Something for the weekend

Just as we count down from the middle of the week and towards the weekend, here's just a quick look of all the news that we have heard from the world of #TeamAMR just as the North American, European and UK racing scenes look like getting back on track (literally) following the enforced COVID-19 lockdown.

Over at the Virginia International Raceway on the eastern side of the USA, we have the SRO's GT4 America Series reconvene for their now second round of their 2020 season having completed the opening round over at CoTA in mid March only to be stopped in their tracks at St Petersburg just a week later.


As previously posted HERE, four Aston Martin Racing customer teams take their new V8 Vantage GT4 hardware over to one of the most picturesque circuits in North America to do battle within the Sprint and Sprint X races over both Saturday and Sunday. The only downfall here is that race fans are NOT permitted entry into the circuit for the event as part of the SRO's on-going CV-19 preventative measures.


This week we have also seen confirmation from the SRO in regards to their full season entries into this years GT World Challenge Europe Series (nee Blancpain GT Series) and their Sprint and Endurance programmes that start at Imola with the Endurance Cup in just over a weeks time.


With this weeks sad news that Swiss based R-Motorsport confirming their immediate withdrawal from all of their previous race intentions for what's left of 2020 leaves just the British based Garage 59 team to 'fly the flag' within the headline GT3 European series with another two car effort in both Pro-Am and Silver Cup classes of the Endurance Cup.

We understand that the driver crews for these cars will be officially confirmed next week.


That news from Switzerland also impacts upon the supporting GT4 European Series with the withdrawal of the Vantage GT4 effort in that series with only one AMR team so far confirming any entries into that series in the form of French team AGS Events Racing (see HERE). Although confirmed by the team nearly two weeks ago, this news has only just been ratified by the series as officially complete in their announcement today.


Also missing from the series are the two potential entries from Maxime Martin's new MRT Racing Team as the Belgian AMR factory driver defers his new dream until next year at the earliest as a direct result of the CV-19 global situation.

Next up we see the Nurburgring Langstrecken Series race a double-header weekend from the Nordschleife as the German series crams in as many rounds as possible between the opening round last weekend and the end of their revised season in mid November (weather permitting of course).


Entered again into round 2 is the PROsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Guido Dumarey and Alex Walker, again racing in the SP10 class for SRO GT4 homologated cars. They raced the first round with Nico Verdonck before a puncture mid lap ruined a good inaugural GT4 outing for the PROsport customer drivers. The same pair is also entered into VLN 3.


Finally (race wise anyway), and more local to us at least, we have the opening rounds of the UK's GT Cup Championship from the Snetterton racetrack in Norfolk where Chris Murphy's Whitebridge Motorsport team again enters two older 2016 iteration Vantage GT4 into the GTH class for himself and new customer driver Steve Birt. This domestic championship was due to have the return of the Optimum prepared 2019 Vantage GT4 for drivers David Holloway/Piers Johnson but that deal sadly fell by the wayside over the winter months.


Last but certainly by no means least we will have the #98 AMR European Le Mans Series Vantage GTE take a quick shakedown test tomorrow before it heads down to the Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France ready for next weeks ELMS Official Test and the first round of that Series for drivers Paul Dalla Lana, Ross Gunn and Mathias Lauda.

Photo credits - Garage 59 / GT4 America / GTWCE / R-Motorsport / VLN / FFSA GT4