It just wasn't to be in Jeddah at finale of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup

Monday, December 02, 2024

Late again – not that there was anything ‘significant’ to report at the end of Saturday’s final and extend round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia.

Whilst there was one final podium finishing position to round the 2024 season off for one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crew, it wasn’t to be the then championship leading #007 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Marco Sorensen, Matteo Drudi and Nicki Thiim despite their best of efforts against the charging #51 AF Corse Ferrari crew who eventually picked up the overall crown by the end of the race.

Going into this final race of the season around the very long but very narrow circuit had already seen one Vantage GT3 eliminated from the proceedings from each of the Comtoyou racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams with another Walkenhorst entry only rescued from the ashes of a pit lane fire and an overnight rebuild by the team for that car to even make the grid.

The biggest talking point as far the Aston Martins were concerned was sadly again around the platforms balance of performance parameters with none of the cars even close at threatening those championship challenges in front of them. In hindsight, even a mid-event change in BoP (as in weight reduction and an increase in boost) wasn’t enough to give either Pro entry the ‘ponies’ that they needed to put up anything like a representative fight.

With many suffering from the effects of mid and post-race penalties (mainly for track limits), the #007 car eventually finished P10 overall with the #34 Walkenhorst car of Ross Gunn, Henrique Chaves and David Pittard finishing just behind in P11 having completed a miraculous recovery drive having started from last thanks to their Qualifying issues.

The one race success was from the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont who grabbed P3 within the silver class.

Having lead the overall championship position since that overall win at the Spa 24, the #007 crew would eventually finish the year down in fourth with their sister #12 car the next best AMR finisher in class, P8 in silver.

What comes next for both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Comtoyou Racing teams is yet to be seen but with the 2025 Prologue test already set for early March, that won’t be a too longer wait before the first signs of pre-season testing gets underway.

The new 2024 Vantage GT3 car did well within its opening year of racing service again and with the ongoing developmental work that AMR are already undertaking, 2025 looks more than positive.