Last weekends final round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge from the rejuvenated Kyalami race track in South Africa was very much a breath of fresh air in the world of motorsport with all too many events these days taking place at sterile, more heartless and lack lustre venues.

Obviously, the Kyalami of today differs greatly to that of the seventies when Formula 1 commanded and got the admiration of the world at large that it deserved back then even though there were all too many darkened days amongst them. Last weekends event however, was conducted in more notably enjoyable surroundings as the international racing community finally accepted this iconic name back into its fold with local fans in their thousands coming out to catch up on what they had so far been missing.


Whoever devised the day into night Free Practice and the similar nine hour race format was a stroke of genius as having the best the GT3 racing world could offer, all competing on a track brand new to most together with the unpredictable sub-tropical weather that the southern tip of Africa can come up with made the event what is was despite results not going the way of the Aston Martin Racing runners.

Having already contended with some truly remarkable weather patterns moving in across the circuit during the course of Free Practice and Qualifying, the start of the race on Saturday at least started under clear blue skies and increasing track and cockpit temperatures as the twenty eight starters got under way.


For the #188 Garage 59 Pro-Am entry, the race sadly never really got underway as an uncharacteristic gearbox failure aboard their AMR V8 Vantage GT3 sluiced oil onto the rear wheels of the car, putting starting driver Chris Goodwin into a half spin and through the gravel trap before making heavy contact with a sausage kerb with the front end as he began the recovery process to the pits. That was only his third lap!!

That combination of damage at either end of the car would consign them to the garage for the next two hours of the race - effectively ending their podium bid unless they could later complete 70% of the race winners distance. Co-drivers Alex West and Come Ledogar would have to sit patiently for their turn.


Garage 59's misfortunes meanwhile left the reigns of the AMR brand firmly in the hands of the two R-Motorsport GT3's with them having started from a post Qualifying penalised P12 (#76) and P19 (#62) for their starting drivers of Maxime Martin and Hugo de Sadeleer respectively.

Despite both cars competing in the full Pro class, each car carried a non full Pro driver in the form of World Challenge Europe Silver Cup winner De Sadeleer in the #62 and single seater racer but GT rookie Enaam Ahmed in the other. Their performance on track however far from compromised the cars overall performance as the #62 raised itself as high as P2 overall just after the halfway mark with the #76 hovering around P17.


Just as the light began to fade, incidences began to happen on track and the threat of rain before the end of the race began to hold some real likelihood. A huge tyre blowout on the #108 Bentley threw up the need for another FCY following on from one earlier to recover a stricken Lamborghini from the local trio within the National Cup class in what had been a reasonably clean race so far. By then the Garage 59 crew had already worked their wonder on the #188 car with Goodwin already having completed his 'opening stint' before handing over to Alex West for his first laps in the race.

With the clock counting down to just three hours remaining, the #62 car still looked a menacing threat to the leading Porsches as the grey and blue liveried car circulated just 40 seconds back from the leader in P6 having themselves lost track time for an earlier drive through penalty for track limits.

Then everything got turned upon its heads!!


The #108 Bentley that earlier suffered a massive blowout suffered a more significant dilemma as it nosedived heavily into the tyre wall - another FCY was needed to recover it and repair the barrier damage just as the rain began to fall. Not slowly and progressively like we maybe more used to in Europe but with an off to on effect, quickly swamping the track with rivers of water for it to suddenly stop as quick as it had started.

Twenty five minutes behind the Safety Car later and it wasn't looking good for a restart anytime soon as the rain came and went only to return again as progressively longer and intense downpours. This, together with the poor weather forecast for the remaining two hours proved to be the end of the race for the #188 Garage 59 car as it was returned to the garage - not with any technical issue other than not being able to make up its minimum race time to be able to be classified by the chequered flag. They would finish their IGTC finale some 50 laps + short.


For the best part of the next ninety minutes, the remaining field tried to tippy toe around the 5.45km circuit as the thunder, lightning and rain continued to hammer down around the circuit as rivers of flood water washed over the circuit. At times it appeared impossible to simply drive around the circuit at the slowest of speeds yet alone race at any significant speed.
With neither team in any Championship position at this season finale in South Africa anyway, attention has already turned to the 2020 season of the Intercontinental GT Challenge that starts in little over sixty days at the 12hours of Bathurst in Australia at the end of January.

This is where the new AMR Vantage GT3 finally make its full debut in Australia having missed out on homologation rules at this years event.

Whats there not to like about this series?

Photo credits - Garage 59 / R-Motorsport / IGTC

Never having really gone away, it has been a lot of years since we have seen any mainstream international motor racing being beamed around the world onto our TV sets from the historical 4.5km circuit in Kyalami, South Africa.

Whilst hosting the Formula 1 circus for many years in the seventies, it racing history has been  colourful and diverse yet with dark overtones unfortunately taking the limelight from what was always a challenging circuit so it is always good to see new, brighter history being written at this circuit after too many years in the doldrums.

This weekend sees the Intercontinental GT Challenge host its final round of the 2019 season at the now revamped circuit with three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's from two AMR Partner teams taking part in the form of both Garage 59 and R Motorsport for the final nine hours of racing.


From the first track action of yesterday through to the Top 10 shoot out of this afternoon, all three AMR cars have been showing their worth through some truly mesmerising weather conditions around what is an circuit.

The first Practice session of yesterday was conducted from under an incredible sunset, one that would go head to head with the likes of Bathurst and into full darkness with both Pro class R-Motorsport cars figuring prominently with their mixed driver line ups to what we have been previously used to.

The the #76 car, Maxime Martin would be again joined by Jake Dennis but also with the GT debuting Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year finalist's Enaan Ahmed. Their sister #62 would be made up of Marvin Kirchhofer, Ricky Collard and Hugo de Sadeleer - all well known within the team from the teams respective Blancpain GT Series activities of this year.


Joining these and still relatively 'fresh' from the podium finish in the last round of the Challenge series in Suzuka are the #188 Pro-Am Garage 59 crew of Alex West, Chris Goodwin and Come Ledogar.

The grid would be made up of twenty eight cars, most will be competing within the full Pro Class with three Silver, two Pro-Am, three Am class and two national entries including the likes of Charlenes Arangies who previously raced a V12 Vantage GT3 in the National GT arena with great success it must be added.

Moving into the three Qualifying sessions of this afternoon, each driver would have fifteen minutes to post their best time before all three driver times would be totalled and averaged out to determine which top ten cars would go into todays later Top 10 Shoot Out to determine the formation of the start of the grid.


Q1 started on a dry, warm track but had an obviously storm front moving towards the circuit with the forecast of more torrential rain with thunder and lightning probably.

West, Collard and Martin were all out first with the two R-Motorsport cars conducting only a series of installation laps in the first instance whilst West quickly got down to business with half the allotted time gone before either the #62 or #76 had actually set any lap time. Then out of the blue, Martin set the fastest lap of the weekend so far to claim provisional pole by over 0.1 of a second to the then pace setting Honda NSX. Collard would also set a decent lap time to finish in P12 but he would be pinged from track limits, losing his time on that lap to drop down to P26. West would eventually finish P22.

Next up in Q2 and with the rain getting ever closer and lightning now striking the ground in the suburbs around the track were Goodwin, de Sadeleer and Ahmed. Lap times were only showing their own lap times and their accumulative times rather than their times relative to one another in Q2.


On the timing board, all three cars were running in close formation to one another but as the rain began an error from Goodwin caused the rear of his #188 car to come around through the Esses and spin around to become beached on the fringe of the gravel trap forcing the session to be red flagged.

With just a few minutes lost to aid the recovery of the stricken AMR, cars in pit lane were all keen to get going before the rains really arrived - too keen for the #76 car in fact as Ahmed stuck the nose of his car out into the fast lane only for it to be clipped by a passing Audi. That error would ultimately cost them more track position at the end of the session after their unsafe release penalty was applied.

By now the wind and rain had really arrived on track with rain pouring down onto a circuit for of cars on slick tyres and wind ripping off the advertising hoardings as the wind speed hit gusts of nearly 50mph!!!


As a result of that, Q3 would be declared a wet session with headlights and high intensity rear lights all on but not all cars on wets. That quickly became apparent as Nick Tandy understeered his Porsche into the tyre wall to prompt another red flag which at least the remaining drivers to come to their senses to fit wet tyres during the short break.

Now more appropriately attired, it didn't take Dennis too much longer to get going as he battled with two Porsches for the honours of the top three positions - stealing P2 for a time before a last lap lunge from one of them dropped the #76 back down to P3. Still, that was a Top 10 Shoot Out place.

For both Kirchhofer and Ledogar, Q3 wasn't particularly productive for them (for unknown reasons) that left the #62 back towards the rear of the Pro class in P19 and the #188 the fourth placed non Pro car in P22. The #76 would go into the later Top 10 Shoot out for Dennis to finish in P7, 1.117 seconds off the lead pace but a further grid penalty would see that car drop to P12 for tomorrow's race.


Of course, being a nine hour race Qualifying doesn't really mean a lot as it is usually where you finish at the fall of the chequered flag that counts rather than from where you start. The start of the Kyalami 9Hr begins at 13:00hrs (local)

Good luck to you all!

Photo credits - R-Motorsport / Garage 59 / IGTC

The fifth and final round of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge takes place this weekend from the Kyalami race track in South Africa with three examples of the new Aston Martin Racing V98 Vantage GT3 making their way down for Sunday's nine hour spectatcular.

The #188 Garage 59 Pro-Am entry of Alex West, Chris Goodwin and Come Ledogar make their way southwards for this weekend event having worked hard to recover their racing situation by the end of the last round at Suzuka where weather conditions had heavily impacted upon the grids preparations to finally claim a P2 finish in class by the close of that events ten hours of racing.


Joining them at the season's finale are also two examples from Swiss based R-Motorsport fleet featuring AMR's with three of the teams mainstream Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup drivers teaming up with two lesser experienced GT drivers and well as a GT debutant.

Having raced together in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series sees Marvin Kirchhofer reunite with Ricky Collard in the #62 car and they are joined this time by fellow team World Challenge racer and Silver Cup runner up Hugo de Sadeleer.


In the sister #76 car, drivers Maxime Martin and Jake Dennis are joined by Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year nominee and F3 racer Enaam Ahmed for what is thought to be his first racing experience within a top flight GT car following his appraisal laps for the BRDC Award around Silverstone in one of Garage 59's AMR Vantage GT3's last month.


Track action starts this Thursday with up to four hours of Private testing ahead of a further ninety minutes of night testing to see out the day. Friday sees both Pre Qualifying and Qualifying ahead of of the rolling start for the 9 hour race beginning at 13:00hrs local.

Qualifying and the race itself will all be streamed live via the IGTC social media channels.

Photo credits - Blancpain / Garage 59 / R-Motorsport

They came as close to it as that they could 'smell it' but after the final race of the 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series from the Hungaroring today, the best the #62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin Racing racing duo of Hugo de Sadeleer and Aaro Vainio could do was that of Silver Cup runners up.

The expression on their faces yesterday after again not being able to beat the Silver Cup Championship leading AKKA ASP Mercedes crew of Nico Bastian and Thomas Neubauer seemed to acknowledge that the #89 cars last lap pass during race one would leave them a step too far for the young Swiss and Finnish drivers the cross in the final race of the season.


That was because a poor Qualifying session from the #62 AMR Vantage crew would leave them starting race two from one extreme of the grid to one other as Bastian claimed a P9 slot whilst de Sadeleer would start from near the rear in P23. The only plus point then was that the second placed crew in the championship would be starting behind them come the race.

Fortunately (or not) the heavy rains of yesterday had left and the final hour of the series would be conducted on a warm dry track as the race got underway on its first lap anyway after a spinning Am class car called for the release and the Safety Car.


Loosing nearly ten minutes of the race, time was rapidly running out for the #62 car to shorten the gap on track to the #89 Mercedes. The sister #76 AMR of Marvin Kirchhofer would see out their season on something of a whimper as a spin just after the restart pushed the car to the rear of the field.

The AKKA ASP crew rode they luck later after contact with another car just before the stops but that failed to extend into any loss of performance on track - or indeed anything that may have benefitted the AMR crew.


At the end of the pit window the gap had narrowed somewhat with Neubauer now just two positions ahead of Vainio as the Finn charged in some great laps - going into the final ten minutes of the race they were then nose to tail in P8 and P9.

That sadly was not enough as the chequered flag fell on the field with these two cars still in the same position. Being over ten points behind before the race even started, finishing again behind the Mercedes was simply not enough to change the Silver Cup Championship position with Bastian and Neubauer claiming the title with a twelve and a half point margin. The team's #76 Pro car of Kirchhofer and Collard would finish the season P8 but some points behind the championship winner.


That all said, it was still a great performance by the team's two young guns across the season, especuilly for de Sadeleer who suffered the phycological setback of being released by another AMR Vantage GT3 early into the year so to end the year as runner in in a series as competitive as the Blancpain GT Series says a lot about his (and Vainio's) capabilities.

Hopefully we will see these guys out again somewhere in a GT3 car next year.

Photo credits - Blancpain GT / R-Motorsport

If chasing down a five point deficit to claim an ultimate class title was difficult enough at the best of times, then Mother Nature's added mix of heavy rain at todays penultimate race of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe just added to the mix as Swiss team R-Motorsport took the conclusion of the Silver Cup Championship to the final round tomorrow.

Having spent most of the weekend so far in Hungary under clear skies and warm sunshine, todays heavy rainfall just after Qualifying was in start contrast and added an entirely different perspective on todays one hour race for all twenty eight cars.


With the team's Pro class #76 car of Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer having Qualified in P4 for todays race, all eyes were rightfully upon their #62 pairing of Aaro Vainio and Hugo De Sadeleer who were (before todays results) just 5.5pts off the Championship lead as the Safety Car led the field off into the gloom of todays race.

Things could have really taken a twist today after the pole setting AKKA Mercedes crew of Nico Bastian and Thomas Neubauer initially dropped back into the pack during the opening stages of the race with the R-Motorsport/Arden crew then dispatching their #62 out into the class lead after the stop.


With a faster and more stable car beneath him, Bastian was soon able to claw back the gap to the #62 of De Sadeleer and (cruelly) passed him on the very last lap for the class win and to claim the Silver Cup Team title in the process. The #76 Pro car would ultimately finish behind their stable mate in P10 in order to maximise the points potential of the #62 car.

With 16.5 points still available in tomorrows race, all is still possible for any of the top three crews in the Silver Cup class with just eleven points separating them from first (AKKA ASP Mercedes) to third (R-Motorsport).


The way things stand at the moment - it is AKKA ASP's title to lose!

Photo credits - Blancpain GT

Swiss based Aston Martin Racing Partner team R-Motorsport are at the Hungaroring this weekend chasing their championship dreams at the final round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series.

After something of a slow start to the season with their pair of AMR Vantage GT3 cars that feature in both the Pro and Silver Cup classes, the team and their Arden colleagues have enjoyed a resurgence in results of late to promote their #62 Silver class entry for Hugo de Sadeleer and Aaro Vainio to just five and a half points behind the class leader with still thirty five Championship points on offer over the course of the weekend.


For the #76 Pro class entered car of Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer, last weekends race win from the Nurburgring came too late for them to remain in Championship contention still being forty points behind their class leader.

Their double class podium from Germany will however serve as a catalyst for the team to see out their five round season on a high with (hopefully) their Swiss and Finnish claiming the top prize in the Silver Cup.


With the Free Practice sessions now having been run, competition between the twenty eight car - multi-class grid is again ultra competitive with just 2.5 seconds separating the entire grid as the teams prepare themselves for Qualifying and the first race tomorrow.

Photo credits - Blancpain GT / R-Motorsport

With the opening round of the new 2019-20 World Endurance Championship from Silverstone already stealing the headlines, this weekend also sees another busy schedule of European racing with three series reaching or about to reach their conclusions.

The Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe reaches its penultimate round of the season at the Nurburgring this weekend after something of a slow start with both the series calendar and one Aston Martin Racing customer team but now with one crew very much in the mix for a class title with just four hours of racing left to run in 2019.


Much like the start of the season, R-Motorpsort had something of a slowish start to the season with their crews competing in both the Pro and Silver Cup classes. Whilst the Pro #76 car of Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer made for the early points at the opening races at Brands Hatch back in early May, it has since been the #62 Silver Cup pairing of Aaro Vainio and Hugo de Sadeleer who have stolen the march within the team to presently lie P2 in their Championship class going into this penultimate event of the season.

Back to back class wins last time out at the twisty coastal circuit of Zandvoort in Holland has helped to elevate the Finnish/Swiss pairing to just 15 points behind the Akka ASP Mercedes pairing of Nico Bastian and Thomas Neubauer.


For the Pro pairing, and despite promising Qualifying positions at some rounds has seen the duo fall behind in the Championship standings to P9 on 19.5 points whilst the lead car sits happily on 61.5pts.  With 16.5pts available per race that obviously means that the #76 are far from being out of contention before the Championship reaches its finale in Hungary in just over one weeks time but in order to place themselves into that position a decent points haul in Germany is a must.


As usual, both Free Practice sessions take place on Friday ahead of Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday with the final one hour race on Sunday.

Photo credits - Blancpain GT

It was double class podium delight this weekend for R-Motorsport's Silver Cup duo of Hugo de Sadeleer and Aaro Vainio at the third round of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series from Zandvoort, The Netherlands.

Having had what could have been considered as a great meeting last time out at Misano when the #62 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 secured a P4 in race 1 before going some better by converting that into a P2 podium finish in race 2, then Zandvoort will have been their 'Christmas come early' meeting with two worthy top step class finishes for the Finnish/Swiss combo.

Arriving in Holland to some very mixed weather conditions, all very opposite to the heatwave that they had just contested with in Italy, Zandvoort started off with early possibilities for the team as their two AMR Vantage's Qualified P5 and P9 for the #76 car of Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer and De Sadeleer and Vainio respectively.


Race one got off to the expected door to door hustle and bustle on the opening lap but that sadly culminated in a multi car accident on the opening lap that forced a Safety Car - losing the race nearly ten minutes of its allotted one hour of running. As the top three cars broke away on the restart, Collard in his #76 was quickly becoming the bottleneck as the rest of the field tried to pass the young Brit but without much success.

At the opening of the pit window, most of the top ten runners pitted - including the #76 car but the sister #62 carried on for a further lap.


By the time the stops had all been completed the positions of the two grey AMR's had changed with the #76 of Kirchhofer in P7 overall with the sister #62 car of Vainio just behind in P8 but running P2 in the Silver Cup class. The tightness of the track and comparative speeds of modern GT3's proved again difficult for any car to overtake but pressure from the #76 forced the then Sliver Cup leading Mercedes AMG to miss its braking point sending them straight into the gravel trap allowing the #62 to also pass the #76 for position to for it to claim P6 overall and P1 in Silver Cup. The #76 would finish race one in P7 - still valuable points for the team.

For Sundays race the starting positions had again been quantified in Saturday Qualifying with Pro #76 car again starting ahead of the Silver Cup #62 car in P9 and P13 respectively for Kirchhofer and De Sadeleer.


The start of the race was delayed as an Audi became stranded on the first formation lap requiring the Safety Car led pack to go around once again. Another seemingly long hold as the pack approached the line finally first appeared as if it would cause the same carnage as the GT4 European Series suffered in its second race of the weekend but at least that wasn't to be.

Some signs of rain falling around parts of the coastal circuit must have thrown caution into the minds of the starting drivers as the racing, although fast and frantic, was extremely orderly and risk adverse. For this race, the Vantage GT3 didn't appear to be quite on the pace and certainly was nowhere near able to meet the pace of the leading cars to quickly fall over twenty seconds back.


Whilst that hurt the Pro #76 car it was fortunately not the same for the #62 Silver Cup car as the impeding pit stop would allow them to leapfrog five cars in the pack (but more important over the then class leading Audi) to move up to P9 and P1 in Silver Cup. The #76 car meanwhile would lose twelve places after its stop!!

By the chequered flag, The #62 would cement its position on track to claim their second class win of the weekend with their P8 finish whilst Collard would recover to a P18 finish - massively disappointing for them.


Next stop in the Championship is at the Nurburgring at the end of August - meanwhile for R-Motorsport there is the small issue of the Total Spa 24!!

Photo credits - Blancpain GT 

The SRO's Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe moves north this weekend for their third round of the season from the coastal circuit at Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

For a Series that had a slow opener, two rounds in quick succession either side of the organisers official test days for their flagship Spa 24 event later this month will keep many World Challenge Europe teams busy as they keep their rolling stock in tip top condition for their respective multi-series racing commitments as well as feature events like at Spa Francorchamps.


One such team is of course Swiss based R-Motorsport who, together with there Arden operational partners will have to prepare two of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3's again for the two - one hour races around the 2.6 mile circuit as drivers Aaro Vainio and Hugo de Sadeleer chase another podium in the Silver Cup class and Pro class drivers Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer look to go one better than they did in Misano two weeks ago.


Twenty eight GT3 cars again form the grid for the two races having had two Free Practice sessions on Friday and Qualifying for both races on Saturday morning.

Photo credits - Blancpain GT

After what was surprisingly only the second round of the season so far, this weekends races from Misano in Italy proved themselves to be fruitful ones for the lone Aston Martin Racing team of R-Motorsport as everyone got themselves back down to business in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Series.

Running with a new AMR Vantage GT3 in both Pro and Silver Cup, the Swiss based team was somewhat adrift in each championship table despite a reasonable points haul fist time out at Brands Hatch in early May so a good show in Misano was imperative for the team to maintain the season chances.

The #76 Pro car of Ricky Collard and Marvin Kirchhofer showed great intent in the first of Saturady's Qualifying sessions with the young British driver setting the 2nd best time to position their car on the front row of the grid for the 'into the evening' one hour sprint. The #62 Silver Cup of Aaro Vainio wasnt too far behind in the twenty eight car grid to Qualify P13 overall but P5 in class.


Qualifying 2 also took place soon after where this time the #62 car of Hugo de Sadeleer out qualified the Pro sister car of Kirchhofer to start P9 overall (P3 in class) compared to the unexpectedly low position of the #76 car in P13 - albeit just a second off the pole time such is the competitive nature of the competition.

With the weather conditions over most of Europe being extremely high this weekend, tyre wear and the management of which was going to be the controlling factor again as the preceding races before the evening start to the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe had already demonstrated.

At the start of Race 1, Collard soon found himself being past into the first sequence of corners dropping him down to P3 and already having to run defensively as the top two cars soon set about breaking away from the pack. Vainio meanwhile had had a better start in his #62 car to pick up a couple of early places as the sun began to drop to a visibility impairing level just above the horizon. Just after 15 minutes of racing, instances of contact between other cars and then one of the leaders spinning out into the gravel allowed both AMR's to pick up places without actually having to pass anybody.


With the pack having been slowed first by a Full Course Yellow and then Safety Car, racing only went back to green just as the pit window opened - too late for most to dart into the pit lane, and forcing most to do another lap as both R-Motorsport cars did before pitting - dropping the #76 down to P6 and the #62 P23 (P6 in class).

Another FCY and SC with just 20 minutes of racing left at least allowed the pack to close the gaps to one another on the restart and this allowed both AMR's to pick off a couple of easy places as the clock ticked down to the final minutes of the hour long race. At the chequered flag, the #76 car would finish a very credible P4 whilst the #62 would finish P17 overall (and also P4 in class). Great results and points for both cars.

For Race 2 on Sunday afternoon, the track temperature was just as high (if not hotter) than it was on Saturday evening but at least this time drivers had their own working knowledge of tyre degradation on the baking asphalt.


In a very hectic opening quarter to the race, it appeared that both AMR cars overtook many but were themselves overtaken by just as many to end up running somewhere very close to their respective starting position but both had dropped off some distance off the lead cars to the tune of 16 seconds for the #62 and 21 seconds for the #76 car.

Another FCY and SC, this time to remove a damaged sausage kerb was called just before the start of now delayed pit stop window which again put strategy at the forefront of the race engineers mind as race control tried to combat the possibility of a mass descent of 28 cars into the tight pit lane of Misano. With both cars having pitted at the half way mark of the race, both would also benefit from the results of penalties being awarded for FCY procedure infringements - that would list both cars up one position.


Outright pace was never a strong point of either AMR Vantage GT3 with the Audi, Mercedes and Lamborghini chassis' clearly faster as an overall package. What they did have was consistency and the ability of making the most of any opportunity from  errors made by others others leaving 'the door open' to them. Vainio did just that in the final minutes of the race as the Finn capitalised on a mistake between the battling Silver Cup leading pair to place his car in-between to take the next step up the podium.

At the chequered flag, the #62 car would cross the line P7 overall but incredibly P2 in class whilst the #76 car could do no more than P13. Another great race from the team with an invaluable large addition to their must needed points haul.


The teams now have just two weeks off before the third round of the series at Zandvoort, Holland before the attention of many turn to the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps just two weeks after that.

Photo credits - R-Motorsport / Blancpain GT