Steady progress at a scorching Brands Hatch opens things up for the AMR runners in British GT
Saturday, September 09, 2023
It transpired that it would be just the full season Aston Martin Racing powered entries from both the Beechdean AMR and R-Racing teams that would grace the event amongst the scheduled thirty-two car entry.
Ross Gunn would return from his North American IMSA endeavours to support Andrew Howard again within their #97 GT3 entry whilst it would be business as usual again for the #27 GT4 crew of Josh Miller and Seb Hopkins.
After their disappointment last time out in Portugal, Gunn lost no time in making his own statement during the first Free Practice session be claiming the overall top honour with a lap time 0.2 seconds faster that the #1 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes AMG whilst the #23 GT4 crew chased down the ultra-fast McLaren Altura and two Ford Mustangs to go an early fourth quickest.
No championship pressures (sadly) upon either crew this time, the #97 went third quickest during the second session (thanks to some lap times being deleted for track limits along the way) whilst the #23 crew this time went top in the GT4 despite suffering the same misfortune.
That set things up nicely for Qualifying that would see both drivers set individual lap times with their aggregated times setting their grid position ahead of tomorrow’s two-hour race.
Howard was out first and for most of his ten-minute session, sat towards the bottom of class before eventually engaging the Pirelli tyres enough to hit as high as P5 before settling for a P6 fastest lap. That released Gunn within the next session where he put in an early mid-table banker lap too before going on to press for more before finishing P1 in his session but P4 on the aggregated pace.
Next up were the GT4’s with Hopkins out first in the #23 to push hard during the early laps of fastest lap times tumbled between the top five runners to hold an early P4. One final push from the youngster rewarded him with a time worthy of P3 in class.
Finally, Josh Miller would get his turn within the final ten-minute session of the day but was lucky to ‘survive’ the session after a monumental moment out the back of the circuit at Westfield where he ran wide, out onto the grass to avoid the tyre wall by the smallest of margins – the closest not-accident apparently!! That off track excursion would obviously cost them in lap time where he would finish down in P10.
Collectively, the #97 entered lap times worthy of a second row start in P4 whilst the #23 car would drop to the third row in GT4 for a P5 start.
Morning warm up early tomorrow morning before a green flag just after lunch. It’s going to hot and furious – don’t forget your sunscreen and water!!
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
