Other Vantage GT4 successes (or not) from the weekend
Sunday, July 07, 2024
Racing one of their 17A variants of the Vantage GT4, the Jahid Fazal Karim, Pascal Bachmann and Julien Darras driver car had qualified on class pole on Friday and were running within that position before multiple punctures and braking issues forced the car back into the pits.
Despite soldiering on with a wounded car, time was eventually called on their racing exploits just after half distance after their braking issues couldn’t be resolved.
Then within the Ultimate Cup Series visit to Hockenheim this weekend, it was a case a progressive improvements for the sole Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Baudouin Detout within his #39 Racing Spirit of Leman prepared car.
Four twenty-five-minute sprint races within the Ultimate GT Sprint Cup Series saw the young Frenchman improve from a DNF after race one on Friday night through to two P2 finishes in class at the end of the second and third races before finishing upon the top step at the end of race four.
He will be using that knowledge and experience to bolster his efforts when he revisits the circuit for the next round of the GT4 European Series in a couple of weeks’ time.
With all this AMR powered success, there is always somewhere someone not doing quite as well, and that mantel unfortunately goes to the Zakspeed team and the driver pairing of Phillip Gogollok and Jan Marschalkowski.
Already having endured something of a nightmare start to their ADAC GT4 Germany conquests togther with their #55 Vantage GT4, this weekend’s visit to the Norisring fared no better as contact with yesterday’s hour-long race forced a premature DNF before the end of the pit stop window only to be followed by another DNF in race two for puncture/contact related damage at the same stage of the race.
The only way is up for these guys!
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media