The biggest and perhaps best news came out of IMS as the #26 Heart of Racing crew of Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt secured not one but two class wins around the famous Brickyard to very much round off their 2023 on a high.

Having been thrust together by chance after a global invitation from the team to trial for a paid for seat within the teams 2023 campaign, the ability and potential of both you drivers was recognised at an early stage for the Heart team to pair them together for a season within the Am Class. Having endured countless counts of wrong place wrong time and bad luck to boot, this double can only be applauded.

Not to be out done though also saw the team’s Pro-Am entry of Gray Newell and Roman De Angelis also take a podium double having won their class in Friday’s first race before backing that up again with another P3 in class at the end.

Whilst there was a triple AMR related Championship win within the sister GT America Series this season, there was unfortunately to be no repeat of previous seasons for the AMR contingent in 2023.

It was to be a similar vein for the six Aston Martin powered crews that saw out the French national FFSA GT4 Series from the home of the SRO organisation in the south of France. Having seen the numbers of the Vantage GT4 fluctuate during the season as budgets ran dry, there was only the Racing Spirit of Leman team ever in class contention at this final double header.

Again running the first race into the night on Saturday, the race results from both the #92 car of Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez (Silver) and the #74 car of Clement Dub and Ronald Basso finally (Am) saw they championship aspirations expire but there would be one more twist to the story before season end.

In what might have been the final FFSA GT4 race competed by the AGS Events Racing team with the Vantage platform, we would be sure to expect the two Racing Spirit of Leman cars back next season (maybe even with the same crews) as both crews revisited the podium for the final time on Sunday having each secured P2 in class for their efforts.

Whilst both series have had their up and downs, both have always delivered on race action and competition and there’s no reason to expect that to be any different next season.

We are already looking forward to them.

Photo Credits – Team / Series

 

Like the GT America Series listed before this post, the FFSA GT4 finale will also see one Aston Martin powered team in with Championship potential going into these two races as Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez presently sit third within the Silver Cup class in the #92 Racing Spirit of Leman car. With fifty-two points being the maximum on offer again this weekend, their twenty-seven-point deficit could be easily overcome considering their recent performances as long as the Vantage is afforded a decent BoP by the series.

Their garage stablemates within the #74 car sees drivers Clement Dub and Ronald Basso sadly just out of overall championship contention going in this round but they are already fifty-four points in arrears to their Am class leaders, so runners up is the best that they can hope for.

Other entries sees two entries from the Nicolas Gomar led AGS Events Racing team for both Gomar and Mike Parisy aboard the #89 car and Didier Dumaine/Christoph Carriere aboard their #98 in which we have been told maybe their last outing with an Aston Martin.

They have again been blighted with both technical and driving standard issues (not necessarily theirs) as well as various underfunded drivers coming and going throughout the season for neither car to be in contention in either their Pro-Am or Am classes.

Baudouin Detout returns to the racetrack just a week after his first GT4 European class podium alongside Valentin Hasse-Clot last weekend in Barcelona where he will again pair alongside Tom Verdier in their #39 GPA Racing Pro-Am class entry.

The #6 Mirage Racing entry for Vincent Beltoise and Yves Lemaitre rounds off the confirmed AMR line up having only competed within two previous rounds this season. A second GPA Racing entry is also listed but with no driver or class listed.

They will run a more traditional timetable albeit with a night race on Saturday before rounding off their season with race two on Sunday afternoon.

Photo credits – Series / Teams / social media

They were also not the sole AMR success within the series fifth round however as the Am classed #98 AGS Events Racing AMR crew of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere finally broke their season podium duck with a P3 finish in Sundays race.

Too little too late for the #98 crew in what is apparently the team’s final season with the AMR Vantage GT4 platform, but the weekend’s results have given both Racing Spirit of Leman cause to believe in Championship possibilities as the series looks to round of the year at Paul Ricard in two weeks’ time. 

The #6 Mirage Racing AMR of Vincent Beltoise and Yves Lemaitre returned to the racetrack after another break, but their racing fortunes did not improve too much with a DNF in race 1 and a P10 Pro-Am finish in race 2 whilst the #39 GPA Racing AMR of Tom Verdier and Baudouin Detout at finished with consistency for the first time with two P8 finishes.

The #89 AGS Racing Events AMR of team boss Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy completed the six Aston Martin car line up within the twenty-nine-car entry with two P5 finishes in Pro-Am.

Photo credits – Series / social media

The only team to have run two cars throughout the whole season sees the Racing Spirit of Leman team have each of their #74 and #92 crews in contention of the Am and Silver classes respectively. Ronald Basso and Clement, who were a new pairing for this season presently lie just thirty-eight points behind their class leader and with one hundred points still available over this and the finale at Paul Ricard in just three weeks’ time – anything is possible.

It's a similar position for their #92 Silver crew of Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez who have taken being stuck in the gravel at the first round through to being fifty-one points behind their respective class leader, with the same number of points still available.

These crews will be joined by the #6 Mirage Racing crew of Yves Lemaitre/Vincent Beltoise, the #39 GPA Racing crew of Baudouin Detout/Tom Verdier plus two entries from the AGS Events Racing team for both Nicolas Gomar/Mike Parisy and Didier Dumaine/Christophe Carriere to complete the twenty-nine-car entry.

As usual, both races will be streamed live via the series social media channels.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

With one AGS Events Racing AMR not making the journey, that left ten Vantage GT4 crews across the series three class to carry on from where they left off at Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago.

There, good performances in Qualifying did lead to podium success for those runners but this time around that was not the case as the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman crew of Victor Weyrich and a substituting Matteo Villagomez for Konstantin Lachenauer set the early Aston Martin pace in Qualifying with two P2 in class starting positions.

That being said, the class podiums that did come about at the end of race 1’s Safety Car littered opener came from both the #18 Team Spirit Racing car of Lorenz Stegmann and Markus Lungstrass in Pro-Am and the #72 GPA Racing AMR of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud in Am – both of whom claimed class podiums last time out at Spa.

With the pace of the Aston Martin clearly now an issue compared to other OEM machinery on track, that was as good as it would get going into Sundays second race as (for the first time this season) no AMR powered crew was represented in any of the three classes together with the highest placed Vantage back in P7 for the #18 crew.

The series now hits its summer break before reconvening at Hockenheim in just over six weeks’ time.

Photo credits - Series

The most notable change appears to be the move of Emil Heyerdahl from the Mirage Racing team (where he was supposed to partner Ruben Del Sarte) to the #48 GPA Racing Aston Martin of Bailey Voisin. With both Heyerdahl and Voisin struggling for a consistent co-driver, the uniting of both drivers together within the #48 car appears to be a sensible solution to both of their problems.

Beyond that, there are no differences within the remaining ten Aston Martin to those who competed at Spa last month as the #27 Newbridge car is again absent as is the #9 Racing 1 entry that was a one off for Spa only.

Whilst the differing weather conditions between both races put many teams onto the back foot for race 2, many used those changing conditions to their advantage with both the #18 Team Racing Spirt AMR of Lorenz Stegmann and Markus Lungstrass and the #89 AGS Events Racing AMR of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy were able to add to the Aston Martin powered trophy count from the warmer race 1 when the #5 Mirage Racing of Jamie Day and Ruben Del Sarte claimed the final step of their (silver) class podium alongside the #72 GPA Racing Am Class podium for Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud.

Within the overall class standing so far, the GPA Racing team rest in third within the Am Class whilst #74 racing Spirits of Leman crew Konstantin Lachenauer and Victor Weyrich sit best of the AMR runners within the Silver Class in sixth whilst their class win at Spa last time out lifts the #18 TRS AMR crew of Lungstrass and Stegmann up to fourth within Pro-Am.

Still much to race for at Misano

Photo credits – Series / Teams

Why? We don’t know, as all these Aston Martin powered teams were also busy at last weekend’s GT4 European Series round at Spa Francorchamps and we cannot recall any issues with either Mirage or GPA Racing cars that would have stopped them entering this weekend.

Nevertheless, Clement Dub and Ronaldo Basso aboard the #74 with Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez aboard the sister #92 Racing Spirit of Lemans return to the series after a hugely successful round for them all last time out at Dijon where the two crews scooped three podium finishes between them having already locked out the front row in the classes at the head of each hour-long race.

Nicolas Gomar and Hugo Bac and Christophe Carriere and Didier Dumaine return within the AGS Events team garage aboard the #89 and #98 cars respectively, again buoyed by their recent performances in class within the parallel GT4 European Series but where success has so far illuded them in this series.

We will see what this weekend delivers them this time around.

UPDATE

The #48 GPA Racing crew will not be in attendance after the damage sustained previously at Dijon has not proved repairable in time. 

Photo credits – Teams / Series

 

 

Starting from behind the Safety Car, the now fifty-seven strong grid carefully went about their opening laps once the race went to green – just how much information the drivers knew at the time of the race is unclear, but Vant Hoff was clearly known to many drivers within the grid, and it was reassuring to see (in hindsight) that at least best advice was being heeded by all during these difficult opening laps.

Overnight work by the GPA Racing team had got their #48 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 back on track for driver Tom Verdier after his race 1 incident where a McLaren had tapped him heavily into the tyre wall on his outlap, but he and co-driver Bailey Voisin would come back to complete the best race of their series so far.

Two quick succession Safety Car periods were called as the results of (thankfully) minor collisions between competitors that left cars stranded both on track and in the gravel just ahead of the opening of the pit stop window.

Delayed by these incidences, the pit stop window was finally completed as the track slowly cleared of both standing water and spray from the cars to allow a faster developing race to ensue with several Aston Martins jockeying for position in class.

The most notable was the #18 Team Spirit Racing AMR of Lorenz Stegmann who, having just taken over from Marcus Lungstrass was metaphorically ploughing through the ranks in still tricky conditions to elevate his position from 4th, up to third and then higher as the laps counted down. Despite his heroics of race 1, Ruben Del Sarte was finding the conditions trickier than he had hoped for as he slipped down the order with a wide excursion around the parameter of the circuit before re-joining.

The #72 GPA Racing AMR of Kevin Jimenez was also looking good for a possible Am Class podium finish to go with the P3 that he and Florent Grizaud earned themselves in race 1, but an inadvertent off-track experience for them dropped them out of contention in third to a distant fourth at the end.

As the Belgian circuit brightened up for the final lap, we saw a great inter AMR team competitive run in to the flag between the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman car in P9, the #48 GPA Aston in P10 and the #18 Team Racing Spirit in P11.

Also coming home with podium success of their own was the #89 AGS Events Racing Aston Martin of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy. Having endured something of a difficult season and a half in both GT4 European Series and the FFSA GT4 Series, it’s great to see these guys get some kind of reward back for their efforts as they finished P3 in the Pro-Am class as well.

The next race of the series will be at Misano, Italy in two weeks’ time.

Photo credits – GT4 European Series

There were unfortunately casualties within the group leading up to this stage of the weekend as the additional entry from the Racing One team on behalf of American GMG Racing team and their drivers Andy Lee and Todd Pariott had suffered an unseen incident on track during Free Practice 2 that consigned that #9 entry to the back of the team awning with irreparable damage.

That left the first Qualifying session, and it would be the #24 JSB Competition AMR Vantage GT4 of Julian Briche who would steal the honours with an overall front row start in P2 and on pole position for their silver class entry. The #7 Mirage AMR of Louis Meric/Romain Carton was not far behind in P5 overall with the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman entry of Victor Weyrich and Konstantin Lachenaur beside them in P6.

Holding the lead into turn one at the start, the #24 car would just hold onto the lead on the opening laps as the huge chasing bunch squabbled and slow themselves down behind and before two cars had contact at the bus stop leaving one stranded on car and another leaving fluid across the racing surface.

Fifteen minutes were lost behind the Safety Car during that clean-up process and at the restart, the race entered only its second racing lap. With such an expansive field, battles between cars in differing classes were everywhere as the #19 Racing One AMR of Andreas Bachman was paying very close attention to the rear of Jamie Day’s #5 Mirage.

By the time the pit window opened, the #24 JSB Aston had opened up a 1.2 second lead although preferred not to pit until the very end of the process. Those who pitted early hoped to make the jump off track as the masses delayed themselves battling for position both on track and through the pit lane.

With all cars having pitted, the #48 GPA Racing car of Bailey Voisin and a deputing Tom Verdier suffered rearward contact with a McLaren that would send the Frenchman hard into the tyre wall which (together with another incident elsewhere on track) would eventually bring out the Safety Car again.

Losing his then six second lead, Florian Briche now had the remaining grid directly behind all trying to pressurise him into a mistake at the restart. With just eight minutes remaining the race went back to green and Briche was very quickly being swamped for position but battle hard he did to keep himself within the top three overall ass the race entered its final lap.

With the #24 car now in P3, a charging Ruben Del Sarte had lifted the #5 Mirage Aston up to P6 whilst a once charging Lachenaur had sadly gone the wrong way in his #74 car to find himself battling hard in P15.

Eventually crossing the line in P4 (#24) and P5 (#5), post-race time penalties would quickly take effect on the finishing order as the #24 was given a ten second penalty for track limits that would cast them down to P11 overall (P4 in class) whilst the #5 Mirage crew would eventually step up on to the silver Class podium in third as a result. The #72 GPA Racing Am crew of Florent Grizaud and Kevin Jimenez would complement that achievement with another P3 finish in class for their efforts.

Race 2 takes place later this morning.

Photo credits - Series / social media