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

 

 

 

The end of the European GT season is rapidly catching up and the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is just another of the SRO ran series doing just that as they will be rocking up to the Dutch coastal circuit of Zandvoort next week ahead of the penultimate round.

A record forty-five GT3 based crews are scheduled to do battle within that round’s two one-hour races as class and overall Drivers and Team’s championship titles still lay mostly unclaimed although some would need a minor miracle on the part of others to detract those away from the present leaders.

 

Five Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered teams from both the Comtoyou Racing (X3 cars) and the Walkenhorst Motorsport team as they again do battle across the Pro, Silver and Bronze classes but even one of these crews who now stand P2 within the silvers class, would almost need to win every race left for them to stand a chance of listing that end of season prize.

Last time out at Magny-Cours at the beginning of August, there was plenty of hope for these AMR crews as two had claimed respective class pole positions only for those to produce lower placed results with P3 in class the best result secured by any Aston Martin crew over that weekend. Traditionally, Zandvoort doesn’t usually allow the Vantage GT3 to show off its true potential either.

 

This week’s provisional entry list sees no apparent changes to the driver roster of any AMR with both Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels again competing within their #007 in their Pro class, with the #21 Comtoyou Racing entry of Arthur Dorison and Oliver Soderstrom, the #34 Walkenhorst entry of Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez and the #35 Walkenhorst of Gaspard Simon and Maxime Robin all competing within silver. The #11 Comtoyou Racing entry of Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni complete the AMR powered line up within the bronze class.

 

Track action begins next Thursday with private testing before Free Practice on Friday, individual qualifying and race one of Saturday before concluding their programme of events after lunch on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

The #007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crew of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi gave it their best shot at this weekend’s penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series but even their maximum points wasn’t enough to take the championship battle into the final round.

Racing as one of three AMR powered entries at this weekend’s visit to the Nurburgring alongside the two similar powered entries from the Walkenhorst Motorsport team, the #007 already needed something of a minor miracle over the #48 Mercedes powered crew in order to take the fight to the final round in Portimao in mid-October.

 

Despite some very wet practice sessions on Saturday, the three qualifying sessions were at least run on an albeit green but more importantly a dry track. At the end of this morning’s runs, the #007 had claimed another pole position for their efforts whilst the #34 Pro class Walkenhorst effort of Jamie Day, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves could do no better than P14 overall – P10 in class.

The two silver classed entries of the #21 Comtoyou Racing entries of Oliver Soderstrom, Sebastian Baud and Kobe Pauwels hadn’t fared as well as previous rounds as they would start P28 overall /P5 in class whilst their rival #35 Walkenhorst entry of Mateo Vilagomez, Gaspard Simon and Ethan Ischer were further back in P44 overall/P13 in class. With the omission of the Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn AMR this time around, that left the #11 Comtoyou Racing car of Marcelo Tomasoni, Aaron Muss and a guesting Sergio Sette Camara the final car of the quintet as they again qualified their bronze class entry P11 in class towards the rear of the pack.

Getting underway for this three-hour race saw Sorensen having to battle hard for the opening laps in order to maintain his position at the head of the race whilst those within the mid to rear of the pack had to put up with three cars being spun around in front of them as they all hit turn one for the first time. Whilst the #007 was at the head of the pack, the remaining for Vantage GT3’s were all within the second half of the pack.

Forty-five minutes in and the leaders were lapping the tail end bronze entries for the first time as Day remained P16 overall within his #34 car as thoughts started to look towards the first of the two expected stops but just ahead of the first hour – a car within the gravel brought out the first FCY.

 

During the stops, Sorensen handed over to Drudi with the championship challenging #48 car still doing what they needed in order to secure the overall championship a round early with all the other runners following suite as and when they arrived at pit in.

Strating the second hour, the #007 again lead the field with the #34 car still P14 overall but with Krognes now at the wheel as the #21 Comtoyou was also making progress before the Safety Car was called out again after two cars tangled and ended within the gravel. Whilst the race did briefly get back going, a slowing car on track eventually brought that inevitable contact from another bringing out another FCY.

 

Going into the final hour, the #007 lost initial ground to those around it as Thiim took the helm and going into the final half hour was running down in fourth as Chaves now in the Walkenhorst also struggled for pace and dropped places relative to where he inherited the car. Going into the final ten minutes of the race, however, Thiim was then up to third overall before a final lap passing of the leading Porsche (who had already been pinged for exceeding maximum drive time and hence would be penalised) saw the #007 pass for the lead again to complete a near lights to flag win for the Belgian team again.

Unfortunately for all, the #48 Mercedes also finished fourth on track to claim the overall Drivers Championship title before the long trip down to Portugal.

 

The #34 Walkenhorst crew eventually finished P16 overall / P11 in class with its sister #35 car P41 overall / P10 in silver. The #21 Comtoyou AMR did rally in the second half of the race to finish P24 overall / P5 in class whilst the #11 bronze class crew ended up with their best result to date P45 overall / P10 in class.

The final round of the season will be from Portimao 16-18th October 2026.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend’s main racing event as far as Aston Martin Racing powered crews are concerned will be the penultimate round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series from the Nurburgring, Germany.

Amongst the fifty-five entries listed will be just the five AMR Vantage GT3 runners from either the Comtoyou Racing or Walkenhorst Motorsport teams after the Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn team confirmed their absence from the event a few weeks ago.

 

With endurance rounds now signed off for Paul Ricard, Monza and the Spa 24- it just leaves both this weekend’s visit to Germany and the seasonal finale from Portimao to see out yet another season.

Championship wise, the #7 Comtoyou Racing Pro class entry for Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi still stand as AMR’s best contenders as they sit second within the overall championship table, but they would need something of a minor miracle to overcome the forty-one points deficit to the leading Mercedes-AMG powered crew. With just two normal format races remaining, there will be just a maximum of fifty points available to them to achieve that feat.

 

 

The other Pro classed Aston Martin from the Walkenhorst team for drivers Christian Krognes, Jamie Day and Henrique Chaves have endured something of a nightmare season so far which has even seen them miss the opening round due to a practice session accident. Since then, the #34 crew have accrued just seven points.

Within the silver class, both the #21 Comtoyou Racing entry for drivers Kobe Pauwels, Oliver Soderstrom and Sebastian Baud find themselves just outside of the top ten in eleventh on a tally so far of twenty-eight points whilst the #35 Walkenhorst car of Mateo Villagomez, Ethan Ischer and Gaspard Simon find themselves further back in P23 with just five points.

 

The #11 bronze class entry from the Comtoyou Racing team for drivers AJ Muss and Marcelo Tomasoni sees the crew approach the end of what has become already a very turbulent debut within the series with bad luck usually outweighing driver mistakes. For this round Kyle Marcelli will also be replaced by Brazilian racer Sergio Sette Camara.

Track action will begin on Friday with both private testing and the bronze driver test sessions before Free Practice 1 and 2 on Saturday before individual qualifying and the start of this three hour race on Sunday at 15:00hrs local.

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Whilst one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered team continued with their fine form from last time out, the other stabilised their performances to come home with some more silverware of their at the end of last weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe Spring Cup event from Magny-Cours.

The Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR team, and particularly their #34 silver class entered Vantage of Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez, had enjoyed some well-deserved success last time out in the series from Misano just two weeks ago and this time round in France would see that continue – at least for the first race.

 

Having endured some torrential rain during some opening sessions, the first race of the weekend was an into the night race around at least a now dry former home to the French Grand Prix, the #21 silver classed entry from the Comtoyou Racing team had struck early gold by claiming pole position within their class for drivers Oliver Soderstrom and Arthur Dorison. The #7 Comtoyou Racing Pro classed entry of Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels had also bounced back from a torrid round in Italy to claim sixth overall in qualifying.

Whilst that pole position didn’t turn into a podium finish for the #21 crew (as they finished 5th in class), it did for both the #7 and #34 crews as both crews took third in class at the end.

 

Sunday was another day and another qualifying session where this time, the #7 car inherited overall pole position after the faster BMW powered crew were penalised with their sister #21 car also going great guns again, claiming a P2 start to this race.

Whatever happened during the heat of the day, both Walkenhorst AMR entries this time struggled for pace in both qualifying and the race to end their weekend no higher than seventh in class for Day/Villagomez and P8 for the #35 Maxime Robin Gaspard Simon entry.

 

During the race, however, Lady Luck finally evaded the #7 crew as they fell back down to P11 at the finish whilst the #21 crew finally earned their first podium finish of the season after their P3 finish.

For the bronze classed #11 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni, there was at least some improvement for this crew compared to what was tehir first round of the Sprint Cup season last time out in Misano, but they did still finish at the back of the pack at the end of each race.

 

The Sprint series runners now get a bit of a break after near back-to-back rounds as the Endurance Cup round from the Nurburgring is next up for the teams – the next round of Sprint will be from Zandvoort in about six weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is again top of the bill this weekend at Magny-Cours, France as the sprint series takes on its third round of its season and it’s second race weekend in quick succession after it previous round from Misano just two weeks ago.

In Italy, it was the Walkenhorst Motorsport team and particularly the #34 crew of Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez who shone the brightest out of the five Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered runners after the silver class pairing took a P2 finish in class at the end of both one-hour races.

Their sister #35 car of Maxime Robin and Gaspard Simon were also on par with their #21 Comtoyou Racing silver class competitors over those two races as each crew secured a P5 and P7 in class finish (obviously reversed for the other crew in each race) for their efforts.

Whilst the #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze class entry of Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni, Misano was their first sprint race of the season having skipped the Brands Hatch opening before ploughing straight into the Crowdstrike Spa 24 in June. So their two P10 finishes in class at the rear of the pack at Misano did really come as no real surprise.

 

The real surprise was the uncharacteristic performance of the #7 Comtoyou Racing Pro class entry of Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels which saw the pairing qualifying way down into the midfield in P34 overall before launching something of a recovery drive to finish in P16. Race two looked better as Pauwels collected a second row start to the race only to suffer from brake issues that took them out in the early stages to that hour long race.

These five Aston Martins go again this weekend with another pair of hour-long, pit stop punctuated races over the weekend with another combined grid of forty-five entries.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

 

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Series are back out again this weekend at Misano, Italy for what is still only their second round of the season with the GT4 European Series again in support.

Since the season opener from Brands Hatch back in early May, the Endurance Cup Series has then taken precedence within the race calendar as they built their way up to the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa event at the end of June but this and the next three rounds of Sprint Cup will now follow in quick succession.

 

Forty-four crews have been confirmed for this weekend’s two one-hour long pit stop punctuated races with both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams fielding five Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews between them.

Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels again head the Comtoyou Racing entry with their #007 Pro class entry alongside their #11 bronze class entry of Marcello Tomasoni and Felice Jelmini and the #21 silver classed entry of Oliver Soderstrom and Arthur Dorison.

 

Within the Walkenhorst camp, they will again field two silver classed entries for both Mateo Villagomez and Jamie Day aboard their #34 and Maxime Robin and Gaspard Simon aboard their #35 car.

The best results of last time out in the UK came from the #34 Walkenhorst car after they secured (after post-race penalties had been applied) P3 in race one and P4 in race two so for the other crews – there is much to improve upon this time out with the #11 Comtoyou Racing car competing within their first race of the year having skipped Brands Hatch.

 

Within the supporting GT4 European Series, thirty-eight crews have been confirmed within the provisional entry with both Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s again being listed.

David Kullmann and Florent Grizaud again compete within the teams #72 Pro-Am entry with Clement Seyler and Pedro Garcia within their #74 silver classed entry within what will be for them, their fourth round of the season having raced already in France, Italy and Belgium.

 

Last time at Spa Francorchamps during the SRO’s Speed Week became something of a torrid affair for the two full season entries with neither crew finishing higher than P11 in class having been outshone by the guesting Grange Motorsport AMR from the British GT Championship.

They too will race two one-hour pit stop punctuated races over the course of the weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far as any Aston Martin Racing powered runner maybe concerned, this weekend’ 79th edition of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps must go down as one of the most brutal of events experienced as far as their multi-car entry was concerned.

Already running around the Belgian circuit within some of the hottest and prolonged weather conditions that northern Europe had experienced in many years, a starting grid size of nearly seventy cars and over one hundred and thirty thousand fans still packed into the circuit to see this latest SRO Blue Ribband event that still forms part of both the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Series and the Intercontinental GT Challenge Series.

 

There were seven AMR Vantage GT3 powered crews entered this time around – four from the Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team, two from the German Walkenhorst Motorsport team and one from the British Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn teams and all fielding crews which has a distinct chance at either overall or class wins at the end.

 

Starting this year’s event in the mid-afternoon but with ambient temperatures well into the forties, it nearly went absolutely disastrously for the Walkenhorst team as both of their Pro and Silver class entries were involved in a lap one incident with multiple other cars. Whilst the #34 car of Jamie Day was seen spinning through the air on one-maybe two wheels only to land the correct way around and seemly able to continue, the same couldn’t be said for their #35 car of Maxime Robin. Already suffering from front end damage from an immediately earlier contact, the car was then seen to make further and heavier contact with the car that caused the incident and for them – that was the day done already.

 

Over the next few hours and throughout the early onset of multiple Safety Car periods, the Walkenhorst and Christian Krognes were able to elevate the #34’s race position to within the top ten overall despite whatever damage had to be dealt with over multiple stops.

After the early incidents, all continued at a pace for the AMR powered runners until the early hours of the night-time running when the #21 Comtoyou Racing AMR of Sebastian Baud was caught dropping a wheel off the kerb and into the gravel. That was unfortunately enough to put the silver class entry into a tank slapping spin that finally saw the car impacting (thankfully) backwards into the tyre wall and into immediate retirement. Baud’s condition was also quickly confirmed as being bruised and deflated but otherwise but that incident would end up being the beginning of the end for the green liveried cars within the race.

 

The #11 bronze entered car was next to be eliminated from the race before the then Pro-Am class leading #700 car guesting driver Sarah Bovey was witnessed to leave the track and impact heavily into the tyre wall on the outside of Blanchemont – again another car destroying impact that thankfully still allowed Bovey to exit the vehicle under her own power.

If that couldn’t get any worse for the team – it did, as in the early hours of Sunday morning a rare mistake from Nicki Thiim saw the Dane lose control of his #7 car coming up from Eau Rouge and into Raidillon – for the car to spin and nose sufficiently heavy enough into the barrier to end their race. Up until that time, the #7 car had been present within the top ten overall for much of the race and on the lead lap too but for this year there would be no return to the winners podium.

 

The #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR was also not out of the wars as their four-man driver line up battled their was up from their lowly starting position overall and within their bronze cup entry. Already carrying many battle scars, the car was also seen pulling into their garage bay with only three wheels attached at the time and with a small carbon fire on the splitter in their urgency to get back to racing. They would eventually finish P32 overall and P6 in class.

 

The true heroes were however, the #34 crew of Jamie Day, Christian Krognes and Henrique Chaves as well as the Walkenhorst team who helped elevate the car from plumb last on lap one to finish comfortably within the top 10 to claim an overall P7 result for their efforts. Who knows, one or two penalties less for track limits and they could have been higher!!

What a great event (considering)!!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

If those woods are the trees that surround the 7km Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, you certainly will be in for a very big surprise as over seventy top-flight GT3 cars and crews now settle themselves down at the circuit for this weekend’s Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa.

Not only functioning as the third round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup or even the third round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge Series, but this race also contains a few wild card or guest entries amongst them that will certainly spice things up come the green flag on Saturday.

 

We of course feature six full season Aston Martin Racing powered entries into the GTWCE Endurance Cup Series from the likes of the locally based Comtoyou Racing team, the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport team as well as a solo effort from the British based Ecurie Ecosse with Blackthorn as automatic entries into this event but we will also see a further (fourth) entry from the Comtoyou Racing team full of national importance.

The bronze ranked drivers enjoyed their first track action of the week earlier today (after a collective private test for all) with the #11 Comtoyou squad of Marcelo Tomasoni/Aaron Muss/Kyle Marcelli and Felice Jelmini had a few of their drivers eligible for that session as did the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR of Giacomo Petrobelli/Jonny Adam/Lorcan Hanafin and Romain Leroux. We are, however, saddened to see the likes of Tom Wood miss out on his previously indicated drive within the #56 car despite previous confirmation by the team and series.

 

Next up the order are the two silver classed entries from both the Belgian and German teams in the form of Oliver Soderstrom/Kobe Pauwels/Sebastian Baud and Arthur Dorison aboard the #21 Comtoyou Racing entry with Mateo Villagomez/Than Ischer/Gaspard Simon and Maxime Robin aboard the #35 Walkenhorst AMR Vantage GT3.

Each team then field a Pro class entry apiece with former race winners Nicki Thiim/Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi looking to make for being taken out of the last race event at Monza very late on and without fault after some very poor driving standards had been on display whilst the Walkenhorst will field Henrique Chaves/ Christian Krognes and Jamie Day aboard their #34 entry.

 

That leaves the all-Belgian effort from the Belgian bases team as Nicolas Baert Xavier Knauf, Sarah Bovey and Gregory Servais join forces for this one-off event within their #700 Pro-Am entry.

Tomorrows significant event will be the annual car, and drivers parade and autograph session within the two centre of Spa with all the cars making their own way to and from the circuit along the public roads. After that, things become much more serious with two Free Practice sessions on Thursday ahead of Qualifying and night practice later on before Superpole for the front runners later on Friday.

 

The race itself will be waved off at 16:30hrs local on Saturday. What isn’t there to like about any of that?

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another crazy edition of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup now ‘safely’ in the books after yesterday’ s three hour near demolition derby left many cars in literal tatters but (more importantly) nobody injured around the Autodromo Nazionale Monza,

It was always going to be another fast and furious second round the season having started the year out at an equally fast Paul Ricard circuit in France just a few weeks back, but the ultra-fast and more traditional circuit layout of the Italian circuit would also have the probability of certainly a turn one, lap one incident for the fifty-seven-car entry.

 

The #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of last time out race winners Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattia Drudi were always one crew to keep an eye out for last weekend but their performance around the circuit in previous sessions and into Qualifying left them a down on the fourth row ahead of yesterday afternoons start.

Their participation within the race however was strictly limited to the distance between the start line and the entry into the first chicane as multi-car contact saw the #007 sent onto the grass before collecting an already spun out and damaged car, destroying the front end before the race has truly started.

 

That first corner incident alone accounted for the loss of half a dozen cars including the first three cars on the grid but that sadly did not tone down the driving characteristics within some driver crews as a similar incident at the same location towards the end of the race took out some other cars competing for race or class wins at the time.

The #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze classed entry for Kyle Marcelli, AJ Muss and Marcelo Tomasoni were also seen to be in the wars after rear end contact into the Variante Ascari that saw them run through the gravel to impact rearward into the tyre wall sustaining them significant damage in the process too. Albeit able to limp back to the pits under the Full Course Yellow, the damage had already been done to their race in more ways than one.

 

There was hope seeing the two Walkenhorst AMR Vantage GT3 crews as their names peaked towards the head of the timing screens with little over an hour of the race to go but sadly, their pit stop strategy still owed them a minimum timed stop apiece that obviously dropped them back down the order again. The #34 Pro entry of Christian Krognes, Jamie Day and Henrique Chaves could do no better than P8 in class despite the best efforts of the Portuguese racer during his stint within the chaotic final hour whilst the #35 silver entry of Mateo Villagomez, Ethan Ischer and Gaspard Simon also finished P8 in class.

The reward of racing success at least went to the #56 Ecurie Ecosse by Blackthorn AMR bronze classed entry of Giacomo Petrobelli, Jonny Adam and Lorcan Hanafin who managed to stay out of trouble on track – thanks in part to their low qualifying position second last on the grid at the start to finally come through eventually P9 overall and second in class. That was however thanks in part to one class rival being taken out of the race at the second big incident at turn one.

 

Many teams now face a fierce battle to repair or replace their GT3 rolling stock in time for the Spa 24 – the next round of the Endurance Cup stakes at the Belgian circuit at the end of the month.

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