Success deserts the AMR runners after a gruelling second GT4 European Series race at Misano
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Like most of southern Europe now, Italy is being affected by what is being described as a severe heat storm and that proved for tricky driving conditions for all due to both high track and cabin temperatures. An apparent change in engine mapping for the Vantage GT4 ahead of the start to track proceedings made that job that little bit more difficult.
With one AGS Events Racing AMR not making the journey, that left ten Vantage GT4 crews across the series three class to carry on from where they left off at Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago.
There, good performances in Qualifying did lead to podium success for those runners but this time around that was not the case as the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman crew of Victor Weyrich and a substituting Matteo Villagomez for Konstantin Lachenauer set the early Aston Martin pace in Qualifying with two P2 in class starting positions.
That being said, the class podiums that did come about at the end of race 1’s Safety Car littered opener came from both the #18 Team Spirit Racing car of Lorenz Stegmann and Markus Lungstrass in Pro-Am and the #72 GPA Racing AMR of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud in Am – both of whom claimed class podiums last time out at Spa.
With the pace of the Aston Martin clearly now an issue compared to other OEM machinery on track, that was as good as it would get going into Sundays second race as (for the first time this season) no AMR powered crew was represented in any of the three classes together with the highest placed Vantage back in P7 for the #18 crew.
The series now hits its summer break before reconvening at Hockenheim in just over six weeks’ time.
Photo credits - Series
