Two more AMR powered teams round off last weekends events with more podium finishes between them

The crew were eager to improve upon the misfortunes of the opening round from Motegi were a Qualifying session crash saw the team placed onto the back foot to repair the car in time for the race only to see the multi-tonal Aston Martin recover to fourth in class at the end.

This time around, things were better as the #777 crew qualified upon the front row in P2 for Sundays race and were able to claim a podium P3 result at the end.

Next up for the team will be the second test at their home circuit Fuji Speedway at the beginning of next month in preparation to the 24hour event at the circuit at the beginning of June.

Leaving the best till last, last weekend we also saw the British GT Championship again run their second round Blue Ribband event from the home of British motor racing at Silverstone with their customary three-hour battle around the full Grand Prix circuit.

Just three weeks since the opening round of the season from Donington Park, we also saw the Blackthorn AMR, Beechdean AMR and MKLH Racing Aston Martins joined by a fourth car as an invitational entry for this round which helped swell the grid from that of the season opener.

Both the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood and the #50 MKH Racing Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall enjoyed class success last time out with a Silver-Am win for the #97 and a P2 in Endurance Cup Pro-Am for the MKH racers. The #7 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of Giacoma Petrobelli and Jonny Adam however, endured self-inflicted hardship last time out after heavy front-end contact for the Italian cost their opening bout in damage and drive through penalties to end their day with a lowly P9 Pro-Am class finish.

Fortunate enough to say that all full season entries were on point during Qualifying, making full use of the earlier Media Day track running with the new Pirelli control tyre to place themselves no worse than third in class for the start of Sundays race. The additional #19 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 entry of Claude Bovet and Charlie Bateman completing their qualifying run with an aggregated P6 in class result.

With air and track temperatures now much warming than before, the race go underway under mainly clear blue skies and sunshine but the busyness of the track and the slight performance margins between all crews meant that contact was inevitable at some point.

Indeed, Howard was one of the first drivers to suffer the consequence of that as he was given an additional ten seconds at his next stop for causing a collision but at least at that stage, there was still time to make amends. Fortunately, Petrobelli was also more conservative with his passing manoeuvres this time about as the crews cycled through their pit stop/driver sequences within their maximum drive time allowances.

At the end, both the #97 and #50 AMR’s continued their podium run in class with a P2 finish to impress their new sponsors this time around for the #97 car with the #50 also finish one step down the ladder this time in P3. It was also a better day for the two Blackthorn AMR’s as the #7 crew finally got some significant championship points under their belts with a P4 Pro-Am finish with the guesting #19 car also finishing P3 in class too (although a non-points scoring entry).

Next up are the first of the sprint rounds with Oulton Park stepping up first for their two, hour long races at the end of May where we also expect the MKH Racing crew step aside leaving just the #7 and #97 Vantage GT3’s to cheer.

Photo credits – Team / Jacob Ebrey / social media