So nearly a perfect performance from the three Aston Martins at GT Cups visit to Silverstone
Sunday, July 28, 2024
With most of the racing headlines centring around the Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 team of Andrew Howard and AMR factory driver Darren Turner, they were almost just a pleasant distraction as the main championship emphasis was upon the Forsetti Motorsport team and their two 17A Vantage GT4 entries as full season contenders.
Having skipped the previous round of this championship at Oulton Park due to clashing commitments in Europe, the Norfolk based team again fielded a slightly differing crew within their second car alongside that of Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins aboard the #9 car. Instead of the all-female crew, it was a first time run out for British Endurance Championship racer Sam Neser alongside that of their British GT GT4 racer Will Orton.
Returning to their usual format of one sprint race for the lesser qualified driver and one longer pit stop punctuated race for the driver pairing over both Saturday and Sunday, both crews could do no wrong (although Howard did suffer an early spin in one race) before recovering to claim an overall P2 (P1 in GT3) for the #97 car of Howard and a team 1-2 in the GTH class for the #9 and #10 Forsetti cars respectively.
Returning to their usual format of one sprint race for the lesser qualified driver and one longer pit stop punctuated race for the driver pairing over both Saturday and Sunday, both crews could do no wrong (although Howard did suffer an early spin in one race) before recovering to claim an overall P2 (P1 in GT3) for the #97 car of Howard and a team 1-2 in the GTH class for the #9 and #10 Forsetti cars respectively.
That was backed up within the first endurance race where the #97 claimed another overall P2 (P1 in class) but the Forsetti cars swapped finishing orders to claim overall P11 and P12 finishes for another 1-2 in class.
Sunday’s opening endurance race followed a similar vein as the #97 crew again completed an overall P2 (P1 in GT3) finish ahead of another Forsetti 1-2 crews in GTH – this time with the #9 car again taking top honours.
The only fly in that ointment was an incident early in in their fourth and final race of the weekend where the #10 Forsetti car of Neser suffered front end damage (from a possible collision with another car on the opening lap) for an untimely DNF that unfortunately blotted an otherwise clean race sheet for a GT4 debut. That didn’t stop either remaining Aston Martin who each claimed another top step visit to the podium in class.
The next round of the GT Cup will be from Donington Park in mid-September whilst both teams (differing crews) will be back in action within the British GT Championship from Donington Park in the first week of September.
Photo credits – Team / series / Jacob Ebrey
