Five new Aston Martins expected at British GTs Silverstone 500 this weekend
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Having opened their 2024 season four weeks ago with their customary easter weekend visit to Oulton Park for the opening two sprint races of the year, only the Beechdean AMR and Forsetti Motorsport teams were endowed with the latest iterations of the AMR Vantage GT3 and GT4 as the Blackthorn Motorsport team had to ‘made do’ with the former 16A version.
News from Blackthorn’s Jonny Adam today would suggest that both his #87 Pro-Am classed car that he shares with Giacomo Petrobelli and its sister Silver-Am classed #10 car that is shared by both Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge will this time be the all new 2024 platforms.
Whilst the #10 was in the guise of the new 2024 platform at the Championship’s media day back in March, a first lap crash for Rowledge put paid to that idea as they had to revert to the previous iteration as parts from the Prodrive factory were still at a premium. It is expected that both cars will be conversions rather than new cars from the showroom.
Whilst the #10 was in the guise of the new 2024 platform at the Championship’s media day back in March, a first lap crash for Rowledge put paid to that idea as they had to revert to the previous iteration as parts from the Prodrive factory were still at a premium. It is expected that both cars will be conversions rather than new cars from the showroom.
Whilst the #87 crew had to put up with unfamiliarity at the Cheshire circuit for the Italian driver, they posted P9 and P10 finishes in class by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend whilst the #10 had to contend with further damage from earlier an earlier incident for Topham that left the car unable to Qualifying for either race, eventually finishing P7 in class in race one before another incident for Topham in Race 2 ended their participation as well as causing an extended Safety Car intervention.
Hopefully, all is now repaired and lessons have now been learned so this this weekend’s endurance round from Silverstone can be a positive one for all at Blackthorn.
The #97 Beechdean AMR crew of Andrew Howard and Jessica Hawkins also ran with a whole lot of new at Oulton Park with their new Vantage GT3, Hawkins new to the Champiosnhip and all new to the class.
Whilst seat time had been something of a premium for the Aston Martin F1 Academy Ambassador, Hawkins had been seen testing the #97 car under Darren Turner’s tutelage at Silverstone prior to her rushing off to recent F1 duties in China. Hopefully, these long-haul flights back and forth will not affect her endurance too much this weekend.
Despite all this new, the Silver-Am duo were still able to deliver the best AMR GT3 result of the opening weekend with P6 and P5 class finishes.
Whilst seat time had been something of a premium for the Aston Martin F1 Academy Ambassador, Hawkins had been seen testing the #97 car under Darren Turner’s tutelage at Silverstone prior to her rushing off to recent F1 duties in China. Hopefully, these long-haul flights back and forth will not affect her endurance too much this weekend.
Despite all this new, the Silver-Am duo were still able to deliver the best AMR GT3 result of the opening weekend with P6 and P5 class finishes.
The best results, however, came again from the Forsetti Motorsport team and their two new Vantage GT4 crews of Jamie Day/Mikey Porter and Marc Warren/Will Orton as both delivered two podium finishes apiece last time out.
The Silver class duo of Day and Porter in the #7 car brought home two class wins from their race weekend whilst the Pro-Am pairing of Warren and Orton brought home a brace of P2 finishes in class for their efforts after two weather and safety car impacted races. All in all, a great British GT debut for themselves and the new Aston Martin.
Soon the now extended and capacity grid (for Silverstone) of forty-three cars will be gearing up for this weekend’s blue ribband Silverstone 500 event around the Grand Prix circuit with Friday testing.
Success penalties will unfortunately come the way of Forsetti as both the #47 and #7 cars are handed pit stop time penalties of an additional 10 and 5 seconds on top of any class ballast and time for the #7 silver cup entry.
Another than that, it will be game on for all five Aston Martin Racing crews!!
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
