Next stop Spa Francorchamps for ACO rules ELMS and LMC racing
Monday, August 19, 2024
With entry tightly regulated in terms of numbers, this weekend’s entry list comes as no real surprise in terms of participating teams although there is a slight adjustment for the sole Aston Martin Racing powered team running again within the Le Mans Cup Series.
The last round from Imola saw more AMR powered success for the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR Vantage LMGT3 crew of Derek DeBoer, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Casper Stevenson as the trio converted a P2 qualifying position into a P2 class finishing position to add to their third-place finish at Le Castellet to springboard their Championship challenge up to second place at this halfway stage of the season.
The #97 Grid Motorsport by TF Sport AMR Vantage LMGT3 crew of Martin Berry, Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam had improved again from their disasters of the opening round in Spain to finish fourth on track in Italy only to be docked another place in class thanks to post race time penalty in lieu of a drive through penalty on track.
Despite that, their ten points from Italy was still enough to raise that crew up to P7 in the LMGT3 Drivers table – sum twenty-six points behind the present championship leaders but with still seventy-five points on offer.
This weekend will see another forty-three-capacity grid take to the iconic circuit with the LMGT3 class again being joined by the LMP2 and LMP3 classes.
Joining them at the circuit this weekend will be another thirty-nine strong grid from the supporting Michelin Le Mans Cup Series where the British Blackthorn AMR team will again be the sole Aston Martin Racing representative with another single car entry.
Having missed the opening round to the season in Spain through not having the necessary parts to convert their existing Vantage GT3 cars into the new 2024 Evo version, the second round from Paul Ricard came as something as a baptism of fire for the then Claude Bovet/ David McDonald driver line up although their P5 Qualifying position showed possibilities going into their double header at Le Mans.
There, this car failed to capitalise on what quickly became something of a racing farce as each race was dramatically shortened by the need for repeated Safety Car intervention to deliver them just four Championship points to add to their two from Ricard.
This time around, the biggest change will be that Bovet will be partnered by multiple Le Mans winner Darren Turner within their #91 car for this weekend.
The one hour fifty-minute LMC race will start at 16:05hrs local on Saturday whilst the four hour ELMS race will start at 11:30hrs on Sunday.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
