More Aston Martin success in GT4 Winter Series in Portimao
Monday, January 22, 2024
Having debuted together last weekend at Estoril, drivers Mikey Porter and Jamie Day carried on from where they had left off last week but with the Racar Motorsport AMRE pairing of Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria still pushing them hard along the way.
Thankfully, the rains had finally passed the venue by and all three races over the weekend were able to be run on a completely dry track. Like last time, the GT4 Winter Series would run Qualifying and the first 30minute solo driver race on Saturday before the second solo driver race and 60minute endurance race for both drivers later in the day.
Porter and Martins would be first out on Saturday with Porter having his first front row start in P2 with Martins close behind in P3. For Porter, the experience of Martins over the former Ginetta racer would see the two Aston Martins quickly change positions before Porter dropped to P4 overall and in Class.
A timely pass around the McLaren saw Porter move back up to P3 with still half the race remaining where Martins would enter the race’s fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the race as a slowing Mercedes up ahead gave him cause to chase. Unfortunately for him, time ran out as he came home a close second with Porter coming home in third for another AMR 2-3 in class.
For the opening race on Sunday, it was Day against Faria in the AMR stakes and again experience proved pivotable as Day ran another impressive lights to flag winning race whilst the young Faria again fell into the temptation on unnecessary contact early into his 30-minute race hampering his potential. The #9 Racar AMR would finish P5.
To round the second round of the season off, it was the hour-long pit stop and driver change punctuated endurance race where the #19 Forsetti car again outperformed in Qualifying the #9 Racar AMR with Porter starting from pole position and with Martins third on the grid.
Like race 1 earlier, Porter soon found himself being passed by the faster and more experienced around him to form another AMR 2-3 at the front of the pack but with the Racar Aston again in front.
Despite a prolonged Safety Car for a stranded car on track, that would be the running order into the pit window as Porter stopped first but with Martins hanging it out till later. As the available pit window came to an end, Day quickly established the race lead with Faria having dropped to P4 before he suffered a technical issue that saw him slow on track before retiring in pit lane for another DNF of his GT4 Winter Series campaign.
Despite a prolonged Safety Car for a stranded car on track, that would be the running order into the pit window as Porter stopped first but with Martins hanging it out till later. As the available pit window came to an end, Day quickly established the race lead with Faria having dropped to P4 before he suffered a technical issue that saw him slow on track before retiring in pit lane for another DNF of his GT4 Winter Series campaign.
For Day, he would maintain the gap from those chasing to complete another triple podium visiting race weekend that keeps his and Porter Championship hopes very much alive as the series moves onto Jerez in early February.
Photo credits – Daniel Buergin
