Three more down - just two more races to go to see out 2021 for TF Sport

Monday, October 25, 2021

TF Sport brought their European racing commitments to an end at the weekend as their two sets of clients completed their respective final rounds of the International GT Open Series and the European Le Mans Series but with the team split between up to three locations worldwide!

Whilst Michael Dinan and Robby Foley raced out their two last two races of their partnership with one of the team’s Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s at the Gt Open finale from the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in Spain, drivers John Hartshorne, Ollie Hancock and Ross Gunn were all at Portimao for the final round of the ELMS in the team’s AMR Vantage GTE.

Whereas Dinan and Foley were there for experience of both the European circuits visited by the series and the differences between the AMR Vantage GT3 and Ferrari 488 GT3 having now raced both with different teams this year, Hartshorne at al where there to see out their full season of running in their series in Portugal.

Having already seen out five prior races in the season as well as a racing visit to Le Mans during August for the 24Hr itself, the #95 crew finished off the final four race of the season in style with their best finish to date as well as having claimed another Class pole position beforehand courtesy of AMR factory driver Gunn.

Finishing the incident filled race eventually P7 in class (having had to serve an unwanted drive through penalty for track limits from P6), the race saw out Hartshorne’s ‘means to an end’ season as having started the year with the team in the Asian Le Mans Series, his application to the ACO to make a racing return to the 24Hours of Le Mans was later accepted and their participation in the ELMS used to hone that cause. Just where or if Harthorne does anymore racing with the team (or AMR at large) over the winter/next season is yet to be seen as with Dinan.

For the American duo in Spain, there was sadly to be no repeat of the success from their own series debut at Spa Francorchamps earlier in the year as again (like seen previously in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance finale there), the performance of the Aston Martin GT3 around the Catalunya circuit is not where the car wants/needs to be at and they were left with initially a P6 and a P7 finishes in their Pro Class for their efforts. That was however to change post-race as their race two result was to be penalised with an additional three seconds for causing a collision and that would drop them down to P9 overall.

Another weekend done and another two series done and dusted again for the year. For the team, they have the logistical problem of two remaining rounds of the World Endurance Championship that starts in Bahrain this weekend with the second and final round of that season just a week later!!