After previous rounds at Portimao, Jarama, Vila Real and most recently at Valencia in mid-September, we still see the #77 Racar Motorsport AMR of Mathieu Martin and Roberto Faria lead the way by just nine points within their GT4 Pro class whilst teammates Vasco Oliveira and Francisco Carvalho trail by a similar margin within their GT4 Bronze class.

Completing the Racar entry will be the #78 car of Henrique Oliveira and Luca Savu as well as the #707 entry of Filipe Videira and Antonio Lopes.

The #777 Gianfranco Motorsport #777 and their GT4 Vantage Evo of Rubens Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende complete the five Aston Martins within the true GT4 class entry whilst the venerable #700 NGT Vantage of Fernando Soares and Miguel Ferreira will compete again within their GTX class.

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That said, that didn’t stop the Racar crews and in particularly the two Aston Martin Racing Drivers Academy entered Roberto Faria and Mathieu Martins from almost continually leading from the front within their #77 entry as they embraced two second row starts for each of the two, hour long races to bring back an overall P2 at the end of race one before winning race two later in the day within their GT4 Pro class.

The #79 Racar crew of Vasco Oliviera and Francisco Carvalho did similar within their Bronze classed entry as they rewarded their new car service provider with an improving P3 in race one to a P2 in race 2 for their efforts.

Likewise, the #707 Racar entry of Philipe Videira and Antonio Lopes also enjoyed this weekend’s rich vein of AMR powered success within their GT4 Am class as they cemented another weekend with a straight set of P2 finishes within both qualifying and both races.

The series will now get a month off before returning at Vila Real in Portugal.

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This time, the AMR entry is from the Racar Motorsport team who will field three of their 17A variants within the main GT4 based body of the event whilst the NGT Classic team will be racing its older Vantage GT4 within the GTX class for its solo driver of Migual Ferriera which in turn maybe sporting a new look livery to it.

AMR Drivers Academy drivers Mathieu Martins and Roberto Faria will be back within their Racar #77 car in GT4 Pro whilst the #79 Racar entry has morphed from the former #28 Araujo Competicao entry of Vasco Oliverira and Francisco Carvalho in GT4 Bronze after they swapped service providers between rounds. 

The final #707 Racar entry will again be the GT4 Bronze entry for Filipe Videira and Antonio Lopes for this two-race weekend.

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With a dry track on Sunday morning but with menacing skies forming around the circuit, the race got underway with the usual degree of inter-car action between the differing levels of drivers but before the halfway mark the rain had arrived, and a long Safety Car was soon required to retrieve one stranded Porsche from the gravel.

Presuming that most cars stayed out on slicks despite the earlier drizzle, the grid would have been happy just to get that race completed by the end as the heavens opened!! Race one saw the #77 Racar AMR secure P2 in Pro, the #777 Gianfranco Am car a class win in their debut event with their 17A Vantage, P3 in Bronze for the #28 Araujo and a P1 within with GTX for the venerable 15A #700 NGT Motorsport Aston Martin.

The final race of the day gave the drivers the same issues as the first as the rain had eased/stopped and the sun had reappeared as the twenty-eight GT4 cars took to the grid with the #77 Racar and #007 Araujo AMR’s again at the head of the pack.

With a McLaren stopping on track at the halfway stage, the race was under the temporary control of the Safety Car whilst that car was removed but that caution extended into a red flag period. Getting back to green, it was a case of quickly around the track before pitting again for the river change leaving little over twenty minutes of racing to go.

No further incident or accidents on track to speak of, it was to be a double for the #77 Racar entry of Roberto Faria and Mathieu Martins behind the wheel as they scooped another P2 in Pro whilst the #777 Gianfranco AMR effort of Rubins Vaquinhas and Pedro Bastos Rezende another P1 finish in Am for their efforts whilst the #28 Araujo Competicao secured two steps up the bronze podium with a class win for drivers Vasco Oliveira and Franciso Carvalho.

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Both series regulars Araujo Competicao and Racar Motorsport teams return with Araujo due to turn up with two AMR Vantage GT4 Evo’s plus one older 17A variants whilst the Racar team are due to compete still with their fleet of four 17A variants that were all up for sale at the end of last season.

They in turn will be joined by the 17A Vantage from the new (to AMR) Gianfranco Motorsport team as well as the venerable older Vantage GT4 from the NGT Motorsport team. Will multiple classes available, we will see these nine entries compete within the Am, Bronze, Pro Bronze and Pro classes.

With private practice on Friday, the more serious business will be with Free Practice and Qualifying on Saturday ahead of two fifty-minute races on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media / D Burgin

Photo and videos of the day did show up some returning faces as well as fresh youngsters moving up into GT’s for the first time and still a wide split between those using the latest Evo version and those still utilising the 17A edition.

The first round of the season will be from Portimao in two weeks’ time.

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