Work to do done by the AMR teams in tomorrows three hour visit to Donington Park
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Having enjoyed a private test day at the circuit on Thursday, today’s more formal action of the third round to the 2024 season saw both the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 crews struggle for pace during their allotted Qualifying sessions that resulted in all three cars starting from the rear end of the GT3 pack for tomorrows three-hour race.
Within the combined GT3 Qualifying session, it was the #87 Blackthorn AMR Pro-Am car of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam who finished highest out of the trio but only in P16 overall and P12 in class but nearly two seconds off the pole setting Lamborghini pace!!
Proving that this is BoP related is that the team’s Silver-Am #10 entry of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge secured an aggregated time of just 0.050 of a second slow than their Pro-Am stable mates (despite having lost a lap during the Pro session as Rowledge went through a gravel trap) to earn them a lowly P18 start overall and P6 in class.
Despite Andrew Howard setting the sixteenth best time during his session, his #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 will be starting tomorrows race from the rear of the GT3 field in P20 (P7 in class) after co-driver Jessica Hawkins was, like the AMR Pro’s before her, unable to ring another more out of their Aston Martin. All AMR Pro drivers were within a few tenths of each other.
It was a better picture within the GT4 class as both Forsetti Motorsports kind of continued from where they had left off at Silverstone last time out, although neither would have it all their own way this time.
Mikey Porter and Marc Warren were first out within their respective #7 and #47 cars, and each were able to deliver a respectable P7 overall (P6 in Silver) and P9 overall (P2 in Pro-Am) laps times.
Their co-drivers in Jamie Day and Will Orton respectively, were each unable to take full advantage of their Qualifying session after a stranded Toyota cut that session short with still more than a lap time’s worth still on the session clock. They will be starting tomorrow's race from P5 on the grid for the #7 car and P9 for the #47 car.
If BoP isn’t enough to contend with these days, it looks like Mother Nature will again be offering the Championship another curved ball tomorrow as thunderstorms will be a distinct possibility just in time for the race although air temperatures are expected to remain decent!!
Who knows?
Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey
