This weekend’s entry list details the #718 GPA Racing Pro-Am entry of David Pouget and Mathieu Casalonga will be joined by (with so far just a single driver being listed) of Didier Sirgue to compete within his #48 Am class entered Aston.

Casting our mind back to the last round at Magny-Cours in mid-May, that round saw many of the Astons just miss out on a class podium with just the #74 Racing Spirit of Lemans car of Romain Carton and Victor Weyrich claiming P3 in Silver Cup after race 1 on Saturday. That got better with race 2 when the #13 Mirage Racing car of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romano Ricci claimed P3 in Pro-Am whilst the #72 GPA Racing Am car of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud claimed another P2 finish in that class.

These results have the #72 GPA Racing car resting second overall in class, Hasse-Clot and Ricci fifth in Pro-Am and Romain Carton and Victor Weyrich sixth in Silver Cup with still another four rounds to go including this weekend.

Photo credits – FFSA GT4 / Teams

Last month’s opening round pulled up a few surprise results within those eight cars as it was the #72 GPA Racing car of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud who faired best with two P3 podium finishes with the #13 Mirage Racing car of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romano Ricci having won a podium and ‘lost’ a podium over the same weekend.

This weekend was certainly no different with the opposition within the French national series now certainly having made their matches to the domineering performance of the AMR Vantage GT4 from previous seasons to make this season certainly ‘hard work’ for all.

It was the new for 2022 #92 Pro-Am entered Racing Spirit of Lemans car of Ronald Basso and Sandro Perissouthi who did best in class during the two qualifying sessions, placing their red, white, and blue AMR onto the front row of their class each time although they couldn’t quite convert those into class podiums by the end of each one long race.

The only podium success after Saturday’s night race was indeed from their sister Silver Cup entered #74 Racing Spirit of Lemans car of Romain Carton and Victor Weyrich who scooped their first podium of the season so far with a P3 finish in class.

Better fortune was to come however within Sunday’s daytime race when the #13 Mirage car of Hasse-Clot and Ricci again stepped onto the podium after their P3 finish in Pro-Am as well as a first Am Class win for the #72 pairing of Jimenez and Grizaud to now secure P3 in their Championship table.

It was unfortunately another difficult round for the AGS Events Racing team and their four Aston Martins with only the #161 Am entered car of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere coming closest with a P4 result in race 1 and two P6 finishes in Pro-Am for the #89 Nicolas Gomar and Loris Caribou car.

Next round of the series will be at Albi at the end of June

Photo credits – Teams / FFSA

The AGS Events Racing team is again the largest AMR team in the series, fielding four cars for with single Aston’s apiece for the likes of Mirage Racing and JSB Competition.

The #007 Silver Cup car of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Romain Leroux head their class with three podiums and a DNF whilst in the Am Class, the #161 AGS car of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere lead teammates Lauris Nauroy and Stephane Desbrosse in their #79 car by twelve points in P3 and P4 in Class respectively.

It is within the ultra-competitive Pro-Am class the three remaining runners are struggling with the #89 AGS car of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy heading the bunch in P10 overall so far with the JSB Aston Martin of Julien Briche and Jean Laurent Navarro down in P17 and with the #38 Mirage car of Ruben del Sarte and Yves Lemaitre yet to score.

It will be interesting to see if the JSB Competition team return having withdrawn from the Magny-Cours event because of their apparent lack of pace rather than any specific incident or accident.

This weekend’s Grand Prix D’Albi again features two – one-hour races around this 3.5km circuit.

Photo credits – FFSA GT4 / Teams

Competing at a circuit that ran along the perimeter of the local airport, the tight and twist sections clearly favoured the lighter, more nimble chassis with the Alpine being the car of choice leaving neither AGS Events AMR the opportunity to challenge beyond that of the circuit’s long straights.

These results do not however exclude either car from any Championship aspirations but frankly, they do depend quite heavily upon the misfortune of others at the final round of the season at Ledenon over the 7thand 8th November. The overall Am Drivers Championship is however, already out of reach.

Also competing at Albi was of course the #69 Pro-Am entry of Gilles Vannelet and AMR Academy driver Akhil Rabindra. Although being the lead AGS team car in race 1 in P14 overall (P7 in class), that was sadly not be repeated in Sunday’s race where they finished P19 overall (P11 in class). For some reason, 2020 FFSA GT4 just hasn’t gelled for these drivers despite their combined experiences.

Photo credits - FFSA

To date the #89 Pro-Am car of Mike Parisy and Nicolas Gomar and the #161 Am car of Didier Dumaine and Christophe Carriere have been making all the running within the team with nine class podium finishes between them over the eight races so far. Just the #69 Pro-Am car of Gilles Vannelet and AMR Academy Driver Akhil Rabindra are yet to collect any silverware despite coming close on a number of occasions.

This weekend shall see the Series revert back again to just two one-hour races over the weekend and in daylight too with previous races at Magny-Cours and Paul Ricard racing into darkness.

Championship wise, Gomar and Parisy need a significant point’s haul if they are to make up the present 37 point gap to the Pro-Am leaders whilst as do Dumaine and Carriere who lay some 42 points back in the Am Class.

Track action for the Grand Prix D’Albi starts tomorrow with Free Practice.