AMR ready to repeat previous successes in Shanghai

Thursday, November 07, 2019

It's back to business for both Aston Martin Racing and Partner team, TF Sport as they both seek to continue their fantastic run of form in Season 8 of the World Endurance Championship over in Shanghai, China as track action begins early tomorrow.

The last round of the Championship proved fruitful for the V8 Vantage GTE crews with an overall first and third in GTE Pro for both the #95 and #97 and a Pole and win in GTE Am for the #90 TF Sport crew after the 6hrs of Fuji so there is still lots of room on those infamous steps for the #98 GTE Am car after their disappointments in Japan.

Shanghai brings lots of good memories back to the factory team as last years race bore the fruits of their labours with their first overall class win for the new turbo charged Vantage GTE in the hands of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen after their first class pole position at the previous round in Japan.

That success has however brought change upon the four AMR's with a slight reduction (1 litre) in fuel capacity for the two GTE Pro cars as part of the WEC's 'Auto-BoP' process as well as a weight increase and fuel capacity reduction (1 litre) for the TF Sport car as part of the GTE Am Class 'success penalty' process. The #98 car of Paul Dalla Lana, Darren Turner and Ross Gunn do not have the weight increase due but do have the same fuel reduction to their lowly finish in Fuji that came about after heavy contact on the opening lap with a Dempsey Proton Porsche. This is the first time the same chassis competing in the same class has been run on a split BoP but will certainly add to the dimension and excitement of the ultra competitive class of twelve cars.

The weather for Shanghai is at present looking encouragingly dry with many AMR drivers publicly claiming outright optimism for the strengths of the Vantage GTE around the 5.4km Shanghai International Circuit.

Ross Gunn has the most recent racing experience of the circuit having raced there only last month in the final round of the China GT Championship with AMR Partner team BSEM and will race there again later this month in the opening round of the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series with AMR Partner team D'Station Racing AMR.

Gunn and Maxime Martin have also just completed a two day Michelin Tyre Test after the final round of the Le Mans Cup Series over at Portimao in Portugal having borrowed a converted Beechdean AMR GT3 for the process so hopefully the team will have already experienced the differences in performances that these changes in BoP will present.

For TF Sport, they have had a busy couple of weeks with testing at Snetterton with their GT3 and GT4 cars with both prospective new drivers and as a 'reward' for those who secured top flight accolades in the British GT Championship before moving on last week to the FIA Motorsport Games in Italy where Salih Yoluc unsuccessfully defended his former Nations Cup crown in the GT Cup class.

In other news, its is very much congratulations to Nicki Thiim and his 'significant other half' for announcement an expected addition to #TeamThiim sometime soon!

After a four race at the opening round at Silverstone and a six hour winning streak next time out in fuji, this third round will again be a four hour race before the Championship goes on to see 2019 out in Bahrain in mid December.