AMR teams successes as ACO rules racing visits Mugello for the first time.

At their first time of asking, Swift qualified his car onto Pole Position of the eleven strong GT3 grid with a lap time two and a quarter seconds faster than that of the team mates just ahead of their 110-minute race later that day.

Unfortunately for the pair of them, that early pace wasn’t transposed into the actual race with the pairing eventually finishing, albeit still within that order, in both P7 and P9 respectively one lap down to the eventual race and indeed GT3 Drivers Championship winners from AF Corse.

Follow them of course were the two AMR Vantage LMGT3 crews from both the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman and #97 Grid Motorsport with TF crews within the more championship significant ELMS race.

Starting the event as championship leaders, there was obviously more pressure upon the #59 car of Derek DeBoer/Valentin Hasse-Clot and Casper Stevenson to perform than that of the #97 crew of Martin Berry/Jonny Adam and Lorcan Hanafin although the latter crew were certainly not out of contention with two races to go.

What a time to deliver your maiden ELMS pole position than for the American DeBoer to do just that with a lap time just 0.124 of a second faster than the feisty #85 Iron Dames Porsche crew just behind but with the #97 car of Berry starting Sundays four race just behind them in third just 0.200 of second back from them.

Under blissful autumnal sunshine in central Italy, the race got underway with the usual degree of door bashing within the available classes with the #85 taking the class lead after just ten minutes as later contact brought out the Safety Car to quell the racing temperatures for the first time.

Cycling through the first hour of racing, the differing race strategies had seen the #97 Grid Motorsport AMR leapfrog the #59 Racing Spirit of Leman for track position but at least both were still within the top five. During the second hour there was further delay on track as both an LMP2 and LMGT3 made contact leaving parts of each strewn across of the racetrack before getting back to green some thirty-five minutes later.

Unfortunately, the race was soon interrupted again with a massive accident along the pit straight as the #85 Porsche tipped another Porsche nose first into the pit wall. Luckily avoided by all chasing the group, the best news was seeing the driver remove himself unaided from what was left of his car before ultimately a red flag was called to clear the track as the #97 headed the LMGT3 class at the time.

Getting back to green with ninety minutes to go, further incident on track again neutralised the race with another Virtual Safety car for a stranded prototype before Hasse-Clot and Hanafin took control of their respective cars for the final hour-long charge to the flag. Going into the final twenty minutes, the #97 car of Hanafin was still leading the class but with an ever-decreasing margin with the #59 car of Hasse-Clot playing catch-up in sixth.

The final ten minutes proved itself to be fraught for the Grid Motorsport team as Hanafin defended his class lead from the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari will all his might but on the 103rd lap, the inevitable took place and the #97 crew had to make do with a P2 visit to the podium whilst the #59 eventually came home in P5 after having suffered a puncture after rear end contact of their own from the #85 Iron Dames car at the start of another VSC.

From a Championship perspective all is not lost with the season finale from Portimao still to come in three weeks’ time. The Racing Spirit of Leman crew have slipped to second within the drivers table, albeit on level points (64) with the crew ahead whilst the Grid Motorsport with TF crew have climbed up to fifth, now just fifteen points behind them.

It will be another winner takes all event in Portugal later month.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media