British GT returns north to Donington Park for the first 2 hour race of the year

British GT returns north to Donington Park for the first 2 hour race of the year

 


This weekend’s UK headlining event will of course be the latest round of the British GT Championship from Donington Park where, despite this week’s small fluctuations on entries, sees us return to two’s company as far as Aston Martin Racing powered teams are concerned.

After a pair of one long sprints to open the season at Oulton Park over easter weekend, Silverstone’s three-hour enduro invited other AMR equipped teams out to play with one, the Century Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis earning themselves a GT4 Pro-Am Class podium for their efforts.


We also saw the first running of the new Vantage GT3 belonging to the Blackthorn Motorsport team at the Silverstone 500, which they did eventually finish considering that weekend was their first interaction with their new car since taking delivery of it from Prodrive earlier that week.

Despite testing recently at the circuit, neither guesting teams will be at Donington for this weekend’s opening two-hour affair as that honour is again left to the two full season entries from both Beechdean AMR and R-Racing.


With torrential rain affecting and eventually washing out Qualifying at Silverstone, earlier Free Practice times were taken to set the grid order with the #97 Beechdean Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn claiming P4 within their Pro-Am class and the #27 R-Racing Vantage GT4 of Josh Miller and Seb Hopkins claiming P3 within their Silver Cup class.

Unfortunately, track limit issues blighted the running of the #23 car with the #97 car developing something of an unhealthy relationship with the guesting Inception Racing McLaren to move them along the order to eventually come home just off the overall podium in fourth whilst the #23 car would eventually recover to finish fifth in class.


These results see the #97 crew tied for second within the overall GT3 Drivers Championship, just 7.5 points behind the Silverstone 500 winning BMW but with a more consistent set of results over the three races so far. Within the GT4 class, the #23 cars early DNF in race 1 from Oulton Park plus a lowly points finish at Silverstone sees them in urgent need of points going into Donington as lying down in P11 within the overall GT4 Drivers table.


Early indications remain that Mother Nature should be upon our side this time around with warm and dry running forecasted over the private testing of Friday and well as the official session of both Saturday and Sunday for the expected thirty-four strong GT3/GT4 grid.

Photo credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 | Read more...
Strong running from the Aston Martin crews at British GTs Silverstone 500

Strong running from the Aston Martin crews at British GTs Silverstone 500


If Mother Nature provided the drama in Saturday’s Free Practice and Qualifying sessions ahead of the Silverstone 500, it would thankfully be the actual race that provided all the excitement as the British GT Championship raced out their third race at the home of British motorsport.

Four Aston Martin Racing powered crews joined the fray this time around as both the full season entries from Beechdean AMR and R-Racing were joined by the new Blackthorn Motorsport GT3 car and a guesting Century Motorsport GT4 Aston of old.


With race organisers having to set the grid to Sunday’s three hour race by times set by each driver within Free Practice 2, the starting order was always going to be a bit topsy-turvy in its natural order but for the #97 Beechdean Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard/Ross Gunn and the #23 R-Racing Vantage GT4 of Josh Miller/Seb Hopkins, their own ‘getting down to business’ mentality from the off saw them neatly placed in P5 and P3 respectively in class.

All things ‘new’ from the #19 Blackthorn car of Claude Bovet and David McDonald meant that they were in for a baptism of fire as they got to grips with their brand-new Vantage GT3 having received it only days before the event. Similar would apply to the #21 Century Vantage GT4 crew of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis by the fact of their very limited running together this season for the #19 car to start at the back of the GT3 field in P24 and the #21 car in P38 out of a total grid size of forty-three starters.


From the torrential rains of Saturday to the humid warmth of an early May Spring Day of Sunday saw the race take the green flag with a dry and warming circuit with both the #97 and #23 cars eager to advance their positions at this very early stage with both Howard and Miller (respectively) behind the wheels.

With so many cars of track with an even wider diversity of driver talent and ability, it obviously wasn’t long before contact was made that left debris across the track at Club, bring out the Safety Car for the first time and that gave the teams the opportunity to swap out their starting Am drivers at an early stage of the race, mindful of course of each drivers 100minutes maximum driver time.


Losing fifteen minutes to that period, the #23 R-Racing car quickly came to attention of Race Control as Miller quickly lost several his ‘five lives’ for track limits – something that would even more quickly come back to bite the young duo once they had made their first driver change a little while later when Hopkins had to serve a Drive through Penalty.

A great battle was developing between Gunn in the #97 and the #70 Inception Racing McLaren as the two British GT and IMSA GTD rivals (Ben Barnicoat) battled things out for any of the top three places on track as the race progressed. 


By the end of the first hour, the #97 was leading the way for the AMR teams in P4 overall, with the #19 Blackthorn car hanging on (just) to the rear of the GT3 field but with the #21 Century Vantage GT4 car now having swapped with the #23 R-Racing car for position thanks to their earlier penalty.

Those positions improved again slight as the second Safety Car period was called, again for debris which negated the Inception cars then huge lead of 20 seconds to zero – which helped the #97 Beechdean car at least get back in contention with this guesting GT3.


Going into the final and whilst six crews would have to serve additional success time penalties after their performances last time out at Oulton Park, none of these were the #97 and #23 cars so both could just run their usual minimum pit stop time at the final scheduled stop.

Trouble for one came just into the final hour as Holloway was brutally nerfed off the track and into the tyre wall at the start of the Wellington Straight but he was at least able to continue with time lost recovering soon taken care of by a huge collision between a recovering GT4 car and a GT3 car through the Maggots complex – Safety Car no.3 immediately.


Thankfully and despite how it first appeared, both drivers were reported as being otherwise uninjured as a consequence after the Team Brit McLaren GT4 cut across the path of a charging #84 McLaren GT3 as the GT4 tried to return to the circuit after a spin of their own earlier.

That caution period unfortunately came 4-5 laps too early for Howard and Gunn to swap out for the final time as Howard was forced to follow the Safety Car until just thirty-eight minutes remaining. That left a 27-minute sprint to the flag with the #97 car still chasing an overall podium finish, as were both the Vantage GT4 crews in silver for the #23 R-Racing crew and the #21 Century crew in GT4 Pro-Am – and despite their early knock.


What the final Safety Car did leave us with was a dramatic race to the flag for a result that eventually saw the #97 cross the line less than half a second off the podium in fourth, but with the efforts of the one-off entered #21 Century car claiming a P2 finish in GT4 Pro-Am.

Thanks to their transgressions with track limits earlier in the race, the #23 car would finish P6 in class having had 30 seconds added to their post-race time for exceeding driver time with the #19 rounding off their inaugural AMR British GT event in P16 overall after also being hit with a drive through penalty for causing a collision just before the end of the race.


Thanks to the additional Championship points on offer at the end of the Silverstone 500, these results see the #97 crew tied for P2 in the GT3 overall table, third in the GT3 Pro-Am Cup and third within the GT3 Teams Championship.

As for the #23 R-Racing crew, an early DNF at Oulton Park and just three points from Silverstone sees them well down the order in P11 with six races still to come.

Next stop Donington Park at the end of the month.

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey / D Gibson

Monday, May 08, 2023 | Read more...
Top of the GT4 Class for the Century Aston Martin Racing GT4 in Kuwait

Top of the GT4 Class for the Century Aston Martin Racing GT4 in Kuwait

 


Shamefully having to catch up again with the weekends news again leads us straight into offering our congratulations to the Century Motorsport team and crew for their tremendous class pole through to class win at the inaugural 24H Series Kuwait 12hrs event at the weekend.

Racing their distinctive black, orange and gold liveried Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 usually seen within the GT Cup and British GT paddocks of late saw their gentleman driver David Holloway return to the desert for another extended race format event having competed previously within the Gulf 12hrs event.


Competing again with driver coach Bradley Ellis and fellow GT Cup racer Adam Hatfield, the #429 car again ran a strong Qualifying run to claim the GT4 class Pole Position ahead of the Friday race, beating their BMW M4 ran team stablemate car to the front row of their three-car grid.


Here, we do have to admit that personal circumstance again kept us from the screen in support, but the #429 Aston came back through to lead the class with just two hours of the race remaining to claim a much-deserved class win under the floodlit Kuwait Motor Town Circuit. What lies in store for this crew and car within the 2023 season (if anything) is still subject to confirmation.

Well done to them.

Photo credits – 24H Series
Monday, December 05, 2022 | Read more...
Just one AMR Vantage competing within a solo 24H Series event this winter

Just one AMR Vantage competing within a solo 24H Series event this winter

 


With both the Gulf 12Hrs and 24H Series putting up four events between them within the Middle Eastern racing theatre throughout both December and early January next year, its somewhat sad to see that only one Aston Martin Racing powered team has made that long journey for any of those events.

Having competed in both the British GT Championship and GT Cup Series in recent seasons back home, Century Motorsport has again paved the way back east for gentleman driver David Holloway to go racing with his AMR Vantage GT4 in the forthcoming and inaugural 24H Series event in Kuwait after his last continental adventure with them at the rescheduled Gulf 12hrs event at the start of the year.


With business commitments then keeping Holloway away from the racetrack for much of the year, long standing co-driver Bradley Ellis has been kept busy within many a paddock this season as he guided (for example) the paring of Josh Miller and Jamie Day to their British GT GT4 Silver Cup success with the R-Racing team with their Aston Martin.

These two join forces with fellow GT Cup racer Adam Hatfield for the twelve hours of Kuwait, track action begins around the Kuwait Motor Town Circuit this Wednesday with the first of two private testing sessions before the race itself that will run from noon until midnight this Friday.


Whilst this will obviously be exciting for all at Century this week, this news is perhaps the beginning of a stark realisation that the AMR Vantage GT3 and GT4 platform is now upon something of a downward spiral in terms of competitiveness and with news of a possible ‘Evo kit’ remaining the biggest, darkest secret of all time, its perhaps unsurprising to see some teams/drivers usually directly associated with an Aston realign themselves to other brands over the winter in their never ending quest to remain competitive.

It has been noted that the Heart of Racing 24H Series Dubai 24Hr entry has been listed with an SPS prepared Mercedes AMG GT3 this time around (instead of their AMR Vantage GT4 of last year) as the AMG now appears to be the car of choice for Gray Newell moving forward in 2023!!


Albeit a differing venue and event, the goal for the Century team this week will be to beat their Gulf 12hr class pole position and P2 finish in class by the end of the Kuwait 12hr in what is scheduled to be a twenty car entry for the gold and black liveried #429 car.

Good luck to them!

Photo credits - Gulf 12Hr
Sunday, November 27, 2022 | Read more...
Double success for the Aston Martin entries in British GT's Pro-Am class

Double success for the Aston Martin entries in British GT's Pro-Am class

 


Having made the heinous ‘crime’ of missing the latest round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone at the weekend, we best pull our sorry little backsides up and at least report on what the results were for the three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entries.

Yes, joining the full season entries of both Matt Topham and Darren Turner at Newbridge Motorsport and Josh Miller and Jamie Day at R-Racing was the return (for a one-off entry this season as far as we have been told) for the Century Motorsport AMR of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis.


With the two – one hour sprint races opening the season again over Easter weekend, had the #27 Newbridge Pro-Am entry enjoy a fantastic start to the season there with their first in Pro-Am win and then an overall GT4 class win that weekend.

That was added to by a debut podium for the R-Racing Silver Cup drivers during race 1 and a P5 in class to see out their first ever GT4 race together so confidence was high going into Silverstone for what was to be a completely different beast with a three-hour endurance race at the #Silverstone500.

Early pace for the two full season entries looked good over the two Free Practice sessions with the #23 R-Racing car second quickest in class over the two sessions with the #27 Newbridge car first in their class with the #21 Century car not too much further behind in third in GT4 Pro-Am.


With just a single race ahead, Qualifying was again determined by the aggregated time of both drivers to set the grid with Miller and Day again setting the fastest time of the Aston Martin powered teams to claim P3 overall in class with the Newbridge car starting P6 in GT4 and the Century car P11 (P1 and P2 respectively in Pro-Am).

Having only seen something of a tardy start for some of the GT3 runners up ahead, all three Astons would make it through the opening laps unscathed although each would encounter their own problems along the way over the course of this three-hour race.


For Topham and Turner, Silverstone would conclude in another overall GT4 class win, beating the otherwise speedy Stellar Motorsport Audi R8 GT4 of Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams by over thirty seconds by the fall of the chequered flag with the Century car of Holloway and Ellis coming home in P22 overall but P2 in GT4 Pro-Am whilst the R-Racing youngsters would come back just one position further back but a further lap down in P23 overall and P7 in class

With the official results of race 2 from Oulton Park still under appeal, no Championship points standings have yet been confirmed by the Championship until that process and subsequent success penalty levies applied to the Silverstone result is at an end.


The Championship now moves onto Donington Park at the end of May.

Photo credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey
Tuesday, May 10, 2022 | Read more...
Holloway, Johnson and Ellis claim a class second at the end of the Gulf 12Hr

Holloway, Johnson and Ellis claim a class second at the end of the Gulf 12Hr


Many congratulations to the Century Motorsport team and drivers David Holloway, Piers Johnson and Bradley Ellis for ‘bringing home’ the first silverware of the year from the opening race of the 2022 season at the Gulf 12hrs last night.

Having already Qualified the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 onto the from row of the GT4 class at the start of the opening six hours of racing at Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi early yesterday morning, the #15 crew did what they could and what was needed of them to ultimately finish the six plus six-hour event second in class.

With Covid having done its best again to stifle the attendance in the weeks leading up to the event, fifteen cars ultimately took part with three cars within the GT4 Class.

Despite the low numbers in class but like any race, anywhere in the world – at first you must finish to have any chance of the spoils and that was a cruel fate that eventually took its toll on their sister #42 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 entry and ultimately left the remainder of the race as a two-car fight between the #15 Aston Martin and the #23 Greystone McLaren 570s.

In hindsight, the deciding move came way back on the very first lap of the race as the #23 car took the class lead from the Aston Martin, a position that they would only be temporally relinquished during the longer, mandatory timed stops but also with a gap between them further exacerbated by an untimely puncture for Ellis just after the halfway mark of the opening six-hour race.


As the race continued, the gap between the McLaren and the Aston proved to be too much and the #15 lost a lap to the more dominating Greystone package as the Aston eventually came home twelfth overall and second in class.

Congratulations to them all and we look forward to seeing them again in what appears to have a hinted confirmation of an entry into the British GT Championship this season?

Next stop is a short trip across the border to Dubai and the 24H Series annual 24hr event there with four Aston Martins involved this time – two Vantage GT3’s from both TF Sport and PROsport Racing with a further two AMR Vantage GT4’s from both PROsport Racing and the Heart of Racing teams.

Photo credits – Gulf 12hr / Teams

Sunday, January 09, 2022 | Read more...
Class Pole position for the Century Motorsport AMR crew ahead of the Gulf 12Hrs

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 | Read more...
Holloway's second stab at the Gulf 12hr confirmed with todays provisional entry list

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 | Read more...
Century confirm their Aston Martin GT4 entry in the Gulf 12Hr in early January

Century confirm their Aston Martin GT4 entry in the Gulf 12Hr in early January

 


In just over 3 weeks time, the Century Motorsport team will be heading to the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, for their maiden entry in the exciting Gulf 12 hour race. The Warwickshire based team have entered the Marlin Hawk UAE Aston Martin GT4 and the BMW M4 GT4, with an impressive driver line up for this 10th edition of the Gulf 12 hours.

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 | Read more...
Topham and Turner tough it out at #Doningtondecider to bring home the GT4 Pro-Am Drivers Championship

Topham and Turner tough it out at #Doningtondecider to bring home the GT4 Pro-Am Drivers Championship

 


The weekend turned out to be another very successful one for two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 teams, each on either side of ‘the pond’ as both finally secured at the death both an Am Class Championship win and a Pro-Am Championship in two SRO sanctioned series.

Closer to home this time and the Newbridge Motorsport AMR team with drivers Matt Topham and Darren Turner did exactly what was needed to do at the final round of the 2021 British GT Championship at Donington Park to claim the GT4 Pro-Am Drivers Championship by the slenderest of margins after finally taking a class second at the final race of the season yesterday.


For the #27 crew, their preparations for Sunday’s two hour didn’t exactly get off to a flying start on Saturday when a mistake from Turner at the start of the days second Free Practice session saw their #27 car consigned to the garage for the session with front end repairs after contact with one of the Bentley GT3’s.

After many hands made light work of the repairs, the team had the car back out (in something of a raw state) in time for Qualifying and each driver was able to post lap times good enough to keep the car towards the front of the GT4 pack whilst their nearest championship rivals also struggled towards the rear.


Of course, the #27 Newbridge car was not the only Aston Martin Racing car present as the #7 AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard (and Jonny Adam) also had a slight possibility of a GT3 Drivers Championship as well as Century Motorsport bringing David Holloway and his AMR Vantage GT4 along to the finale with co-driver Bradley Ellis.

Having just finished their GT Cup Championship in the gold and black liveried car, Holloway was here to sample just what the British GT Championship had to offer prior to any 2022 commitment and the 2019 British GT GT3 Silver Cup Champion was just the person to show him after a season’s worth of driver coaching behind them.


Howard meanwhile, was having yet another year’s partnership with his previous co-champion conclude a the end of the race and despite their spirit and commitment to the cause – perhaps the kind of points deficit that they faced was all a bit much for the Anglo-Scott crew to challenge other than just doing well in the final race.

The #Doningtondecider soon threw some more spice into the works as the teams were greeted by a wet track from overnight rain and with more on the way, certainly over morning warm up and into the start of the race itself. Whilst this would help some, the deteriorating track conditions would also take their toll on others.


With most cars starting on wets, it wasn’t long before the first GT3 championship candidate threw it all away into the gravel, reinforcing the fact to the race starting Topham that he had to be in it to win it! As the laps passed by, the track developed a clear dry line meaning that conservation of the tyres was paramount as any additional tyre stop would see off any championship aspirations.

A cracking opening stint from Topham maintained their top end of class race position despite the championship contesting Fox McLaren stealthily moving up through the pack from their starting position. Eventually handing the #27 car over to the multiple Le Mans winner, it was all down to Turner to bring it home for the team inside the final hour of the race despite now being behind the Fox car on track


The weather had played its part in the opening phase of the day and the race would be concluded under rising, broken cloud with the sun even peeking out at times to see just what was going on and second in class was always going to be good enough mathematically for the #27 crew despite the points differential between P1 and P2.

Bring it home they did, claiming P2 overall in class at the chequered flag to land yet another podium of the season and, more importantly the GT4 Drivers Championship by just four points for their efforts. What is more outstanding is the fact the team did not even attend the first race of the season at Brands Hatch in mid-May!!


Joining the delights of a decent finish were also the #71 Century AMR crew of Holloway and Ellis who claimed P3 in class by the end of their first British GT race together as they finished just six seconds behind the #27 car!

Another P7 finish for the #7 Beechdean AMR crew would cement them into fifth (and sixth for Adam) place in the GT3 Drivers Championship – frustrating to them we are sure, but we would like to think that had it not been for Covid, mistakes at Spa and accident at Oulton Park then they may have been in for a better shout than what they actually were at the end.


But that’s motor racing.

Photo credit (podium) – Jacob Ebrey
Monday, October 18, 2021 | Read more...
British GT Championship's remaining titles still finally balanced after today's sessions

British GT Championship's remaining titles still finally balanced after today's sessions


The final round of the 2021 British GT Championship from Donington Park is again living up to its affectionately adopted hashtag with today’s first formal sessions of the finale throwing up some issues for the Aston Martin Racing crews and in fact most to contend with.

Mid October and the twenty-six crews were presented with a dry track, little chance of rain during the day but a tad chilly to start with for some! Teams had already been at the circuit on Thursday for some private testing and with conditions similar again to today, there was not much need for anyone to go ‘off piste’ on set up.

Speaking with someone at Beechdean, we asked about this performance issue that had apparently blighted the #7 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam for much of the season. Whilst we don’t think that a clear answer was necessarily given, a predicted gap of at about a second was predicted for later!

Beechdean (specifically Andrew Howard) are one of the two AMR teams in the hunt for the remaining GT3 and GT4 Pro-Am Drivers Championship title hunt left as yet unclaimed going into this finale – the other being the #27 Newbridge Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of Matt Topham and Darren Turner. Whereas the #27 AMR GT4 arrived at the Leicestershire circuit with a points advantage of a dozen or so, the #7 team would need something nearing a minor miracle – basically to win and have all those ahead of them in the Championship to fail to score. 

Free Practice 1 this morning appeared to go reasonably well for the three AMR teams including the British GT debut for David Holloway and his Century Motorsport prepared AMR GT4 that he will share with his 2021 GT Cup co-driver Bradley Ellis. Despite going faster than they did on Thursday, the #7 Beechdean found themselves again at the foot of the class table as both the AMR GT4’s also went faster than Thursday for the #71 Century car to claim the higher spot than the #27 Newbridge car.

During Free Practice 2 the first problem arose for the Newbridge team as Turner made an uncharacteristic error of judgement to outbreak himself into the rear of the Paddock Motorsport Bentley GT3 – consigning each to their garages for repairs and missing the remainder of FP2 to boot.

With still a couple of hours till Qualifying, the repair work did look well within the capabilities of the Newbridge Team but obviously that incident perhaps dented more than the front of their Aston as memories of their last visit to Donington Park earlier in the year came back to bear.

Then came the four Qualifying sessions with the GT3 Am drivers starting it off but were soon back in pit lane as the GT3 Championship leading Lamborghini managed to spin out and get stuck in the gravel causing a red flag! With the session soon getting back under way, the #7 Beechdean car would eventually finish P9 overall with their separate times both about 0.8 to 1.0 second slower (see above) than those of the pace setting WPI Motorsport Lamborghini.

GT4’s were out next with Topham and Holloway piloting their respective Aston around first before Turner and Ellis took each car to the completion of the session. With the class generously filled with plenty of Silver/Silver crews, the Pro-Am entered Aston’s were always going to be lower down the order with the #27 eventually taking P6 overall and second in class – just behind the leading Pro-Am Toyota but more importantly with their nearest Championship challengers also facing problems of their own and only Qualifying towards the rear of the grid.

As with any race, where you start is not necessarily the important bit as its always who crosses the line first wins. Whereas the Beechdean crew are being pretty much matter of fact about their chances this weekend, the Newbridge crew do have every chance and are being privately – mildly confident with the package that they have.

The final two hour race of the 2021 season starts at 13:00hrs local tomorrow!!

Looking forward to it!

Saturday, October 16, 2021 | Read more...