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

 

 

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

There was a debut podium finish in class for the American pairing who took over the Mirage Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 within the FFSA GT4 Series penultimate round of the season from Magny-Cours.

Racing the car previously completed with by both Daid Levy and Jodie Sloss (as they move across the Mirage team garage to their new Porsche entry), that left the renumbered #7 car entry assigned to both Grant West and Alex Bachoura.

 

Previously scheduled to race the Aston Martin at Spa, West and Bachoura (two previous Mazda MX5 racers) had to wait until this weekend before making that dream come true.

Race one on Sunday had seen the #7 car fail to finish but at the end of the second hour long race, the pairing had managed to secure a P3 finish within their Am class.

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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.

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Heading into this weekend’s penultimate round of the French FFSA GT4 Series from Magny-Cours sees another change within the sole Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered entry from the Mirage Racing team.

For the opening two rounds of the season, the #5 Mirage Racing Am classed entry was again piloted by both David Levy and Jodie Sloss where the pairing had rekindled some of last years successes together with a pair of class podium finishes at Nogaro before winning the class in both races at Dijon-Prenois.

 

At the next round from Spa Francorchamps in June, Levy suddenly transferred over to the #24 JSB Competition Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 leaving Sloss to see what quickly become a thorough forgettable event alongside Nicolas Siebenschuh. Following an unseen incident with another car within the pit lane for Sloss, that sadly saw the #5 car sidelined for the remainder of the event with Siebenschuh never getting a competitive run out in the car.

 

The entry list for this weekend’s trip to Magny-Cours is now out and we again see a return of the Sloss/Levy combination but not within the Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4. Whilst they will race within the team’s #5 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 for the first time, the team’s #7 Aston Martin Racing powered entry will be driven by the series debuting crew of Grant West and Alex Bachoura – again within the Am class.

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The Walkenhorst Motorsport team last weekend bucked the trend of their Aston Martin Racing stablemates at Comtoyou Racing having all of the fun within racing competition of late as they came away from the Misano with two podium finishes in class to their name.

Racing at just the second round of the Sprint Cup Series, the German based Walkenhorst team entered two silver classed AMR Vantage GT3’s alongside the three AMR entries from the Belgium based Comtoyou team for the weekend’s two one-hour races.

 

Race one on Saturday would be an into the night race with the forty-four strong grid lining up just before dusk but with just the #34 Walkenhorst AMR of Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez breaking into the top half during the earlier qualifying getting a P12 overall starting slot over the next best of the #7 Comtoyou Racing Pro class entry of Nicki Thiim and Kobe Pauwels.

Race one unfortunately got off to a troubled start with many of the front running cars making contact with one another with two cars sustaining damage with a wide debris field that necessitated the Safety Car before the end of the opening lap.

 

Fortunately none of these were AMR powered runners but that did lose ten minutes of the race clock during the clean-up operation before things got going again as Day still featured as the only Aston Martin runner within the top half of the entry coming up to the mandatory pit stop window.

By the time that had finished it was practically dark around the mainly unlit circuit as now Villagomez took up the charge within the #34 car but with something of a comeback drive from Pauwels aboard the #7 Comtoyou car as he was climbing his way up towards the overall top fifteen.

 

Despite a late FCY for a car stranded in the gravel that would eventually see the race finish under waved yellows, the #34 completed the opening race of the weekend with an overall P14 finish – P2 in silver whilst the #7 car still missed out upon a class top ten finish despite their best of efforts. The #21 Comtoyou silver entry of Oliver Soderstrom and Arthur Dorison ended their day with a credible P3 in class – two places in front of the #35 Walkenhorst entry of Maxime Robin and Gaspard Simon. The #11 Comtoyou Racing bronze class entry of Felice Jelmini and Marcelo Tomasoni would feature at the tail end of the pack at the end of both races in their opening weekend of the series.

Race two on Sunday would be run under the full heat of the summer sun but with Pauwels starting from the second row of the grid in third and with the #34 Walkenhorst this time the next based AMR in P21.

 

A cleaner start this time saw Pauwels drop a place before holding position for what then appeared to be a resumption of the abilities, but brake issues would quickly see the car back in the garage for what be an immediate retirement. That left Villagomez still down in P21 as the lead Aston again.

As the race progressed, the #35 teammate of Robin was next seen climbing both the class and overall race ladder immediately prior to their stop but once that had been completed, their sister #34 again took over the leading reins for Aston Martin. Whilst the two remaining Comtoyou Racing cars got a variety of time penalties for (usually) track limits which put paid to their races, it was to be another great display from the two Walkenhorst entries again on Sunday.

 

Day and Villagomez came home to secure their second P2 in class podium having come home P16 overall whilst both Robin and Simon had their best result to date with their P5 finish in class.

The next round of the season will be from Magny-Cours in France in just ten days’ time.

Photo credits – Team / Series

 

 

 

An outstanding achievement of three back-to-back class wins within the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup has suddenly thrusted the Comtoyou Racing team and their silver classed drivers into a championship winning possibility going forward into its final round of the season next month.

Starting off last time out in Misano, the #21 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 partnership of Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels finally got ‘all their ducks’ into order to end that weekend with their first, class win of the season to move into last weekend’s penultimate round from Magny-Cours full of momentum, buoyed as well by Day’s race winning exploits within another SRO GTWC Series down under on the weekend in-between.

 

A trio of third placed class finishes was the reward for the two Mirage Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo crews at the end of last weekend’s fourth round of the French FFSA GT4 Serie from Magny-Cours.

Racing with a car apiece within both the Pro-Am and Am classes saw the #7 Pro-Am entry of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub slightly stall on their championship aspirations after they struggled to recover from their lower-than-expected P7 overall qualifying position ahead of Saturdays into the night opening race.

 

Supporting the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Series from Magny-Cours this weekend will be the small but perfectly formed grid of the French based FFSA GT4 Series and their expected fourteen strong Am and Pro-Am runners.

Racing what will be their fourth round of a six-round season, both Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo entries from the French based Mirage Racing team will again be in action as Pro-Am runners Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub go again within their #7 car whilst Am class runners David Levy and Jodie Sloss do likewise within their #5 car.

 

Forty cars of the Gt World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup Series will be back again this weekend for a quick-fire return to the racetrack, this time from Magny-Cours in France after its last round from Misano just two weeks ago.

Within that expected entry list will be the same three Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 cars from both the Comtoyou Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams but with one of those crews reverting to its original driver line up.

 

The Belgian based Comtoyou Racing finally got something to really cheer about this afternoon after a more than difficult Spa 24 as they enjoyed podium wining success for one of their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered crews within the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup.

Racing this weekend from Misano in Italy, saw the team again enter two such crews – the #21 silver cup entry for Jamie Day and Kobe Pauwels as well as the #270 bronze cup entry for their revised Brazilian driver line up of Sergio Sette Camara and Ricardo Baptista. There would also be the #35 Pro entry from the German Walkenhorst Motorsport team for Henrique Chaves and Mateo Villagomez.

 

Just eighteen cars will roll out at Dijon-Prenois for the penultimate round of the French national FFSA GT4 series this weekend with another reduced Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered headcount of just two cars.

With just this round and the season finale of the SRO Racing festival from Paul Ricard in early October still to go, we have just the #7 Mirage Racing car of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub still competing within the Pro-Am class as well as the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman Silver class entry of Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez to cheer.

 

Last weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup visit to Magny-Cours in France will surely go down as another one to forget for the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing powered team after only one of their four cars was able to start race two of the weekend.

Already struggling for pace within the Balance of performance parameters set to the new 2024 AMR Vantage GT3 by the governing body, their Sprint Cup endeavours so far have nearly all been a case of ‘catch up’ to their peers but with the odd instance of inspiration from (usually) the #007 Pro class entry.