Mixed fortunes for the two AMR teams at the GT Winter Series finale
Sunday, March 09, 2025
Running the same calendar as the GT4 machinery before them, two thirty-minute sprint races would proceed the seasonal hour-long finale later on Sunday as both Kobe Pauwels and Matisse Lismont would be looking for much class winning success like last time out for them at Valencia in their #700 car whilst the #17 Prosport entry would see both Adrian Rziczny and Fabienne Wohlwend contest their first GT3 races.
A speedy Pauwels saw him take the race lead going into T1 for the first time and despite an early Safety Car held on to take a race win at the end with Rziczny would come home a very credible P9 overall/P6 in class.
Sadly, an opening lap multi-car incident claimed the #17 Prosport entry of Wohlwend on only the opening lap with front and rear damage having had the car snap away from under her during accelerating also preventing it taking part in the endurance race.
After a brief red flag for barrier repairs, it would only be a quick eight-minute dash to the flag to allow Lismont to claim another podium finish in the series with a P3 on track/P2 in class.
That obviously just left the #700 Comtoyou Racing car of Lismont on the grid for the final race of the year and starting from second on track, the team would be looking for a sweep of podium finishes before they moved onto their GT World Challenge Europe Prologue testing duties at Paul Ricard on Monday.
Despite taking the overall lead just before the pitstop window, the #700 was one of five cars awarded drive through penalties for incorrect starting procedures which obviously thwarted their earlier efforts -compounded by a Safety Car needed to remove a stranded car on track.
Entering pit lane under the Safety Car but held by the red light at the end of the lane, the #700 continued with its driver change to come out third on track with less than twenty minutes remaining. Posting repeated fastest laps, Pauwels chased the top two cars hard but having gained P2, the #700 team was advised that 35 seconds would be added to their race time for incorrect process with their earlier penalty.
That sadly took the potential P2 finishing position from the Comtoyou Racing team on the final lap with it dropping on adjustment to P6 overall/P5 in class at the end.
Photo credits – Team / Daniel Buergin
