The Racing Spirit of Leman entries within the GT4 European Series visit to Zandvoort round off our racing reports for last weekend as the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered runners faced something of a struggle at the Dutch coastal circuit.
Competing there as the fifth and penultimate round to their 2026 season, last weekend’s two one-hour long races eventually proved to be something to forget for their silver and Pro-Am classed pairings.
For the young Brazilian Pedro Gracia, this whole new racing adventure within Europe come at a cost – that this is in no other racing experience at certainly most of the tracks visited this year and Zandvoort was no different whilst his co-driver within their #74 car, Clement Seyler has at been around these circuits at least a few times. Their sister #72 Pro-Am pairing of Florent Grizaud and David Kullmann would have also known what to expect.
Competing last weekend within a grid of thirty-four other cars, Qualifying for Seyler for race one didn’t go too badly despite their reported balance issues within the car as the Luxembourger claimed a P11 starting slot whilst Kullmann was much further back in P29.
For the #72 car of Kullmann, their first race didn’t last much longer than turn one as contact between two other cars spun him around and left him stranded within the gravel. Unfortunately unable to get going again despite the comforts of a Safety Car meant that that was another DNF for these guys.
For Seyler, and the others on track for that matter, the strong wind continued to bring sand off the beaches and drop it around the track making for some treacherous conditions at times that saw the #74 car to continue to hang around the P10 mark up until the opening of the pit stop window. Handing over to Garcia from P13, the treat of rain looked menacing, but it never did although the constantly changing, sand induced track conditions made up for that fact.
As the final laps passed by and having suffered (an unseen) delay of some description, the #74 would finally finish P19 overall / P15 in class.
Race two on Sunday morning was a totally different affair as the wind had dropped and the sun was making intermittent appearances as the grid readied themselves for their final run out with Garcia this time starting from P9 and Grizaud P27.
Despite another incident at turn one like yesterday, the race continued green as #72 moved up one place and the #72 car within the top twenty-five after the opening lap. As the race settled, the top ten split into two distinct groups with the second group before an inter BMW clash along the pit straight had threatened another Safety Car intervention.
By the time of the pit window, the #72 was down to P12 with the #74 also having dropped down the order as well but despite newer, more experienced racers now being aboard – there was no forward movement up the leader board for either Aston Martin before they both eventually finished P16 overall / P11 in class for the #72 and P24 overall/ P9 in class for the #74.
The final round of the season will be from Portimao in just over three weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
