Mixed fortunes for the two AMR runners at Phillip Island
Season long entrant again saw the #38 KMB Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 of Valentin Astuti and Darren Currie within the Trophy class as well as the new #14 Volante Rosso 16A version of the car for drivers Alex Gardner and deputising driver Ross Poulakis running again in Pro-Am.
Saturday’s race opener saw both cars qualifying close to one another in P9 and P11 respectively but whilst the #14 car would eventually be able to complete their first race within the series at their third attempt, the #38 car was another unfortunate DNF.
It was something of a role reversal in Sunday’s second hour long race after the #14 car was tagged by a backmarker whilst being overtaken where contact spun the green and black Aston Martin into the gravel.
Whilst the #38 car was the last of the runners quantified as finishing, they did earn themselves a second-place finish in class.
The penultimate round of the season from Sydney Motorsport Park in mid-October before concluding at Bathurst in early November.
Photo credits – Team / series
Sunday, August 25, 2024 |
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The trials and tribulations of GT racing down under for the two AMR teams in GT World Challenge Australia
Whilst it was business as usual again for the Trophy classed entry from the venerable #38 KMB Motorsport V12 Vantage GT3 of Valentin Astuti and Darren Currie whilst it was certainly a bunch of new as the Volante Rosso team debuted their ‘new’ turbo charged Vantage GT3 for drivers Alex Gardner and Ben Porter in the #14 car.
Not yet upgraded to the new 2024 version, the older style of car certainly raised the awareness again of the AMR platform and having both turbo and V12 versions out on track must have been special for those attending.
However, an unfortunate off for Porter at the end of his Qualifying session meant that simple due to the lack of availability of parts within Austral-Asia for that car, timely repairs could not be effected, and the #14 car was sadly withdrawn from the remainder of the event.
Race one also sadly went much the same way for the #38 car of Currie as having started from P11 of an eighteen strong grid, the #38 failed to make the finish but race two was much better after a P15 starting position eventually transferred into a top ten finish as well as securing the Trophy class win.
Volante Rosso intend to be back in business by the time of their next round from Phillip Island in three weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
Monday, August 05, 2024 |
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Two Aston Martins at this weekends GT World Challenge Australia from Queensland
New crews aside, todays entry list sees the #38 V12 KMB Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Darren Currie and Valentino Astuti return for another two races within the Trophy Class having debuted together last time out at The Bend back in May where they rounded off that meeting with a season best P9 overall as the then solo running Trophy class car.
At least time around, they will have class competition as the #222 Scott Taylor Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R has also been confirmed.
Then we have the dawn of a new era down under as the Volante Rosso team debut their ‘new’ 2019 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 with their recently confirmed driver line up of Ben Porter and Alex Gardner.
Having only received the former Andretti Autosport car from the USA just over a week ago, there has been little time to consider upgrading the car to the new 2024 Evo model as well as only time for one shakedown test at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Porter comes with a long trail of GT3 experience in Asia with a Lamborghini, Gardner (albeit still of a young age) is a long-established driver within the team having won the Radical Cup Australia Championship last season.
Photo credits – Team / series / social media
Monday, July 29, 2024 |
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Older Aston Martins hold their own against younger race cars around the world this weekend
Closer to home, the once was Lazarus Corse AMR team (now apparently renamed the L&A Infinity Racing team) were out with their slightly newer, 17A variant of the car at the second round of their domestic Series at Imola with their driver pairing of Mattia Di Giusto and William Alatalo.
Again competing within the Pro-Am class, the #5 pairing come home with a steady P10 overall finishes at the end of each of their 50-minute sprint races, earning themselves class points for their P6 and P5 Pro-Am finishes respectively – a massive improvement from their opening round results from Misano in early May.
Then down under, there was the iconically sounding V12 Vantage GT3 from the KMB Motorsport stable racing within the Trophy class of the GT World Challenge Australia Series from The Bend.
This time racing with Valentino Astuti and Darren Currie, the #38 car earned herself a P17 overall finish at the end of the opening hour-long race on Saturday before improving to a P9 overall finish in Race 2.
This series will now take something of a mid-season sabbatical before the next round at Queensland Raceway at the beginning of August.
Photo credits – Team / Series
Monday, June 03, 2024 |
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