Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered successes this weekend in Europe

In long standing tradition, the series kicked off with a road trip down to the local town where the drivers, cars and crew were all on hand to mix with the locals for an autograph or two as well as a chat under the fine spring sunshine.

After that, the weather did go a little bit south for the Easter Sunday opening race with torrential rain falling all around the circuit making for a very tippy-toe adventure for the fifteen strong entry. This time around, only the French based Mirage Racing team has entered two full season Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo’s for its #7 Pro-Am pairing of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub whilst its #5 Am pairing of David Levy and Jodie Sloss was something of a late call for the team.

Starting the season off under extreme conditions, all were thankfully cautious throughout the hour-long race and made something of a refreshing change for those who sometimes think that the season can be won at the first corner. Starting P6 overall for the #7 car and P13 overall for the #5, both Safronov and Sloss did what they needed to do to stay on track before handing their cars overs to their co-drivers.

Despite their best of efforts, the #7 car basically held station throughout the race to finish P6 overall (and in class) whilst the #5 car came home for a debut P12 overall and just off the Am class podium in P4.

Race on Bank Holiday Monday got underway under heavily overcast, cooler but at least drier conditions than before with the #7 Mirage AMR leading the way for the team from P6 whilst the #5 was to start P12 overall – P3 in class for both Vaintrub and Levy respectively.

Despite four clean opening laps however, an over ambitious move up the inside by the #5 car on the #24 Porsche saw the Aston collect the front of the Porsche for them both to spin off into the gravel. No significant or obvious damage for either car but both were out of the race (an incident that later saw Levy post a public apology to the JSB Competition team). Getting back to green just before the opening of the pit window saw the #7 car remain in P6 as Vaintrub swapped out for Safronov for the final half hour.

At the end of the pit window, the #7 car had climbed up to P3 overall having elected to pit out earlier than their immediate rivals. They would continue to hold that position until the end for their first podium of the season as well as valuable championship points as the series moves onto Dijon in three weeks’ time.


The other GT4 series was the GT4 Italy Series who supported the FIA World Endurance Championship’s visit to Imola this weekend.

Within that series of twenty-three runners was the #23 Team Spirit Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Mathias Villadsen Lyngbye. Debuting within the series last time out Mugello earlier in March, saw the Dane this time secure aP5 overall and top step visit to the B Class podium after Saturday’s opening twenty-five-minute race for his efforts.

Sundays second race was a similar affair with a P6 overall finish again worthy of collecting a B Class top step visit to the podium.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media