Whilst one AMR GT3 succeeds others are blighted in their quests

Beyond the D’Station Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 that raced at Suzuka and won both the race and the GT3 championship at the weekend, there were also two further AMR Vantage GT3’s competing – one at Watkins Glen and another at Hockenheim.

Amongst the frivolities that were being enjoyed by the AMR runners in both the GT4 America and GT America Series was the Ian Lacey prepared AMR Vantage GT3 that competes within the GT World Challenge America Series for drivers Frank Gannett and Drew Staveley.

Last time out in their car at Road America at the end of August and still in only their fourth meeting with their new car, the Pro-Am pairing secured their best finishes to date with a P12 overall/P8 in class in race one and then a P8 overall/P4 in class in the second and were hoping for some more of the same at the upstate New York circuit.

Race 1 on Saturday would turn out to be their one and only result of the weekend with a P9 overall/P5 class finish as a technical issue on the car leading up to the pit stop of Sunday’s second race forced Staveley to pit. Despite the best of efforts from the team, an easy fix to what transpired to be a sensor fault within the engine compartment was not possible within the time constraints of the race and forced the #12 car to retire after a good run up until the problem was first encountered.

The next round for these guys will at Sebring at the start of October

The other AMR Vantage GT3 was a debut race for the Doer Motorsport team with the car within the final round of the German DMV-GTC Series from Hockenheim.

Feature a driver pairing of Dino Steiner, an ‘old hand’ at GT racing alongside Phil Dorr who presently races an AMR Vantage GT4 within the ADAC GT4 Germany Series but who have raced together in a McLaren 720S within the series, this race would be the drivers and teams first racing experience of the new Vantage GT3.

Recently sourced from the PROsport Racing team after that teams initial introduction with it in the ADAC GT Masters Series two years ago, last weekend’s race format would be a 60-minute pit stop punctuated race as well as two solo drivers 30-minute sprints.

Despite Qualifying P6 for the Goodyear 60 on Saturday, technical issues took the car out of the race around the halfway mark whilst the two shorter, sprint races on Sunday gave the team scant reward of P10 and P11 finishes for Steiner and Dorr respectively.

Next year will see just where the team will be going with this recent acquisition of theirs.

Photo credits – GTWCA / Team / CSJ Motorsport / F Lagunas / DMV-GTC