More Aston Martins (hopefully) this time as ELMS and LMC reach Paul Ricard next week
Friday, April 26, 2024
With the World Endurance Championship having ran their second round of the season last weekend from Imola, next weekend sees the two ACO rules European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Cup Series do likewise, this time from Paul Ricard in France.
This year running near identical LMGT3 based cars of course sees the Racing Spirit of Leman and Grid Motorsport by TF return to the ELMS series again after their season opener from Barcelona two weeks ago where the #59 RSoL car of Derek DeBoer, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Casper Stevenson just pipped the TF Sport prepared #97 car of Martin Berry Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam in the LMGT3 class but only in disappointing mid-table positions of P6 and P7 respectively out of a class grid size of eleven cars.
This second round will of course see the request success ballast applied to the previous podium finishes and will Paul Ricard being very much a speed circuit, the two Aston Martins will need every KPH available to them if either crew is to make up upon their points deficit within this six-round season.
This week’s provisional entry list details no changes to either AMR and hopefully (yes, there is still a lot of hoping going about) that the #97 car is now fully repaired after its Prologue shunt and a loan car from the Comtoyou team is no longer required.
Supporting the ELMS again will be the Le Mans Cup Series and this time there are TWO Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 listed from the Blackthorn AMR team.
Missing from both the entry list and the grid last time out in Spain, a curiously imposed fine for the team’s non-attendance at least put some hope that they might arrive later in the season and stating that their new 2024 Vantage GT3’s had not yet been delivered (true of course as they were running their two AMR Vantage GT3s in 16A format at the opening round of the British GT Championship over the Easter weekend at Oulton Park), successful delivery of two upgrade kits to the team has proved that point.
This weekend’s third round of the British GT Championship from Silverstone will be the first competitive run out for both the Blackthorn cars in 2024 format although one crew for Le Mans Cup is still to be listed as just team boss Claude Bovet and Team Manager David McDonald are listed – a change to the original full season entry list published by the series.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
