Challenging conditions at Zandvoort still allow two AMR powered crews to secure class finishes in GTWCE Sprint Cup

 

 

Two thoroughly chaotic races around the Dutch coastal circuit of Zandvoort saw something of a bitter-sweet Aston Martin Racing powered performance from the five Vantage GT3 crews that made up the forty-five strong entry for this penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Series.

With the Belgian Comtoyou Racing team fielding three such cars alongside a further two from the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport, all were there as just a matter of pride after previous performances has seen all Pro, silver and bronze classed AMR entries now out of class contention.

 

Difficult conditions at the circuit on Saturday saw strong winds lifting sand from the adjacent beach dunes and depositing that upon an already challenging circuit making for some difficult qualifying and racing conditions.

Strangely, the highest placed Aston Martin within Q1 ahead of the first hour long race was the #21 silver classed Comtoyou Racing AMR of Arthur Dorison and Oliver Soderstrom way down in P21 overall with their sister #007 Pro class entry of Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels the slowest of the five way down in P37.

 

With the race getting underway under skies that looked as threatening as they could get without actually raining, it was a surprising clean opening lap aside from one car getting a puncture through contact. For all the Astons, it was to be a progressive steps through the ranks as the Dane passed twelve cars on the opening lap to move into the top twenty-five first time around. An unsurprising early Safety Car for a stranded car on track cooled matters down whilst that was recovered as Thiim remained the lead AMR with the #11 Comtoyou bronze class entry of Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni surprisingly the next best placed sister car in P28 just ahead of the pit stop window.

Stops done and whilst Pauwels had now elevated his #007 car into just outside of the top ten overall, the sister #21 car was now in a position to threaten the silver class ranks for a podium finish with just twenty minutes remaining as both silver classed Walkenhorst cars continued to suffer with performance/traction on track at the wrong end of the pack.

 

At the chequered flag, the #007 recovered something of their mojo from the earlier qualifying to finish P9 overall/P6 in class but the #21 car did manage to snatch the final step of the silver class podium P19 overall /P3 in class. The final Comtoyou entry – the #11 failed to finish whilst the #34 Walkenhorst car of Jamie Day/Mateo Villagomez eventually finished P29 overall / P6 in class with its sister #35 car of Maxime Robin and Gaspard Simon two cars further back P31 overall / P7 in class.

Sundays race was a totally different affair as (predominantly) the strong wind had now gone with the race now being run upon a much cleaner and (in parts) drier track. Earlier qualifying had seen the #007 secure a P12 starting slot with the #21 car the next best placed AMR in P19 with the other five P29 or further back.

 

That performance for the #007 car was however lost on the opening lap as Pauwels was rear ended and spun around by another spinning car and that would see the end to their efforts for the weekend just a few laps later alongside the that of the #11 car a few laps earlier.

With two cars down after only the first few minutes, the pressure would have been on the others to perform and it was again the #21 Comtoyou car who rose to the occasion by this time securing a silver class win but this time, the did bring the #34 Walkenhorst crew with them to the podium as they secured a P3 finish at the end despite all of the going contact throughout the race. The #35 Walkenhorst completed the finishers P31 overall / P9 in class.

 

The Sprint Cup Series now looks ahead to its final round of the season from Portimao in a months’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media