A fine quartet at the Gulf 12Hours
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
After weeks of hectic work back at the Prodrive factory, the first three customer Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's finally made it to their destination at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi for this weekends Gulf 12Hours.
Still not fully homologated for the 2019 season, the three customer cars from Beechdean AMR, Oman Racing with TF Sport and R-Motorsport experienced their first track mileage today after a brief systems check back in the UK last week with their respective drivers putting their new chargers through their early shakedown and familiarisation stints ahead of the more formal sessions tomorrow.
These three new GT3 cars will also joined by their also yet to be homologated V8 Vantage GT4 that is being run by the factory team.
In the Pro class - the #97 Oman Racing by TF Sport car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Darren Turner and Jonny Adam were first out the garage in its familiar beautifully liveried blue, white and gold colour scheme.
Joining them in the Pro class will be the #96 R-Motorsport entry for their regular drivers Jake Dennis and Marvin Kirchhofer being this time joined by AMR debutant Ricky Collard in that teams familiar svelte grey and blue livery.
Next up we have the #98 car of Beechdean AMR who will be competing in the Pro-Am class with their four driver line up of Andrew Howard, Ross Gunn, Chris Dyson and local driver Humaid al Masaood. The adaption to the teams 'normal' blue and white livery is we understand specific only to this event but certainly looks very striking in the desert sun.
Indeed Wilmott was centre of attention on the British GT front today, being announced as co driver to reigning British GT GT4 and China GT GT4 champion Jack Mitchell aboard a Century Motorsport BMW M3 GT3.
Friday sees the remaining two Free Practice sessions ahead of the Qualifying runs later in the evening. Saturday's 12 hour race is split into two sessions with a 2 3/4 Hr break between.
The race can be viewed live via the series Youtube channel HERE
How these new AMR GT3 cars run at the race will be particularly of interest as they will be directly competing against latest racing examples from the McLaren and Audi stables.
Photo credits - AMR / R-Motorsport / TF Sport
