SRO series back in business in Europe

Three of the SRO's family of GT Series and Championships get back underway this weekend and next after the long COVID-19 related lockdown with the GT World Challenge Europe and the GT4 European Series again sharing the opening fixture over at what was a very wet Imola circuit this morning and with the British GT Championship also getting underway at hopefully a very Oulton Park next weekend.

Across all through three series, there has been a distinct CV-10 related casualty rate as teams have either decided to wait until more financially secure times or lost out on customer programmes that had previously been secured.


Fortunately, all three series have still come away with numbers that will again make for a highly competitive season that they have become known for although in terms of Aston Martin Racing customer and Partner teams - numbers are dramatically down on 2019.

Starting in Italy, we have the UK based Garage 59 team being the sole AMR representatives after the earlier withdrawal of the Swiss based R-Motorsport team. They are fielding two AMR Vantage GT3 cars in both the Pro-Am and Silver Cup classes featuring driver line ups of Jonny Adam, Chris Goodwin and Alex West aboard the #188 Pro-Am car and (for this race) Andrew Watson and Valentin Hasse-Clot in the #159 Silver Cup entered car respectively.


That car was to have a third driver along side them but despite having tested various interested parties along the way, nobody has yet been confirmed so for this event, they race as a pair.

Track preparations within the GTWCE start today with Private Testing and before Free Practice and Qualifying tomorrow ahead of their opening three hour race on Sunday.


Joining them in the paddock is again the GT4 European Series for which we have just the (new to AMR) AGS Events Racing team with their two new AMR Vantage GT4's for their entries into the Am and Silver Cup classes for Nicolas Gomer/Giles Vannelet and Theo Nouet and a double stinting Valentine Hasse-Clot respectively again.

This team steps up to the European Series having won the Am title in the French FFSA GT4 Championship last year within which they are also defending their crown with up to four AMR Vantage GT4's during 2020.


Running a different programme to the bigger GT3 cars, the GT4 European Series started their track action yesterday with Private Testing before Free Practice sessions today with Qualifying 1 and Race 1 tomorrow and same again on Sunday. Each race is an hour long.

Rounding off the SRO related news, saw the Beechdean AMR team finally confirm yesterday their now reduced British GT Championship programme with now just one AMR Vantage GT3 for selected rounds only instead of the two - Pro-Am and Silver Cup entries.


Whilst we knew that this news was coming after Hasse-clot confirmed his re-aligned GT World Challenge/GT4 European commitments several weeks ago, it is always hard to stomach news of any reduction in racing programmes for any AMR team such as Beechdean and indeed TF Sport from whom we had heard from earlier.

Now only competing at Brands Hatch, Snetterton and Silverstone, team boss Andrew Howard will again be paired with Hasse-Clot at both the Snetterton and Silverstone rounds with the Brands Hatch co-driver yet to be confirmed.


For AMR fans within the British GT Championship, this news leaves just the two Vantage GT4's from TF Sport as full season entries this year.

Difficult times are well upon everyone within the motorsport arenas and it is down to us to help support them where we can!!

Photo credit - GTWCE / GT4 European