Double success for the Aston Martin entries in British GT's Pro-Am class

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Having made the heinous ‘crime’ of missing the latest round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone at the weekend, we best pull our sorry little backsides up and at least report on what the results were for the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entries.

Yes, joining the full season entries of both Matt Topham and Darren Turner at Newbridge Motorsport and Josh Miller and Jamie Day at R-Racing was the return (for a one-off entry this season as far as we have been told) for the Century Motorsport AMR of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis.

With the two – one hour sprint races opening the season again over Easter weekend, had the #27 Newbridge Pro-Am entry enjoy a fantastic start to the season there with their first in Pro-Am win and then an overall GT4 class win that weekend.

That was added to by a debut podium for the R-Racing Silver Cup drivers during race 1 and a P5 in class to see out their first ever GT4 race together so confidence was high going into Silverstone for what was to be a completely different beast with a three-hour endurance race at the #Silverstone500.

Early pace for the two full season entries looked good over the two Free Practice sessions with the #23 R-Racing car second quickest in class over the two sessions with the #27 Newbridge car first in their class with the #21 Century car not too much further behind in third in GT4 Pro-Am.

With just a single race ahead, Qualifying was again determined by the aggregated time of both drivers to set the grid with Miller and Day again setting the fastest time of the Aston Martin powered teams to claim P3 overall in class with the Newbridge car starting P6 in GT4 and the Century car P11 (P1 and P2 respectively in Pro-Am).

Having only seen something of a tardy start for some of the GT3 runners up ahead, all three Astons would make it through the opening laps unscathed although each would encounter their own problems along the way over the course of this three-hour race.

For Topham and Turner, Silverstone would conclude in another overall GT4 class win, beating the otherwise speedy Stellar Motorsport Audi R8 GT4 of Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams by over thirty seconds by the fall of the chequered flag with the Century car of Holloway and Ellis coming home in P22 overall but P2 in GT4 Pro-Am whilst the R-Racing youngsters would come back just one position further back but a further lap down in P23 overall and P7 in class

With the official results of race 2 from Oulton Park still under appeal, no Championship points standings have yet been confirmed by the Championship until that process and subsequent success penalty levies applied to the Silverstone result is at an end.