Positive vibes within the AMR camps after first Asian Le Mans Race in Dubai today

Unlike Sepang, both teams were fielding a completely different driver line up to those of the opening two races as Gabriel Rindone, Jamie Day, Mattia Drudi were now aboard the #89 EBM AMR Vantage GT3 Evo with Jonny Adam, Charles Bateman and Reema Juffali now populating the #19 Blackthorn equivalent.

For many for these six drivers, this was another racing weekend of firsts – either within the ACO rules series for the first time or indeed within the latest Vantage GT3 car in a competitive situation for the first time but despite that, the outcome of todays red flag affected opener left room for optimism ahead of tomorrow’s second race of the weekend.

Having qualified for race one in P6, Saudi lady racer Juffali was quickly muscled out of position during the opening laps of her first GT3 race that saw her race position drop to just below halfway down the class size of twenty-nine cars whilst Rindone had started P16 and was soon right behind the #19 car as the race eventually settled.

Making their way through their first pit stop cycle, an incident on track near the top of the first hour for another GT car saw that car strike the armco barrier heavily before coming to a stop on track – first bringing out the Safety car before the red flag was thrown to allow for immediate barrier repairs. With the race clock still running, much of the bronze driver’s seat time (as well as the cars silver ranked driver was sadly lost to the red flag whilst the cars sat along the start straight under parc ferme conditions.

Eventually getting back to green having lost over an hour’s worth of racing, the next step of the race was to complete full service and driver change for most (if not all) the GT grid leading to chaotic scenes within pit lane. Thankfully, neither Aston Martin fell foul of any pit stop incident as both Bateman and Day got their first laps in with the #19 car still heading the AMR powered duo in class.

With the Vantage GT3 platform receiving a 10kg weight break from their balance of Performance at Sepang, the car was slightly faster during the race but was still a distant relation to some of the platforms out front although each platforms ultimate racing lap was there or there abouts to each other – such is the complexity of present-day BoP calculations!!

By the time the sun was setting over the circuit, it was the turn of each car’s Pro drivers to bring their steads home as factory drivers Adam and Drudi did just that to secure an eventual P14 class finish for the #19 Blackthorn AMR and P20 in class for the 389 EBM entry with all drivers per car completing almost the same lap count by the end of their respective stints.

The forty-four cars go again tomorrow with their second four-hour race at Dubai but with each Aston starting further up the order this time with the #19 from the second row in class (P3) and the #89 from P14.

Photo credits – teams / series / social media