A successful start to their GT Cup Championship campaigns for AMR Vantage GT4 teams
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Where we first thought that we would have three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s competing within that grid, we in fact ended up with four AMR’s after the Deranged Motorsport Team switched to the AMR GT4 platform having been first linked to a Bentley GT3 entry over the winter. Their 2019 Vantage GT4 joined those from Feathers Motorsport and Century Motorsport as well as the 2016 iteration run by the Whitebridge team.
Racing over both Saturday and Sunday, each day would see the Gentleman driver take on a solo 25-minute Sprint race in the morning before using their fastest laps to set the grid for the days fifty-minute pit stop punctuated race for them and their ‘Pro’ drivers.
The #52 Deranged squad of Matt Lewis and Oli Brown were certainly the fastest of the new AMR GT4 on Saturday taking a Class Pole to flag win in the Sprint race before missing out on a potential class win in the later endurance race by getting a 5 second penalty for passing under an earlier Safety Car.
The #52 Deranged squad of Matt Lewis and Oli Brown were certainly the fastest of the new AMR GT4 on Saturday taking a Class Pole to flag win in the Sprint race before missing out on a potential class win in the later endurance race by getting a 5 second penalty for passing under an earlier Safety Car.
The Feathers AMR of James Guess was equally racy over the weekend as they followed the Deranged car home in P2 in Saturday’s Sprint race as well as claiming a Class win in Sunday’s Sprint race after the retirement of the #52 Deranged car after mechanical issues in Sunday mornings Sprint and subsequent withdrawal from the weekends final race.
The Century Motorsport prepared AMR for David Holloway reacted well to the loss of Adam Hatfield even before the start of the race weekend as he was called away from the circuit, but his slot was soon taken by the team’s ‘resident’ driver coach Bradley Ellis. Holloway and Ellis would come close to securing their first AMR derived podium in GT Cup by finishing just off the podium in P4 in Saturdays endurance race.
Whilst the three new AMR Vantages were racing in the GTH Class, the #72 Whitebridge Motorsport car of Chris Murphy would be competing in the GTB class for older production-based car’s and he would have a good weekend with a podium finish in class both on Saturday and Sunday.
Moving in Sunday’s finale, another Safety Car interrupted race saw the #82 Feathers car of Guess and Darren Turner take another podium for their efforts this weekend by taking a class win with Holloway and Ellis rounding off the podium in P3. Leaving Donington, the #82 Feather car leads the GTH Class Championship by nine points.
The collective seven podium finishes was just icing on the cake after another entertaining weekend of racing that now moves on to Brands Hatch at the start of May.
Photo credits – GT Cup / Feathers / Century
