And the low side of motorsport bites hard with two AMR teams
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Whilst there was celebration within two Aston Martin Racing powered teams after Championship winning success in both the ADAC GT4 Germany and Michelin Le Mans Cup Series, there were also the complete opposites within another two as they were left to contemplate upon what might have been.
In Japan, the D’Station Racing team again fielded it Aston Martin Vantage GT8R within the penultimate round of their domestic Super Taikyu Series at Okayama. Needing nothing less than a class win to keep their ST-1 Class hopes alive, the #47 car of Tatsuya Hoshino, Max Orido, Kenji Hama, and Jake Parsons again came second to the #2 KS Frontier KTM X-Bow crew at the end of that three-hour race.
That meant that the class battle was lost even before the series reached their home circuit at Fuji Speedway so in a twist of plan, the team have this week confirmed that just Orido and fresh driver Nobutera Taniguchi will race the final round at Fuji in mid-November.
With this, we just wonder if that selection is just some pre-cursor selection of drivers ahead of their recently confirmed return to the top-flight Super GT Series next season?
Then in Barcelona, the Belgian based Street Art Racing team returned to the Circuit de Catalunya for the final round of the International GT Open Series with their artfully decorated Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 that Pascal Bachman and Jahid Fazal Karim share within the Am Class.
Never Championship contenders mainly through their none, full season attendance for starters and then Karim’s first year within the GT3 for second, their long trip to Spain would be a painfully short one as the #007 car failed to start either race of the season finale.
Quoting heavy vibrations during Friday Practice into Saturday Qualifying, it was later found that one of the cars front engine support mounts had been damage and a large crack was developing as they clocked in the practice laps. With the repair time so long (not sure if the team even had the parts available to them), it was decided to wrap up their somewhat disjointed season from within their Spanish garage and consider what be around the corner for them next season.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
