Destination Spa Francorchamps for the British GT Championship Aston Martin powered crews this weekend

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

This weekend sees the start of the SRO’s Speedweek from the iconic circuit of Spa Francorchamps where both the British GT Championship as well as the French FFSA Series open the proceedings ahead of next weekend’s Spa 24hr for the headlining GT World Challenge Europe Series.

Three weeks since the last round of the mixed class British GT Championship from Donington Park where this weekend sees itself as the midway point to the season where we can again expect the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered teams of both Beechdean AMR and Blackthorn AMR alongside the two strong Vantage GT4 powered team of Forsetti Motorsport.

“Fresh” from their racing endeavours at Le Mans within the Michelin Le Mans Cup sees both Blackthorn cars return with their usual crew of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam within their #87 Pro-Am car alongside their #10 Silver-Am GT3 of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge.

They are again joined within the GT3 class by the #97 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard and Jessica Hawkins – a pairing that secured their first Silver-Am podium finish together at Donington Park.

Further back down the grid, but only marginally considering their combined speeds and efficiencies this season so far, are the two Forsetti Vantage GT4 cars of both Mikey Porter and Jamie Day within the Silver ranked #7 car alongside the #47 Pro-Am GT4 of Marc Warren and Will Orton.

These guys have been having something of a magical GT4 season together with both cars competing for overall GT4 class wins where the #47 car finished second overall last time out despite their Pro-Am status.

Based upon race results so far, the #87 Pro-Am GT3 entry sits just outside the top five in P6 whilst in GT3 Silver-Am, the Donington result for the #97 car thrusts them into the top five in class where Donington also saw the best result so far from the #10 Blackthorn crew in P7.

Then in GT4, the #7 Forsetti crew presently stand second in the Silver Class and first within the GT4 Pro-Am class as well as a commanding lead within the GT4 Teams Championship.

This weekend’s event in Belgium sees the Championship resort back to a single two-hour race format with the race beginning at 13:00hrs local but with just the #47 Forsetti car receiving a 15 second success penalty during one of their mandated stops in lieu of finishing second overall last time out.

Spa Francorchamps is great as we know – it’s usually eventful too!