Garage 59 learn about the competitive nature of the GTWCE Sprint Series

Sunday, May 09, 2021

If the FFSA GT4 Series was a weekend of two halves, it was certainly a similar situation in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Series as they undertook their first racing activity of the season at Magny-Cours in central France.

With British based Garage 59 team stepping up to the plate in Sprint for the first time with their two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 that would compete in both the Pro-Am with Alex West and Jonny Adam and in Silver Cup with team newcomers Nicolai Kjaergaard and Tuomas Tujula, it would be something of a learning curve for all in the team at this opening event.

Having tested at the circuit during pre-season testing it was great to see Gentleman driver West secure class pole ahead of Saturdays opening night -time race around the former French F1 circuit for the twenty-seven entries.

“Difficult” was what West was expecting it to be but with “not many Pro-Am entries, it would be interesting” he commented before the race as the opening race would be conducted around a circuit mostly not illuminated.

With both cars dropping slightly from their earlier starting positions, all would have to wait for the pit window to open as another car was removed from a darkened gravel trap Having pitted from P2 in class, Adam would eventually claim a P3 finish in the Pro-Am class whilst the #159 would struggle in Silver Cup to eventually finish just one place ahead of their starting position in P6.

For Sundays second race, it would be Adam who would place the #188 car on Pro-Am pole with the #159 car again starting from P7 with Kjaergaard.

In another highly competitive race, Adam would call upon all his wit and intuition to take the necessary avoiding action to avoid certain contact with another car after just twenty minutes. This time the #159 car pitted early but Adam would understandably stay out for as long as possible before a Full Course Yellow for a stranded car slowed things down.

On the restart, West would lose out to the Barwell Lamborghini to drop down to P2 in class before another FCY period, this time involving the luckless #159 Garage 59 AMR being taken out by the #89 Mercedes presented the opportunity for more experienced racers to pass West by again on the restart with then just ten minutes remaining.

By the end of the second one-hour race of the opening GTWCE Sprint weekend, the #188 car had dropped to P4 in class but at least came away with experience of the Sprint Series and a P3 class trophy for their efforts.