Spanish based Team Virage have today confirmed an entry for one of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's in the forthcoming GT Cup Open Series for two returning drivers.

Having sampled both the new AMR GT4 race car and the new for 2019 GT4 sub category of racing under the GT Open umbrella, drivers Fernando Navarrette and Alvaro Lobera obviously liked what they experienced at their 'toe in the water' one of entry at the penultimate round of the 2019 season at a rain soaked Circuit de Catalunya circuit to come back to the Valencia based team for this time a full season attempt at the title.


Despite the torrential rain that effected the race meeting in Barcelona last season, the team still finished P4 in the Pro-Am class but would later suffer from water related electrical issues even before the start of second race of the weekend to such a degree that they would not take the start.


This Silver / Bronze driving duo represented Spain in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 at last years FIA Motorsport Games at Autodromo de Vallelunga in November.
The 2020 season sees another six round - double header season as the GT4 class cars share the weekend with GT3 and open wheeled formulae starting at Paul Ricard at the end of April.

Photo credits - Team Virage / Xynamic 

Valencia based Team Virage were left somewhat frustrated after their penultimate round debut into the GT Open Cup European Championship at their 'local' Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona at the weekend as technical issues ended up blighting a very respectable start in some very trying track conditions.

Hoping to emulate the successes of Optimum Motorsport at the last round at Silverstone, the Spanish based team entered one of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's in to the Barcelona race weekend for tin top convertees Fernando Navarrete and Alvaro Lobera.


Entered into the Pro-Am class, the duo made steady progress within the car during the warm, dry track sessions of Free  Practice 1 and 2 before torrential rain washed out any chance of anyone actually submitting a Qualifying time for Race 1 on Saturday morning.

Starting from their combined Free Practice time positions, the fifteen cars had only just left the grid on the formation lap when the heavens opened once again, dropping significant volumes of water onto the track where all cars has started on slicks. Fortunately, Race Control had the foresight to employ the pace car as a Safety Car start that allowed all to pit for wets.


Despite having started P13, the #95 AMR with Lobera taking the start had moved up to P8 courtesy of a quicker stop and despite the Safety Car being on track. By the time track conditions were safe enough to let then go back to green there were only a few minutes left before the pit window opened.

As the track slowly began to form a drier line towards the end of race one, Navarrete was having 'issues' in the car that dropped him back down to P9 overall but still P4 in class by the end of the 55 minute race.


Electrical issues aboard the car were later confirmed (possibly as a result of the wet race) but sadly for the team these issues were not fixable in time to compete in race 2 on Sunday. That put a disappointing end to a potentially encouraging race for this pair and the team on Sunday.

Photo credits - GT Cup Open