Alex Riberas (ESP) and Aston Martin Racing works driver Ross Gunn (GBR) recorded its second win of the season in North America’s premier endurance series, having been victorious on the streets of Long Beach back in April, this was the maiden win of the season for the #27 GTD crew of AMR Driver Academy winner Roman De Angelis (CDN), works driver Maxime Martin (BEL) and team principal Ian James (GBR). It was the first time that Vantage has recorded multiple class wins in a single IMSA event. It was also the first occasion that a GTD car had been classified as the first GT car home since the new GTD PRO class was introduced alongside GTD for 2022.
With a little more than 90 minutes left in the event, the race was red-flagged for an hour because of a nearby storm. When the cars got going again with 35 minutes to run, THoR’s alternative strategy played back into Gunn’s hands as one-by-one his rivals stopped for fuel, moving him up to second on the road. Further confusion caused by the red flag meant that several teams failed to ensure each driver completed his minimum driver time of one hour and 17 minutes. Once the resultant penalties were put into effect post-race, both Vantage crews were promoted to first in the standings. Such was the #27 GTD Vantage’s consistency and pace, it was classified as the top finishing GT car, ahead of several supposedly faster GTD PRO cars – including their own team-mates.
“We’ve always been strong at Watkins Glen,” said De Angelis, “and so we went into the race with a lot of confidence. We’ve had some bad luck this season, so I was thinking second place was a good result, and then we got bumped up to the win! The whole team deserves this, and we’ve worked as hard as we always do, sometimes for not a lot of reward, so this win feels good today!”
Gunn added: “Because we were out of sequence on strategy, we knew we didn’t have to worry about fuel at the restart. One of the things I love about this team is that we never give up, and we went for it in those last 30 minutes. When I finished the race, I thought we were fifth and then they told me on the radio that I had finished P2. When I got out of the car, they then told me we’d won – what a crazy day!”
THoR team principal and driver James added: “This has been very special for The Heart of Racing. To win both classes at a historically significant event like the 6 Hours of the Glen is no small achievement! It is a very proud moment for this still young team, and these results are a testament to the hard work of the crew, drivers and everyone that makes this possible!”
Huw Tasker, Head of AMR Partner Racing, said: “It’s been our aim to establish Vantage as a leading contender in IMSA’s primary GT classes with our partners The Heart of Racing and Magnus Racing in 2022, and this result is clear evidence of the car’s potential in the USA. There may have been some luck involved in today’s win, but the pace was there, as it has been all season, and these results are thoroughly deserved by everyone in the programme. Now we must ensure we carry the momentum and mount a title challenge in the second half of the season.”
Disappointment for the Aston runners in Michelin Pilot Challenge at Watkins Glen
The fifth round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge from Watkins Glen in upstate New York again didn’t disappoint in terms of excitement and intrigue, although this time the final excitement was sadly left to teams other than the three Aston Martin Racing runners.
Being run under high ambient temperatures and track temperatures even higher, it was to be a race blighted with technical and tyre related matters that stopped the Corsa Horizon, Volt Racing and Stoner Car Care with Automatic Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s off the winning steps, although some did come close despite these issues.
The opening news from race weekend was that of Pat Gallagher standing in for an absent Manny Franco aboard their #12 Corsa Horizon car, with Gallagher then placing that car highest of the three Aston’s after Qualifying in forth – reminiscent of his GT4 days with the RS1 Notlad Racing Aston Martin GT4 with Steven McAleer!! Alan Brynjolfsson then placed his #7 car a disappointing for him P11 whilst Ramin Abdolvahabi Qualified P24 in GS with his #09 Aston Martin.
Another fast and furious rolling start form Watkins Glen with a circuit that simply encouraged speed through its sweeping opening set of corners but with high track temperatures, that was always to come at a price.
Small early gains from the #7 and #09 cars were soon cancelled out by the first FCY after the #21 Toyota impacted heavily into the barrier having been battling the #09 of Abdolvahabi just moments before with that car electing to take service at the re-opening of the pits whilst the #21 and #7 passed the pit entry by on a strategic decision for both.
At the restart, a determined Brynjolfsson passed Gallagher for position, but it quickly became apparent that the #12 car was in trouble with what appeared to be another nearside puncture. Getting the car back to the pits, that would be the last we would see of the #12 car as that, and other engine related issues forced the Gallagher/Josh Hurley driven car into retirement.
Moments later, the #7 car would also get a nearside front puncture (about the fourth of fifth of the race so far) with still another quarter of an hour to go to the midway points of the two-hour race and which would cost the Volt crew the lead lap in limping back for repairs.
Luckily for them, the FCY’s just kept coming as debris and stranded vehicles forced race control to neutralise the race and allowing the #7 car to get the wave around back onto the lead lap. The #09 car meanwhile had found itself up in the top ten thanks to the sequence of the caution periods although that wasn’t their true running position at the time.
The end of the fourth FCY left just twenty minutes remaining for Trent Hindman to catch and pass the GS car ahead of him if he wanted a podium finish from his then P13 position on track. As the laps counted down, his position on track improved by time this time was not to be their friend as they crossed the line down in P6 overall at the end.
Not the finish or indeed the race they had hoped for but a decent points finish non the less having been leading the GS class coming into the event. The #09 Stoner Car Care car of Abdolvahabi and Rob Ecklin would finish P21 overall at the end, thanks in part to an intermittent power steering issue adding to further discomfort for the drivers inside an already hot cabin.
Their next round will be a relatively short trip north and across the Canadian border as IMSA revisits the Canadi an Tyre Motorsport Park for the first time since lockdown in 2019.
That’s another day – another race!!
Photo credits – Teams
R-Racings Miller and Day made British GT Championship history today with this mornings class win (UPDATED)
Having swapped from single seaters and tin tops over the winter, this fourth round was only their fifth and sixth GT4 race together, with a team from near Swaffham who had also bridged across from the TOCA package of Ginetta racing at the turn of the year.
The dynamics within the #23 R-Racing car was such as a class podium at the opening round to the season at Oulton Park was just s suggestion of where these two sixteen-year-olds could take this experience and Saturday’s front row and pole position to Sundays race 1 and race 2 starts respectively just backed that up as just more firsts for the team.
Under the watchful eye of driver coach Bradley Ellis, Miller took the start to this morning’s opening hour long race aboard the #23 car but slipped back to P4 in the opening ten minutes. Matt Topham meanwhile, was still battling thoughts of what the thought he didn’t have under his right foot to maintain his midway position during the opening minutes thanks to his poorer Qualifying performance of late the day before but at least their main rivals – the #42 Stellar Audi started race 1 from pit lane due to an issue arriving at the grid.
Running a staggered pit stop window for the GT3’ from the GT4’s, Topham was to pit at his first availability at the halfway mark as Miller carried on for another couple of laps before passing over to Day.
A recovering #42 Audi would get its elbows out going into turn one from Darren Turner as the Aston Martin factory driver edged Sennan Fielding towards the edge of the track but the Silver used the pit exit lane for extra width – whilst contact was made between the two, the #42 would move ahead of the #27 with just minutes remaining.
With the race looking like another victory from the Mustang ahead, an incomplete move from the Team Parker Racing Porsche GT4 going under the bridge and into Brundle saw contact between the two cars made and the Mustang spin out in effective retirement from the lead. That saw Day move immediately up to P2 and he would cross the finishing line behind the behind that car the Porsche would be served a 31 second time penalty in lieu of a drive through penalty for that contact lifting the #23 car into a P1 finishing position.
That result placed Miller and Day into the record books of the Championship as the youngest pairing ever to win a class together and was a result they richly deserved anyway. For Topham and Turner, their struggles during Qualifying and the race would be rewarded with a P3 overall finish in GT4 plus another PR0-Am class win.
With little or no damage to sort in-between races, for race 2 it was the turn of Day to take his first GT4 class pole position start with Turner’s #27 Newbridge car just a few places behind in sixth.
Like race one, the #23 was again slow up to speed with the new Pirelli tyres so it wasn’t long before others were pecking at the tailgate of Day for position. First the #42 Audi and then the #90 BMW passed Day as everything obviously wasn’t well aboard the #23 with Turner then the Toyota soon following suit to drop the pole sitter down to seventh, so it wasn’t a surprise to see the #23 car pit early for its mandatory stop plus 15 second silver cup penalty plus 15 second winners success penalty from earlier – so without being a mathematician, their race was already effective run!!
Looking like a P2 overall was on the cars, the Ford Mustang also showed another appearance to snatch P2 from Topham on the final lap as the tyres under the Aston Martin went from bad to worse but third overall and in front of the #42 Audi was still a good result for the Newbridge crew with another Pro-Am class win as well putting them in the joint overall lead with the #42 Audi crew.
R-Racing Aston Martin excel in Qualifying at British GT's visit to Snetterton
It was a good day today for the locally based R-Racing Aston Martin Racing customer team as their two young guns placed their car upon the front row ahead tomorrows two races of the British GT Championship at the Snetterton racetrack in Norfolk.
Having dialled in their #23 car during yesterday’s available private testing, drivers Josh Miller and Jamie Day proved themselves to be some of the fastest GT4 racers on track by the end of this morning’s two Free Practice sessions making themselves quietly confident going into the later Qualifying sessions.
On the other hand, the overall GT4 Drivers Championship chasing #27 Newbridge Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 pairing of Matt Topham and Darren Turner where a bit against the wall going into today’s officially timed sessions as their earlier engine replacement this week was proving itself to be ‘problematic’ with electrical component failings during both a pre-event shakedown test at Silverstone and yesterday’s private testing.
Despite the ever-present smile upon the face of Topham, there laid a few ‘concerns’ within regarding his ability to drive through these problem’s and make use of the skills and performances that he already had. Like another Am driver was heard to say, it was simply a case of boosting his confidence rather than anything else.
There were also other issues regarding a revised balance of performance for the AMR Vantage GT4 that saw a wight reduction for the #23 car but a lesser one for the #27 car thanks to the +25kg given to it prior to the last round at Donington Park.
With that all said, track conditions today at Snetterton were otherwise perfect for motor racing whichever side of the fence you were with an increasing afternoon wind slightly muting the ambient temperature without it becoming either too hot or too cool.
With this round being another double header, each Pro and Am driver conducted their own ten-minute Qualifying session to determine the starting order for each race. Miller started the ball rolling for the R-Racing team, bringing home a time worthy of a front row start in P2 behind the #61 Ford Mustang by just 0.1 of a second. Topham’s session aboard his #27 car would be with tyres he had early put a three-lap heat cycle through during FP2 in the hope that that would help him achieve an optimum performance. Whilst he would finish at the head of the Pro-Am class, he was only P11 overall making for a difficult start for him in tomorrow’s opener.
Then it was the turn of the Pro’s with Turner starting his session with brand new Pirelli’s but despite that, the deliverable performance from his GT4 was only worthy of another Pro-Am class pole position – this time in P6 overall.
The news of the day from Jamie Day and his Qualifying session that saw the modest youngster gain his first and his team’s first GT4 Pole position, beating the overall GT4 Championship leader (Sennan Fielding) by more over a quarter of a second. Pitting before the session actually came to an end, the team was unceremoniously reminded by pit lane officials of their need to move their car and driver up to Parc Ferme from where Day received his praise from the Championships TV crews.
All to play for tomorrow for both crews, as tomorrow’s first race comes early at 10:45 before the concluding race of round four of the Championship at 16:05.
Game on!!
Nine Astons due for third round of ADAC GT4 Germany from Zandvoort
Sporting an equally high number of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 runners as the FFSA GT4 Series this weekend will be the ADAC GT4 Germany Series as they travel to the Dutch coastal circuit of Zandvoort for their third round of the season.
Since the last round of the series from the Red Bull Ring about a month ago, we have since learned that the Team Speed Monkeys squad have now entered a pair of their own Aston Martins for the remainder of the season alongside those from the Dorr Motorsport, PROsport Racing and Racing One teams.
That takes the ADAC GT4 Germany AMR headcount to nine out of the provisional entry list of twenty-seven cars for this weekend’s two races.
Last time out proved to be successful for many of the AMR runners with the #48 PROsport car of Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Christopher Rohner securing a pair of P3 finishes in their Trophy Class, whilst the #7 Dorr car of Ben Dorr and Romain Leroux secured a Junior Class win in race 1 whilst the #69 Dorr car of Phil Dorr and Indy Dontjie and the #6 Racing One car of Tom Wood and Euan McKay secured P2 and P3 respectively in race 2.
Those results have Dontjie and P Dorr holding the overall lead by nine points over last season’s champions with both Wood/McKay and B Dorr/Leroux a bit further back in P3 and P4 whilst in the Junior Class, B Dorr and Leroux lie in second but some fourteen points behind. The Dorr Motorsport team also lead the Team’s Championship battle by twenty-nine points.
Mike David-Ortmann and Hugo Sasse complete the PROsport Racing line up with Nico Hantke/Simon Connor Primm and Sandro and Juliano Holzem complete the Dorr Motorsport quartet.
Newcomers, Team Speed Monkeys see Paul Aurel-Konig finally swap over from his Porsche entry to partner Konstantin Lachenauer aboard their #99 car whilst Jacob Riegel partners fellow DTM Trophy racer Marc de Fulgencio aboard their #63 car.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 / Teams
Next stop Snetterton 300 for the British GT AMR runners this weekend
Only the end of June but already we are at the midway point of the 2022 British GT Championship as the crews arrive at Snetterton today to set up in time for this weekend’s double dose of sprint races.
Already having raced four times at the previous rounds at Oulton Park, Silverstone and most recently Donington Park, the two Aston Martin Racing powered Vantage GT4 crews from both the Newbridge Motorsport and R-Racing teams have been doing us and indeed themselves proud so far in their respective Pro-Am and Silver Cup classes.
The #27 Newbridge car of reigning British GT GT4 Pro-Am Champions Matt Topham and Darren Turner are not only smashing their Pro-Am class at the moment with a 17.5-point lead over the Team Brit McLaren crew but also lie second in the overall GT4 class battle, just four points behind the #42 Stellar Motorsport Audi of Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding after the points adjustment made after the Oulton Park opener. The GT4 overall crown still lies firmly within their sights.
Then we have the new to GT racing pair of Josh Miller and Jamie Day and their #23 R-Racing AMR Vantage GT4 entry competing for the first time (both drivers and team) within the ultra-competitive Silver Cup class. Results to date see these youngsters sit fifth in their respective championship table, thirty-two points behind the leading #42 Stellar Motorsport Audi again and in sixth within the overall GT4 Drivers Championship after a great start to the season from Oulton Park before some disappointment at the Silverstone 500.
For R-Racing, this weekends round from Snetterton will be a local one being based just outside of Norwich but again their resources will be split between this and their other BTCC commitments this weekend.
Both teams have been testing since the Donington round at the end of May and the Newbridge car will arrive in Norfolk with the benefit of a fresh V8, turbo powered engine under its bonnet and both crews will this time be unaffected by pit stop success penalties like the #27 car was at Donington.
This round will be another of two one-hour sprint races on Sunday so after private testing on Friday, Saturday will see the first of the officially timed Free Practice sessions before individual Qualifying sessions in the afternoon to determine the starting order for each race amongst the thirty GT3 and GT4 cars scheduled to attend.
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey / Teams
