Class double for the Blackthorn entry in GT Opens visit to Paul Ricard

Sunday, July 19, 2026

The Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing powered squad did their class championship aspirations a power of good this weekend as the #97 Vantage GT3 of Jonny Adam and Charles Bateman secured the double at this weekend’s International GT Open visit to Paul Ricard.

Round five to the season, this weekend came off the back of a very disappointing one for both Aston Martin Racing powered runners last time out at the Hungaroring two weeks ago as both the Blackthorn and Good Speed Racing efforts suffered performance wise over that weekends two races as well as a near last lap accident for the #14 Good Speed Racing AMR in race two.

This time around, things started well for the #97 Blackthorn effort after AMR factory driver Jonny Adam secured overall Pole Position for the weekend’s opening seventy-minute race whilst the solo driven #14 car of Piotr Wira only managed a P25 overall start out of the grid size of thirty runners.

Whilst Adam made for a quick start, a multi-car accident within the midfield of the pack during the opening sequence of corners quickly brought about the Safety Car as nearly twenty minutes of the race clock were lost to the large clean-up operation by the track workers.

Getting back to green, Adam again showed his experience to maintain his overall and class lead whilst Wira took to something of a recovery drive up through the order before the stop he would still have to make, but without a second driver to take over obviously.

Bateman would emerge still in the lead but only just as he now had a plethora of Pro class entries around him and whilst he did hold position for a lap of so, the gradual drop down the order was inevitable although he would always maintain his important class lead.

Hitting the final minutes of the race, and with Wira standing to benefit from a post-race time penalty for the then Am class race leader that disaster of another proportion would strike the Polish team as the Vantage GT3 stopped on track in a cloud of smoke and steam. Bateman and Adam would secure another class win within the series.

Race two on Sunday would be the slightly shorter sixty-minute affair with both Bateman and Wira again having to complete the earlier qualifying session with Bateman finishing P23 overall/P7 in class and Wira just ahead P21 overall/P3 in class.

This time a clean start saw both Aston Martins holding station to the rear of the pack as both the Pro and Pro driver driven Pro-Am entered crews made their way off up front. Wira’s hopes would take an early dive as he was given a post-race five second time penalty for overtaking earlier off track as at the mid race pit window, Bateman was rounding off the top twenty whilst Wira was still down in P27 overall.

Stops over and Adam had his work cut out down in P7 in class as did Wira within his Am class, but it wasn’t long before the disparage between Adam and his class rivals ahead saw the Scot moving forward taking the last two positions for the class lead going onto the final lap of the race to take their second-class win of the weekend. Wira would be classified as finishing P7 in class despite stopping again nine laps before the end.