Having competed last time out around the temple of Speed of Monza, this weekend’s double header will again feature another speed circuit with eleven Aston Martin Racing powered crews again competing across the three available classes but with some notable changes between them from that of last time.

Monza’s pair of opening races was a chaotic as this grid sizes would suggest with glimpses of possibilities being shown from within Mirage Racing’s three entries but with the only silverware success coming from the #72 GPA Racing Am pairing of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud who secures a brace of P3 finishes in class for their efforts.

Fourteen Aston Martin’s entered that opening round and from this week’s entry list, its confirms the omission of the #27 Newbridge AMR of Alex Denning and Matt Topham following their race 1 sustained damage that put them out of the event as well as the loss of #68 AGS Events Racing car Romano Ricca and Julien Lambert for an unknown reason.

Another entry has however been duplicated again but this time with another team as brother/sister combo Andreas and Jessica Bachmann return to the series with the Racing One team having raced at Monza as a supposed ‘one-off’ pre-season entry with the Prosport Racing team that they now compete with within the ADAC GT4 Germany Series.

That has now been confirmed as a dual 2023 programme for both Andreas and Jessica Bachmann, using Racing One AMR with the European Series and PROsport Racing within the German one.

The Mirage Racing entry for Rory Van Der Steur and Emil Heyerdahl is also missing but we know that the American is already on racing duty this weekend with the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Series around the new street circuit of Detroit.

The final change has occurred within the #48 GPA Racing crew where Bailey Voisin is now being listed as being paired with British GT R-Racing AMR Vantage GT4 racer Josh Miller. The reason for the swap from the listed Kajus Siksnelis is again unclear.

That still leaves nine crews still unaffected by change and that includes the #5 Mirage of Ruben Del Sarte/Jamie Day; the #7 Mirage Racing of Louis Meric/Romain Carton; #18 Team Spirit Racing of Lorenz Stegmann and Marcus Lungstrass; #24 JSB Competition of father son combo Florian/Julien Briche; #26 and #74 Racing Spirit of Leman cars of Akhil Rabindra/Rodrique Gillion and Victor Weyrich/ Konstantin Lachenaur respectively; #72 GPA Racing of Jimenez/Grizaud as well as the #89 and #98 AGS Event Racing cars of Mike Parisy/Nicolas Gomas and Timothe Buret and Vincent Bouteiller.

Each one-hour race is again viewable via the series social media channels starting at 14:55hrs local on Saturday and at 11:35hrs local on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

That leaves the GS class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series the opportunity to run their first street circuit layout for the first time since 2010 in their place as twenty-two similar powered and crewed cars have signed up to dop so this weekend within what will also be a slightly shortened race event to what their normally used to.

“Jeff isn’t the first, nor the last driver to crash a race car at Eau Rouge,” stated team manager Steffan Pattrick. “We have had the time to build up the second chassis ahead of the first official running this week and we’re keen to hit the ground running.

“We weren’t the quickest at Monza, but we know the reason behind this and hope we get a little boost in performance this week at Paul Ricard, a circuit where the straights are as important as at Monza for overall lap time. We look forward to this event and believe that we’ll be working our way towards the sharp end of the Silver Cup field.”

The six-hour race will see 57 cars take the start across five different classes with the action taking place from Friday at 14:35 local time. 

To help celebrate these facts, the three Aston Martin Racing powered entries presently competing as full season entries within the WEC will see two further stablemate entries compete around the Circuit de La Sarthe for that rare but lucrative honour.

This week has seen multiple lorry loads of equipment leave the Prodrive factory in the UK, destined for the circuit as well as one of these strictly invitational entries announce a very French, very Le Mans livery to go with their TF Sport prepared entry.

Also, out of the factory has come a repaired chassis for the GMB Motorsport invitational entry after their heavy impact during the opening round of the European Le Mans Series at the end of April.

Overseas, and the Japanese based D’Station Racing team have been busy mentoring both their own domestic racers at the recent Fuji 24 but also teaching their new recruits into the ways of 24-hour racing, both on track as an additional teaching aid but also in the cloud via the teams new sim facilities.

Going into this weekend’s Official Test Day will see all sixty-two scheduled entries partake within the now traditional Le Pesage or scrutineering process within full public view within the Place de Le Republique where cars and indeed drivers and team personalities are open to public scrutiny and conversation.

With that process extending into both Friday and Saturday, that evening will also see the official ‘launch’ of the 100 Year Anniversary Race Week before the first of two test sessions around the full 13.2km circuit where all rookie drivers must complete 10 laps apiece as well as getting some ‘housework’ in order being the start of race week proper.

For some, this will be just another exciting visit to Le Mans whilst many of those within the AMR ranks, this will all be for the first time or first time within the main event with more detail published as we get near to each significant occasion within the timetable.

For ourselves, we will not be at the circuit this year, but we have (hopefully) secured the use of someone else’s photographic material who going from next week.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

 

 

Despite being one of only two cars entered within the ST-1 class, like all twenty-four-hour races, to finish upon the podium – first you must finish, and that is precisely what the #47 AMR Vantage GT8R crew. Increasing the cars usual line up to include the team’s younger World Endurance Championship silver ranked Vantage GTE driver in Casper Stevenson helped give that young man crucial 24-hour experience going into the next two weeks and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so that was a good job well done all round on that front.

At Spa Francorchamps, we had the now annual endurance round of the GT Open Series with the Street Art Racing team fielding another adjusted line up within their AMR Vantage GT3. Partnering Pascal Bachman this time around was South African racer Xolile Letlaka racing the iconic Belgian circuit for the first time and ahead of what is hoped to be further selected rounds within the series with his own Aston Martin that some within the Street Art team already help to run.

Two bronze ranked drivers racing together for the first time was never going to set the world on fire but try and finish they did to finish P28 overall and P8 in class by the end of that two hour and twenty-minute race.

At Oulton Park, the Venture Innovations Aston Martin Vulcan of Gleb Stepanov and Stephen Tomkins as well as the MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and (this time) Dan Brown were both at to compete within Saturdays third round of the British Endurance Champiosnhip.

Under similar weather conditions to that of the British GT Championship a little bit further down the road at Donington saw the #6 Vulcan come back from its bruising encounter last time out at Brands Hatch not only to race again with a completely different livery but also to secure an overall P2 finish around one of the tightest circuits they will race at this season. 

They result was almost followed up by the MKH Racing team but the best that they could do by the end of that three-hour race was P3 in class.

Then finally from Miami, where the three TLM Racing entered AMR Vantage GT4 cars were enjoying themselves at the Memorial 300 round of the FARA USA Series.

Whilst we has the #172 car of Jim Hamman and the #888 of Brian O’Shaunessy, it was the #453 Ruckus Racing entry of Scott Blind who did the best claiming a P3 finish in Sprint 2, a P1 finish within Sprint 3 before also winning the class in the two-hour Enduro to round the weekend off in a winning way.

That was last weekend – we go again this weekend!!

Photo credits – Teams / Series

Having started last for race 1 and then retired before the pit window, at least newcomer to the team Surzyshyn was able to Qualify and this time race a car for Sunday’s second hour long affair although their outcome may not have felt worth the cost with a P24 finish.

It was a similar vein of disappointment for the Bachmann’s aboard their #19 car after having ran so well within the first half of race 1 only to be forced out with technical issues of their own at the end and that sadly continued into race 2 with another DNF for their efforts.

The sole Doer Motorsport Vantage GT4 crew of Ben Dorr and Theo Nouet who were also changed back into ‘civies’ before they should have after technical issues during Sunday’s Q2 session forced them to stop with little time remaining to fix that issue in time to take the start.

The sole item of good news came from the Prosport Racing #1 car of Hugo Sasse and Mike David-Ortmann who took their own disappointment of a lap 1 exit in race 1 to claim their first win of the season having started from third on the grid.

With the first round now securely under their belts, hopefully the second round from Zandvoort at the end of June will run more beneficially for the five crews – fingers crossed.

Photo credits - ADAC

That, however, wasn’t quite the same situation further down pit lane within the R-Racing team garage where young drivers Josh Miller and Seb Hopkins were still trying to rekindle the pace that both enjoyed between them but had so far eluded in this first season together. In terms of their Overall and Silver Cup class aspirations, significant points would be needed to make up for their shortfalls at both the Oulton Park opener and the last round at the Silverstone 500. Their P6 Qualifying position looked like that might be an ideal place from where to start.

Not quite the sunny day of the yesterday, the early afternoon start would see the now thirty-three strong grid got off to a clean start with the pole setting #78 Barwell Lamborghini leading the way for at least the opening couple of laps as a charging Howard was soon up to second and then up to first within the first handful of laps.

Seeing Hopkins leading the R-Racing crew this time around, his approach was more conservative – either by choice or by reality as he only improved by one in the opening minutes as the leading two McLaren’s and Ginetta showed a clean pair of heels.

Gapping both the #78 Lamborghini and the #4 Mercedes behind, Howard appeared to be totally in control of the situation, but his situation would slowly reduce as the field became more spread out and traffic became more of a constant issue and by the time his stint was coming to an end, the gap was as little as 1.2 seconds.

What happened next affected the Beechdean race plan as an untimely Safety Car period immediately before the GT3 pit window and during the midst of the GT4 class pit window somehow strew people strategies and game plans up into the air.

A stationary Ford Mustang within the bay before the Beechdean garage was refusing to restart and forced Howard to miss his own pit box as a consequence, forcing the crew to push the car back to allow the refuelling hose and wheel guns to reach. Small team errors again during the pits stop, including pointers that caused raised voices during their earlier practices lost them time before issues with the driver net lost them even more – an 11 second loss would be stated by Howard after the event!!

Whilst the #23 crew were still having performance problems of their own having dropped to P8 in class after their stop, the #97 car had entered in the lead but came out in fourth behind that of the #4 2 Seas Mercedes, #13 Race Lab McLaren and the second #1 2 Seas Mercedes with the continued presence of the Safety Car reducing the remainder of their supposed hour-long stint to just over twenty-five minutes.

Try as he did but even the likes of Ross Gunn would have little opportunity against either Jonny Adam, Euan Hankey and Jules Gounon – but all three of them ahead!!!!

If the AMR collective result couldn’t have got much worse, an unseen incident involving the #61 Academy Mustang and the #23 R-Racing Aston Martin saw Miller park his car at the side of the circuit as the race entered its final laps. Officially listed as finishing P22 overall and P5 in class, that would be taken as some blessing for the Hopkins/Miller pairing with the Silverstone results remaining provisional subject to appeal that may improve that position again.

For the #97 Beechdean, that was a podium finish lost having executed everything bar the pit stop well all weekend but in the constant speed of today’s motorsport world, there is simply no time to dwell with Gunn again on IMSA duty next weekend and with the Le Mans 24 Hours just around the corner for the factory crew.

Next stop Snetterton.

The #13 all female Prosport car of Celia Martin and Fabienne Wohlwend was P24 whilst the late line up of Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Canadian Daman aboard the #48 Prosport car was the last of the runners having suffered fuel pump issues during the Ukrainians Qualifying run as well.

The start proved to relive past woe for the Prosport team going into the opening lap as the #1 was sideswiped by the #34 BMW of former AMR series running Nico Hantke, breaking the #1 cars steering and thumping Ortmann into the barrier for an immediate DNF.

After the Safety Car cleared up that mess, the race did at least progress into the competitive cut and thrust manner that the series is renowned for with the #007 Dorr car being followed by the #19 of Jess Bachmann with the young Swede matching the slightly older German for pace but neither had the speed to either catch or compete with the multitude of Mercedes AMG GT4 and BMW M4 GT4’s ahead.

With a further FCY obscuring a clean opening to the mandatory pit window, both the #007 (now with Nouet) and the #19 car (now with Andreas Bachmann) aboard emerged still line astern despite pitting upon differing laps. The #48 of Sokolovskiy would continue to struggle with technical issues for the Ukrainian to call it a day even before they had reached halfway.

The race would eventually conclude with the #007 car finishing in P15 and the #13 all women car in P21 after the #19 car suffered late technical issues of their own despite having ran so strongly for much of the race. Their debut into the ADAC GT4 Germany Series would end in the gravel with the race being concluded around them.

Clearly there are many issues to remedy, particularly within the Prosport Racing team with accident damage to the #1 car on ongoing issues with the #19 and #48 cars. For the Doer team – they just need a bit more pace is they (or any Aston Martin) is to compete in tomorrow’s second hour long race.

Photo credits – ADAC

Having had time and the weather conditions to dial themselves back into the characteristics of the Leicestershire circuit last Thursday with private testing, it was the #97 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn who come out tops during today’s earlier Free Practice sessions as they come home to take top slot in the earlier session and second in the next.

For the Vantage GT4 crew of Josh Miller and Seb Hopkins, it would be a mid-table finish for them at the end of FP1 before coming back to claim second in class by the end of the second as this young duo looks to recover what was lost at Silverstone as they struggled with track limits and the penalties that is associated with that transgression at the Silverstone 500.

This afternoon’s Qualifying sessions were again split two ways with each driver having their turn before both times were combined to determine the starting order for tomorrows two-hour race.

Howard was out first in his #97 car as one of the later GT3 Am’s to tack to the track during his ten-minute session to slowly climb the timing screen to take the top slot again with just one minute to go. Unfortunately for him, his efforts were surpassed by late charges from both the #78 Barwell Lamborghini and #4 2 Seas Mercedes for him to finally finish in third.

Gunn was next up, and it was straight down to business for the factory driver before again being passed on the timing screen by the #78 Barwell car that had suddenly found its feet in terms of performance. By the end of the session, the #97 would claim a second row start in P3 just 0.495 second off the ultimate pace.

Josh Miller again started the qualifying process for the R-Racing team and set an early mid table banker lap as he looked to eke out any residual levels of performance left within their #23 car as the McLarens and Ginetta’s again went quicker ahead of him.

Hopkins dutifully completed the task within the final Qualifying session to suffer the same problems as Miller had ahead of him with the pace of the new and evolved platforms ahead of him. Eventually finishing down in sixth and 1.191 seconds off the class pace, tomorrows race will of course be another matter as many drivers within both classes race the Donington circuit in their present machinery for the first time.

The expected fine weather will also bring its own issues – this time with tyre management within what is customary expected to be just a one stop race. With how lap times have been going so far, this opening two-hour race of the season is by no means over – it’s not even begun!!

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey