Success and bizarre failures within the AMR runners in latest GT America races from VIR

Unfortunately for the series, the three Aston Martins helped bolster a meagre eight strong GT3, GT2 and GT4 grid for these two races as Bell struggled for pace within his #2 AMR Vantage GT3 (despite the earlier Balance of Performance gains allowed by the SRO earlier in the weekend) whilst the two Vantage GT4 crews obviously did what they could against the faster cars in the pack.

Trouble soon struck two of those three cars as first Dean entered pit lane reporting both tyre and overheating issues that would quickly negate his GT4 debut with both the car and series whilst Bell suffered from both an off and having his in-car fire extinguisher go off after that understeering issue at the Old Oak tree that resulted in the dark livered car nestled within the tyre wall.

Whilst both of those cars would be out of the race, Fitzpatrick did what he needed to do to end his opening race with an effective lights to flag class win for his efforts.

Race two on Sunday would follow a similar route as Dean would quickly sacrifice his racing efforts in that event to save the car for the following GT4 America race whilst Bell would also have his fire extinguisher go off again that resulted in him quickly coming into pit lane, with the door wide open to again jump quickly out slightly worse for wear (again) for that experience.

Although Dean had been leading the two GT4’s at the point of his retirement, that obviously allowed team boss Fitzpatrick to secure the double at the end of that forty-minute race.

Depending upon just who we get (if any) within the Aston Martin Racing powered contingent to enter the next round of the series, that will be from Road America in mid-August.

Photo credits – Teams / Series