Scattered success for the Aston Martin FFSA GT4 entries at Albi
Monday, June 27, 2022
The third round of the French FFSA GT4 Series from Albi also concluded yesterday after another two action packed races for what was scheduled to be from ten Aston Martin powered teams thanks to two further Vantage GT4 entries from the GPA Racing team.
However, for the #89 AGS Events Racing crew of Loris Cabirou and Nicolas Gomar were sadly unable to participate within the weekends two one-hour races after Cabirou suffered an accident during Qualifying that left him inverted upside down inside his car having impacted into the tyre wall and returned to the racing line.
Thanks to a selfless act of fellow GT4 racer Michael Blanchemain who protected the stricken Aston by parking his Audi in harm’s way from the oncoming traffic, Cabirou was able to free himself from his car and to a place of safety without further event, but their car was unracable from that point on.
Another great early display of consistency from the #72 GPA Racing crew of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud saw them claim another Am Class pole position for Saturdays race 1 which they duly converted to another podium with a P3 finish at the end.
The #13 Mirage Racing AMR of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romano Ricci also fared well in race one starting from third in their Pro-Am Class to eventually finish second at the end.
The two new GPA Racing entries of #48 Didier Sirgue and Gilles Colombani and renumbered #8 David Pouget and Matthieu Casalonga each did well in their debut races together with the #48 Qualifying P12 in Am Class before finishing eighth in class whilst the #8 Am class car started from 17th in class to finish twelfth. They returned similar placements for Sundays race which equated to a great opening day for the extended GPA Racing team.
Sundays race was not quite as productive for the AMR runners as the #72 GPA crew proved that they were indeed human by failing to finish whilst the #161 AGS Events Am car of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere returned to class winning ways with a P2 finish just ahead of their #79 AGS teammates Stephane Desbrosse and Lauris Nauroy in third.
The next round of the season takes the expected forty runners to Spa Francorchamps in Belgium for the start of the SRO’s annual Speed Week.
Photo credits – FFA GT4
