Changes and additions to the Aston Martin ranks for Asian Le Mans finale in Abu Dhabi
Whilst we were expecting changes within the #19 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 Evo entry between venues, we now have a familiar sounding second entry from the Earl Bamber Motorsport team for the final two four-hour races after their superb P3 in class at the end of Sunday’s race in Dubai.
Having made a massive impact with her ability and race craft in Dubai, Saudi racer Reema Juffali sadly steps away from the #19 Blackthorn car, but this is where Italian racer Giacomo Petrobelli finally steps into the AsLMS equation, joining both Jonny Adam and Charles Bateman within the #19 car.
The #89 EBM podium winning crew of Gabriel Rindone, Jamie Day and Mattia Drudi remains the same for Abu Dhabi, but they will be joined this time by the same drivers that competed within the opening rounds in Sepang. That means that Anderson Tanoto, Brendon Leitch and Marco Sorensen return to the series aboard the teams second #98 chassis.
This (and other changes in entries between rounds) sees a forty-seven strong combined LMP2, LMP2 and GT3 grid with the GT’s making up thirty of those entries with (we think) all classes still up for grabs with those illusive invites to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for both the LMP2 and GT3 classes.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 |
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Podium for Earl Bamber Motorsport in Asian Le Mams second Dubai race
Having lost out with track position yesterday at the time of the hour-long red flag interruption to Saturday’s four-hour race, lessons learned from all concerned allowed the #89 Earl Bamber Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo of Gabriel Rindone, Jamie Day and Mattia Drudi to assault a late charge through the GT field to land themselves a P3 visit to the podium for their efforts.
It was that way from the start of course as the #19 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of Reema Juffali suddenly finding herself in the lead of the GT pack at the start to today’s race having qualified in third only to be forced back and hold a watching fourth in class for much of her two-hour stint.
Having lost out on almost half of her driver time on Saturday (due to the red flag for barrier repairs), the Saudi racer again proved her worth within the #19 car although by the end of end Aston’s bronze driver minimum driver time – both Aston’s found them back within the midst of the class.
Silver ranked drivers were up next within both cars as Day quickly reflected his growing experience within the class as well as local track knowledge to take the #89 EBM into the top ten as various (sometimes length) full course yellow and safety car periods for track clearing of debris and stranded cars interrupted the flow of the race.
Over in the #19 car, Charles Bateman would be getting second taste of the action having debuted within the car only yesterday to complete just a one fifty-minute stint in the car before handing over to AMR factory driver Jonny Adam to the end.
With Day running a slightly longer stint in the middle to that of Bateman, the two factory drivers of Adam and Drudi were left with differing workloads with just over an hour of seat time for Adam but twenty minutes less for the for Italian – not that he needed all of that even as he calmly claimed sixth, fifth, fourth and into third within the final ten minutes of the race just nine second behind the class winning #99 Porsche.
That result is the best result so far in the Asian Le Mans Series for the new Vantage GT3, the first for Earl Bamber Motorsport under Aston Martin Racing power but the second trophy in little over the week for Jamie Day having secured a similar trophy for his efforts in class at last weekend’s 12Hour of Bathurst. The #19 Blackthorn AMR crew eventually finished P14 in a bizarre role reversal of the two cars starting positions!!
The teams now far a relatively short trip down the motorway and across the border into Abu Dhabi for the concluding two four-hour races of the season around Yas Marina. From the commentary in today’s race, we expect to hear of certainly one driver change within the #19 Blackthorn car as Juffali steps away. We still await confirmation of the entry list for these two races.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Sunday, February 09, 2025 |
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A late call up for Jamie Day at the Abu Dhabi 6hr
Again, fielding their #77 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo for drivers Setiawan Santoso and brothers Mukong and Tanart Sathienthirakul after their series debut together just the weekend before at the Dubai 24, overnight sickness between Qualifying and race day for Thai TCR Asia racer Mukong meant that a late replacement had to be called in.
Having the benefit of residing close by back in Dubai, 2024 Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy winner Jamie Day was close at hand to lend that assistance as the young Englishman struck off another racing first for himself as he sets about confirming his 2025 (presumably GT3 based) programme and continued his own programme of events within the Creventic run series having raced an identical AMR Vantage GT3 at Dubai with the Comtoyou Racing team.
However, that driver change put paid to their collective qualifying efforts of Saturday to land them starting Sunday’s race from near last in the grid of fifty-two cars in fortieth position.
However, that driver change put paid to their collective qualifying efforts of Saturday to land them starting Sunday’s race from near last in the grid of fifty-two cars in fortieth position.
At the end of the first of a six-hour race, the #77 car was already up within the top twenty overall before falling back outside of that margin by the time the race had reached its halfway stage. That position remained about the same as the drivers continued to cycle through their available stint lengths before the car was eventually brought home in P21 overall, nineth within their new Pro-Am class but only four laps behind the overall winner.
That and their P6 result in class from Dubai has left the team third overall in class by the end of this mini–Middle East Trophy Series. The team will now redirect their thoughts and attentions to the next four races of the Asian Le Mans Series that will be ran at both Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina in February.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Monday, January 20, 2025 |
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EBM confirm their driver line up within this weekends Abu Dhabi 6hr
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Having ran superbly well in their first ever 24-hour race with their #77 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 Evo, the Earl Bamber Motorsport has made that comparatively short hop across the border to participate within this race with the same driver line up as the Dubai 24 except for the omission of team boss Earl Bamber himself.
That leaves bronze ranked driver Setiawan Santoso running alongside the Sathienthirakul brothers (Munkong and Tanart) as the team look for that critical car data ahead of their next visit to both Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina within the Asian Le Mans Series next month.
That leaves bronze ranked driver Setiawan Santoso running alongside the Sathienthirakul brothers (Munkong and Tanart) as the team look for that critical car data ahead of their next visit to both Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina within the Asian Le Mans Series next month.
Unofficial track action will begin on Wednesday with the first of three track day sessions before three further test sessions on Friday before Free Practice and class Qualifying on Saturday before a green flag to the race at 10:30hrs (local) on Sunday.
Photo credits – 24H Series / Team / social media
Monday, January 13, 2025 |
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Two AMR powered sets of drivers confirmed for next months Dubai 24
With the number of indeed names of car entries having fluctuated over recent weeks as proposals turned into realities, it appears that it will just be the Comtoyou Racing and Earl Bamber Motorsport teams representing the British brand at next month’s twentieth anniversary running of the event at the Dubai Autodrome.
Within the #40 Comtoyou entry we see another large Belgian contingent as Matisse Lismont remains with the team from his GT World Challenge Europe commitments earlier this season alongside that of WEC Corvette racer Tom Van Rompuy. They will be joined by British GT4 and European GT4 racer Jamie Day as he continues to step up from the GT4 class into GT3 ahead of a 2025 season.
Whilst the #41 Comtoyou sadly remains with a string of TBC’s aside its entry, that leaves the #77 EBM entry of Setiawan Santosa returning to the team after his GT World Challenge Asia commitments with them this season along two other Thai co-drivers.
Whilst the #41 Comtoyou sadly remains with a string of TBC’s aside its entry, that leaves the #77 EBM entry of Setiawan Santosa returning to the team after his GT World Challenge Asia commitments with them this season along two other Thai co-drivers.
Tanart Sathienthirakul is another proficient silver driver from the GT World Challenge Asia Series whilst Munkong Sathienthirakul comes from the TCR Asia ranks.
First track sessions of the Dubai 24 start on Monday 6th January with private testing before the 24 hour itself ran over the 11th and 12th January.
It now appears that it will be just the EBM AMR entry that now also runs within the 24H Series 6Hrs of Abu Dhabi the weekend after too.
Photo credits – Teams / social media / GTWCE / TSS
Saturday, December 28, 2024 |
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An Aston Martin powered entry for this years Gulf 12Hr it seems!
Today’s edition of its provisional entry list details twenty-one crews being entered for the two-part event that will take place around the F1 circuit around Yas Marina but one entry line towards the end this list does now state Aston Martin alongside the team name of Simpson Motorsport.
Driver crews will be confirmed at another time, but each entry will now consist of at least one bronze ranked (Gentleman) driver.
A quick search of that team name did reveal that an AGMC by Simpson Motorsport team did take part within last year’s 24H Series with a BMW M4 GT4 but this will be a step up for them to the GT3 platform.
We will have to wait and see as scrolling through the provisional entry lists for both the 24H Series Dubai 24 and Abu Dhabi 6H shows the team still pedalling BMW GT4 and GT3 machinery. That just raises the question of who's car could they be running??
Photo credit - Series
Thursday, October 24, 2024 |
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They save their best till last as the old Vantage GT3 goes out in style in Asian Le Mans Series ##UPDATED##
Having finished yesterday’s penultimate race of the season around the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi with a P6 in class, the trio ran an even better, more opportunist race in Sundays finale to finish that race just off the class podium in P4 (now see update below)
Whilst the #95 TF Sport car would keep it mostly clean, the #77 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Casper Stevenson and Tomonobu Fujii would see their Saturday race blighted by the effects of losing three laps due to early contact through to being delayed by contact (both of their own and other cars making) to eventually round off another Asian Le Mans Series with P19 and P14 finishes accordingly.
It was not all plain sailing for the #95 yesterday as Tuck was involved in an incident that saw the two cars make the slightest of touches whilst line astern to one another only for the #86 GR Racing Ferrari top spin off and impact heavily into the circuit barriers. Fortunately, the driver was bruised, sore but otherwise OK although their own weekend would be run with their car quickly being established as irreparable in time for race 2.
Tuck would later post a heartfelt apology for his involvement and the consequences of the incident that lead to GR Racings withdrawal – very sporting and gentlemanly of him to do so.
The resulting red flag period for that incident would leave just over half an hour of the penultimate four-hour race to go for the red and white liveried car to come home with their best result so far in P6.
Sunday would see early rain effect the balance and track with early dramas taking out four championship contending cars from the early running order. Not being part of that process, neither Aston had anything to lose yet everything to gain as Hoshino made the early running as high as P3 for them whilst the #95 ran lower down the order.
More Safety Car and FCY intervention periods of course made for ‘mad’ restarts and whilst Hoshino would appear to have been spun by another, they were adjudged to have been at fault and given a Drive through penalty for their efforts. Just before the first hour, another red flag period for barrier repairs was necessary after an LMP2 car took out another GT car – again both drivers were otherwise OK but with the clock still counting, time was running out on both the race and the season for others.
With the race again entering darkness and with around ninety minutes remaining, the #77 and #95 cars eventually swapped running order on track with Tuck again putting in some hot laps with Stevenson mirroring his moves albeit on a differing strategy but this time it would be Adam and Fujii who would be rounding off the season for both AMR Partner teams in both P4 and P14.
Whilst one chapter closes – another one opens as Aston Martin Racing, Aston Martin F1 and Aston Martin Lagonda are expected to reveal all tomorrow from the home of British motorsport at Silverstone.
##UPDATE - Post race penalties within the GT class elevate the #95 crew onto the podium for race 2 with a confirmed P3 finish with the #77 crew now up to P13!! Awesome stuff to end another exciting season with!!
Photo credits – Teams / Andrew Lofthouse
Photo credits – Teams / Andrew Lofthouse
Sunday, February 11, 2024 |
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Driver crews confirmed within TF Sport ahead of opening round of Asian Le Mans Series next week
The D’Station Racing team were one of the first to declare their intentions to return to the ACO rules series this season and today’s news see them confirming their 2023 World Endurance Championship crew of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Casper Stevenson within their #77 car who will again run with the support of TF Sport.
Following that, we saw TF Sport confirm that their 2023 European Le Mans driver line up of John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck and Jonny Adam within the red #95 entry with Tuck getting his first taste of the series which will this year run in Sepang, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as part of a five-round series which starts next week in Sepang.
Unfortunately again too early in the life cycle of an expectant new race car, these two teams will compete within the current Vantage GT3 specification of car having both raced together this season within the Vantage GTE version.
We were originally told of three such returning AMR powered crews into this year’s Series, but the Viper Niza Racing team have since elected to run with their LMP3 chassis this year instead.
Twenty-three GT3’s help to make up the combined LMP2/LMP3/GT3 grid of thirty-nine cars expected for the first two four-hour races of the season which will run over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of December 2023 before moving across to Dubai for round three on the 4th of February 2024 before the short flit over to Abu Dhabi for the deciding double header over the weekend of the 10/11th February.
Photo credits – Andrew Lofthouse
Wednesday, November 22, 2023 |
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Viper Niza Racing back in action as the Thailand Super Series returns to Buriram for Rd 2 of the season
With their battered car pulled from the shipping container last time around having been just returned to the team at the circuit from its ill-fated venture into the Asian Le Mans Series events in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the team and drivers Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang spent most of their time chasing set up having to repair the car still after its last race incident in Dubai.
This time around, the car will be delivered in one piece and with the data already to hand from the previous round will put the team on a greater footing this time as the compete within what is expected to be another eight strong GT3 class throughout its two scheduled races.
Photo credits - Team
Sunday, May 21, 2023 |
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Just three AMR Vantage GT3's to grace the grids of the Asian Le Mans Series next month
It was supposed to be a mighty six Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3 effort into this year’s Asian Le Mans Series double header of races at both the Dubai Autodrome and the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi but today’s entry list confirmation leaves things a little further short of that number again.
First, we had the unexpected news just before Christmas of a change in allegiance from the Garage 59 team from what was supposed to another two AMR car effort again this year to a new two car McLaren effort for their drivers and customer base.
Today, we have now seen confirmed the suspected withdrawal of the Evisu Racing AMR GT3 entry from David Pun’s racing empire – most likely sadly still due to the ongoing travel restrictions for anyone flying in and out of China due to their COVID-19 entry/exit requirements.
That leaves us with just the three TF Sport supported entries for both Oman Racing with TF Sport and D’Station Racing as well as their own entry for a returning customer aboard their three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entries who will now all compete amongst a now reduced entry list of thirty-six LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 cars, of which the GT’s make up for twenty-three of them.
Today’s news does however confirm that Tom Gamble will again partner the #77 D’Station Racing GT3 effort alongside team boss Satoshi Hoshino and ‘resident’ team professional Tomonobu Fujii in their sveltely liveried green Aston.
They join John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and Henrique Chaves aboard the #95 TF Sport entered car as well as Ahmad Al Harthy, Charlie Eastwood and Sam De Haan aboard the #69 Oman Racing entry as already confirmed by the team.
Racing starts over the weekend of the 12th and 13th February in Dubai before concluding over the following weekend at Yas Marina.
Photo credits - Teams
Monday, January 31, 2022 |
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Class Pole position for the Century Motorsport AMR crew ahead of the Gulf 12Hrs
The #15 Century Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crew of David Holloway, Piers Johnson and Bradley Ellis certainly continued to make their intentions clear in today’s more formal sessions of the Gulf 12Hr by dominating Free Practice before going on to secure Class Pole ahead of tomorrows race.
Continuing their form shown during yesterday’s private testing had the golden Vantage GT4 hit the top of the class timing screen again during today’s first and third Free Practice with only a slight technical ‘hiccup’ blighting an otherwise faultless display during the middle session.
After that, it was straight into individual Qualifying sessions with their aggregated times deciding overall class starting honours between the three GT4 runners. First fastest in the first session for Johnson, followed by P2 for Holloway and rounded off with another P1 time for Ellis was enough for the #15 car to claim GT4 Class Pole position ahead of the start of tomorrows first six hours of racing.
All the action will be streamed live via the Series YouTube channel at 09:00hrs local which is four hours ahead of the UK and GMT.
Good luck to them.
Photo credits – Gulf 12hr / Team
Friday, January 07, 2022 |
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Holloway's second stab at the Gulf 12hr confirmed with todays provisional entry list
Having just made it safely through to the other side and into 2022, we finally get to see a provisional entry list for the first racing event of the New Year over in Abu Dhabi with what is the Gulf 12Hr less than a week ahead of its scheduled start.
With the (sadly) still very fluid global situation that still involves that mutating Virus, race organisers for this two-part twelve-hour event have been (and still are) struggling with entries and the safe transit of personnel and equipment from around the world and into the country – a situation that has forced their hand to delay until the very last moment, their expected entries.
Fifteen cars (no driver details yet) now feature upon what is still being pointed out as a provisional multi-class entry list and of which three will be GT4 machinery from the UK based Century Motorsport and Greystone teams.
Today’s news also confirms that David Holloway’s Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 will be the sole AMR representation within the event after his last venture into the event back in 2019.
This year, the businessman is joined by his long time UK racing co-driver Piers Johnson as well as Holloway’s co-driver and driving coach from last season’s UK GT Cup Championship endeavours in Bradley Ellis. They will compete against a BMW M4 GT4 also entered by Century Motorsport as well as the Greystone entered McLaren 570s.
We had been hoping for an AMR GT3 entry but presumably Covid has put paid to that!
Track action is scheduled to start with private testing this Thursday (6th) with officially timed sessions starting the next day. The first six-hour session of the event will start at 09:30hrs local before the start of the second and final session later at 17:15hrs local.
Fingers crossed!!
Photo credits – Century Motorsport / Jacob Ebrey
Monday, January 03, 2022 |
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Century confirm their Aston Martin GT4 entry in the Gulf 12Hr in early January
Aston Martin Vantage owner and GT Cup regular with Century since 2018, David Holloway will be joined by his teammate Bradley Ellis and former teammate Piers Johnson, to race in car number 15. Holloway has had great success with Century this year, getting podiums in both British GT and the GT cup, with Ellis as David’s partner throughout this season as his pro.
With many endurance races under their belt, Century are well prepared for this new challenge. The 12 hour race consists of two 6 hour stints in the car, with a 3 hour break in between where the cars are allowed to be worked on. The format “switches the race focus from reliability to strategy and pace” allowing the drivers to push their cars to the limit and making for a very exciting race!
The race starts on Saturday the 9th of January at 9:30am (5:30am UK time), with practice and qualifying taking place on Friday the 8th from 9:50am. It can be watched live on the Gulf 12 hour website and their YouTube channel.
Team Owner, Freke:
“We are really looking forward to our maiden Gulf 12 hour race. This has been on our radar for quite some time and for us to be entering a 2 car team is just great. We are looking forward to the challenge and hopefully picking up some trophies on the way!”
Source material - Century Motorsport
Photo credits - Team / GT Cup
Friday, December 17, 2021 |
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Multiple AMR GT8R’s enter Dubai 6hr 2022
Exciting news coming from the Creventic’s 24H Series today as they have confirmed a class specific for the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT8R platform during next years six hour non Championship race in Abu Dhabi.
As like this year, this 2022 race will again be held one week before the 24H Series visit Dubai for their opening 24 hour race of their new season.
In a first for the Series, a Vantage GT8R class has been set up specifically for the performance enhance GT4 based race car with five teams expected to take part. No team or driver details have been announced in today’s news.
This is great news for the platform as we know several cars have now been sold into the market place but only two have been known to race on a semi-regular basis both at the NLS with Garage 59 and most recently in New Zealand’s North Island Endurance Series.
Some of these cars are also expected to take part in the 2022 Dubai 24hr as well.
Photo credits - Garage 59 / NIES
Thursday, July 01, 2021 |
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Final ALMS race tomorrow to finalise auto invites for Le Mans 24 in GT
Moving into the two final four-hour races at the Abu Dhabi circuit which would involve more night time running with their later race starts, today was to be a busy day for the thirty five runners after already having run two Qualifying Sessions this morning for each of todays and Saturday’s races.
There had also been more beneficial news for them in the form of an additional 15kg of ballast being added to the three Porsche 911 GT3 cars after two dominating performances by them in Dubai that left the GPX and Herberth Porsche teams at the top of the leader board going to Yas Marina.
Garage 59 continued with their Pro drivers Maxime Martin and Marvin Kirchhofer each Qualifying and starting their #88 and #89 cars again and were the front runners of the AMR five on this afternoon’s grid in P4 and P7 respectively. Jonny Adam in #97 Oman Racing car qualified his car in P9 whilst the D’Station Racing boss Satoshi Hoshino would start from P13 in his #77 car with Ollie Hancock starting the #95 TF Sport car from P15.
A busy looking start saw the GT pack more than four wide over the start line but thankfully the #88 and #89 cars come out in front in class as the race was immediately placed under Safety Car procedures as an LMP3 faulted on the pit straight. Another short period of Green running before another Safety Car for another failed LMP3 car on track interrupted the flow of the race and wasted valuable minutes of both Martin’s and Kirchhofer’s time aboard their cars but by the end of the first 30 minutes, AMR were running 1-2-3 after the #97 picked up the tail of the leaders.
Importantly for the Astons, the two Championship leading Porsche’s were still back in P4 and P5 at this stage but with only their Silver’s aboard, they would start to fall back further as the race eventually began to flow.
After a great stint in Sunday’s second round, Hoshino aboard his #77 car would get frustratingly for him stuck behind a LMP3 car as he saw out his mandatory 55 minutes behind the wheel. The #95 TF Sport car had swapped their starting driver from their Bronze of John Hartshorne to their Silver of Hancock but he too would struggle to make to much indent from his original starting position in what was still only their third race in two week aboard an AMR Vantage GT3.
Going into the second hour and the Garage 59 cars would retain the top two places (albeit swapped around in running order) by the time the first stops had worked themselves out as Yuki Nemoto had stepped in the #89 from Kirchhofer and Valentin Hasse-Clot got down to business in the #88. By the time that Adam had swapped over to Ahmad Al Harthy in the #97 car, the running order had returned to P1 for Nemoto, P2 for Hasse-Clot, P4 for Al Harthy, P15 for Tomonobu Fujii now in the #77 car and P18 for Hartshorne.
Just after the halfway mark and both Garage 59 cars now had their bronze drivers of Alex West in the #88 and Mike Benham in the #89 for their minimum driver time to defend what was then an 18 second lead over the still threatening Porsche’s behind.
Coming towards the final hour of the race, the #97 Oman Racing car of Al Harthy again pitted from his assumed lead of the race as he handed the car over to Tom Canning for the final race to the flag. Hoping to beat their brace of P7 finishes in Dubai, the Oman crew really needed a decent finish and based upon their performances so far – that looked highly possible!
That was however until the rear of the #27 Kessel Racing Ferrari suddenly met the front of the #97 Aston at the blind entry of turn 7. With the exact circumstances of the incident unclear, the result was terminal radiator damage to the #97 and that would force Canning to quickly park the now battered blue and white car in a place of safety as to prevent any further damage to the engine through overheating. Their race was now over with just fifty minutes remaining.
Such were the sequence of events at that stage of the race that the resulting Full Course Yellow had #40 and #99 Porsche’s now at the front of the order for the first time in the race with there also being little evidence of their 35kg of additional ballast having any long-term effect on their overall performances such was the depth of ability within those cars.
Martin was in P6, Tom Gamble had come out of almost nowhere aboard the #77 car to hold and push the AMR factory driver from P7 and with Kirchhofer down in P10 with only 30 minutes remaining – despite them all still posting personal bests there was nothing that any of them could do to stop the Porsche’s taking the top two steps again this time around.
Eventually finishing P6, P7 and P9 respectively for those above and in P16 for the #95 car, that leaves Sundays final race of the ALMS season as an effective ‘winner takes all’ race to decide the top four GT’s that will be presented with their Le Mans 24hr automatic invitation but with two already going to Porsche teams – that leaves about the next seven cars all squabbling over what’s left.
Photo credits - AMR / Teams / ALMS
Friday, February 19, 2021 |
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