Double class win in Misano for the Pro-Am entered Mirage Racing Aston Martin crew

Race one took place under the heat of Saturday afternoon as all four Aston Martins started within the top twelve only for the #39 car to run wide and drop positions on the opening laps thinks mainly to cold tyres but as well as over defending and over attacking positions that weren’t his to have at the time. Whilst that car had dropped down to P22, the other all silver class entries meanwhile where making hay within the top ten as the #39 cars issues went from bad to worse.

After just ten minutes, front end contact with something/someone for Detout saw coolant pouring from an open wound on his car and that was their race over as the first Full Course Yellow was called.

The #5 Mirage car of Ruben Del Sarte and Roberto Faria was first to pit alongside the remaining #74 RSLM of Will Orton and David Kullmann as they soon became embroiled in a battle together for P14 overall at the time. Vaintrub meanwhile was having battles of his own to preserve not just his own track position but also that at the sharper end of his class battles.

Race one would eventually wound out with Kullmann getting a post-race ten second time penalty for earlier contact that spun around a BMW for them to eventually finish P13 in class whilst the two Mirage Racing crews fared better with a class win for the #7 crew in P10 overall with the #5 crew just one place behind for a P10 finish in silver.

Race two on Sunday morning was a similar affair with all four cars again starting within the top fifteen cars (albeit with the second driver now aboard for the start) as the #5 car of Del Sarte leading the way in P10 after both the #7 and #74 cars got bumped down in the opening laps.

As the laps ticked by, Vaintrub was slowly making his way back up the order in class whilst both Del Sarte and Seyler were comfortably maintaining their position but seemingly unable to have the performance to move any further forward.

An incident at the opening sequence of corners to the lap brought out another FCY just ahead of the opening of the pit stop window but the pack was soon bunched up together again as that soon went into s Safety Car restart procedure. Whilst the other Aston Martin’s soon pitted, the #39 car of Seyler stayed out for as long as possible to make up in part to his non drive in race one after the damage sustained by Detout.

After the stops were over, Detout had a better race as he interchanged positions in and around the P6-P7 mark overall whilst the #7 Mirage car was now consolidating their Pro-Am class lead. Race two would be Faria’s turn to make the error as he stuck the nose of his #5 car up the inside of turn 2 only for the McLaren to chop it off and spin the Aston Martin out down to P20 for his efforts.

With the last few laps turning a little scrappy in terms of driver standards, the #7 RSLM car came home a more credible P7 overall whilst the #7 Mirage crew would claim their second, class win of the weekend. The #5 Mirage car would come home P10 in class on track but would be blessed with a post race time penalty of their own for too shorter pit stop (P18 overall) with the #74 RSLM ahead in ninth on track but P13 in reality after their own post race penalty for track limits as the series now looks to the Nurburgring for its next round at the end of August.

Photo credits – Teams / Series