Just the two AMR Vantage GT3 crews this time around, one from each of the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport stables as both cars carried at least one driver in their earlier stages of the GT3 racing career and with the Walkenhorst dipping their toe into the Sprint Cup scene for the first time amongst the thirty strong entry.
Racing this time in separate classes saw the #35 Walkenhorst crew of Henrique Chaves and Mateo Villagomez compete within the Pro class whilst the #21 Comtoyou Racing entry again stuck with the silver class for their drivers Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels.
Sometimes fresh but otherwise pleasant track conditions blessed the strong grid and the large crowd as two one-hour races were in store after the preceding Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and individual Qualifying sessions. P4 in class was the best starting position gained by Day ahead of his start in race 2 whilst the P10 in class was similarly placed in P12 and P9 in class for each race respectively.
Sunday made for a busy programme with race 1 starting at 11:00hrs with race 2 not that long after at 15:45hrs.
With Villagomez and Pauwels taking the start for race 1, everyone survived the bumping and grinding of the opening laps before the differences in pace stretched the grid, but many crews were already coming to the attention of Race Control for track limits. Both crews pitted at the first available opportunity from the mid table of the pack, but Day was rudely spun around by Lamborghini on his outlap that lost him time but sadly after that – neither Aston was to figure above P25 overall for the #35 and P27 for the #21 car.
For the later race 2, the sunshine had gone with cooler and cloudier conditions affecting the cars on track everyone again got through the opening laps although Chaves had to roll his sleeves up to get through from his P10 start and up into P8 by the end of lap one. Despite losing positions on that opening lap, Day retained his P4 place within silver.
A stranded car in the gravel just before the opening of the pit window delayed matters slightly as half the pack pitted at the first chance once the Safety Car was removed but another car stranded in the gravel would bring that back out again very soon.
Stops over but under a FCY, the #35 was still up within the top 10 overall whilst the #21 had retained its P18/P4 position as the race finally got back underway with just ten minutes remaining. Despite losing traction with fading tyres, the #35 Walkenhorst car of Villagomez managed to hang on until the end to finish P9 overall whilst the #21 crew finished the day P4 in silver.
The next round of the Sprint Cup Series will be from Zandvoort in Holland in just over three weeks’ time with the Spa 24 Test Day somewhere in-between.
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