Many changes in the AMR line up ahead of GT4 European Series first visit to Hockenheim
It’s still eleven Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crews expected at the next round of the GT4 European Series from Hockenheim this weekend but with just with ‘one or two’ changes along the way to keep us on our toes about things!!
As per the recently published entry list the differences are: -
· #5 Racing One Team Spirit Racing – no longer Kenton Kock/Thijmen Nabuurs – now Nico Hantke plus Will Tregurtha in Silver Cup· #6 Racing One – Moritz now not with brother Vincent Gisy – now Ralf Kelleners in Silver Cup
· #7 AGS Events – FFSA GT4 crew mates Mike Parisy and Nicolas Gomar return to the European Series
· #58 Mirage Racing – enter their new GT4 crew of Ruben Del Sarte and Paul Aural-König
· #80 AGS Events – Tom Verdier is now joined by team FFSA racer Loris Cabirou after Del Sarte moved to Mirage Racing
Photo credits – Series / Teams
Monday, August 29, 2022 |
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Not Aston Martins day at the latest round of the GT4 European Series from Misano
Both the Prosport Racing and Racing Spirit of Lemans crews had enjoyed some fine results in the series (and others) up until now and everyone was hopeful of similar performances that helped both teams settle at the top of the Silver Cup Drivers Championship leader board going into the weekend.
Whilst we all know that Qualifying may not necessarily paint an accurate picture of overall performances, the results of Q1 did show that the two Spirit of Lemans cars of Tom Canning/Akhil Rabindra (#19) and Gus Bowers/Konstantin Lachenauer (#10) were still amongst the top runners with their P5 and P8 overall positions whilst the double race winners of last time, the #24 Prosport Racing AMR of Higo Sasse/Mike David-Ortmann was way back in P17 overall.
With five other Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4s amongst the grid of forty-five cars (after the unfortunate early demise of the #9 Racing One car during Free Practice), the odds were surely still stacked in the favour of at least one of these coming through by the end of the first hour long race.
Due to sheer numbers involved, the opening corners were of course a little bit fraught but at least they were clean as the natural hierarchy of performance soon made clear who was fastest and who wasn’t – sadly for the AMR runners, the utter dominance of the Mercedes AMG GT4 quickly proved that it wasn’t to be Astons day this around.
The next pain for some came just after the pit stop window as Wilfried Cazalbon parked his #89 Am Class AGS Events Racing car with a clear technical issue having only just taken over from Julien Lambert. Whatever the problem was, that car would not compete again over the weekend.
Soon after that, the problems for the AGS team got worse as a pit lane exiting Noah Andy got hit from behind, taking both him and the Porsche assailant out of the race on the spot too.
With the two Pro-Am Aston Martin being the last to pit, by the time debris was cleared from the AGS car, Am drivers Rodrique Gillion and Henrik Lyngbye-Pederson each found themselves running within the top 10 on merit as the race went back to green but with just fourteen minutes remaining, contact between two Mercedes spun one of them around and straight into the path of the #25 Prosport Car of Gillion causing extensive front end damage to both cars.
With the two Pro-Am Aston Martin being the last to pit, by the time debris was cleared from the AGS car, Am drivers Rodrique Gillion and Henrik Lyngbye-Pederson each found themselves running within the top 10 on merit as the race went back to green but with just fourteen minutes remaining, contact between two Mercedes spun one of them around and straight into the path of the #25 Prosport Car of Gillion causing extensive front end damage to both cars.
Like the Cazalbon car before it, the #25 Gillion car would not be seen again in race 2.
Another Safety Car and then more issues for the AMR runners as Bowers pitted his #10 car with technical issues that would lose the then Silver Class leaders valuable points as the #24 Sasse/Ortmann car eventually came through for a P15 overall/P3 in Silver finish with the #19 Rabindra/Canning car just behind in P17/P4. The #5 Racing One car of Thijmen Nabuurs/Kenton Koch car would persevere for a P6 Silver finish with the #18 Racing One AM car of Pederson/Lungstrass fifth in Am and the #80 AGS car of Tom Verdier/Ruben Del Sarte the last of the AMR finishes in P27 overall/P10 in Silver.
Another Safety Car and then more issues for the AMR runners as Bowers pitted his #10 car with technical issues that would lose the then Silver Class leaders valuable points as the #24 Sasse/Ortmann car eventually came through for a P15 overall/P3 in Silver finish with the #19 Rabindra/Canning car just behind in P17/P4. The #5 Racing One car of Thijmen Nabuurs/Kenton Koch car would persevere for a P6 Silver finish with the #18 Racing One AM car of Pederson/Lungstrass fifth in Am and the #80 AGS car of Tom Verdier/Ruben Del Sarte the last of the AMR finishes in P27 overall/P10 in Silver.
Sundays second race was sadly not a great deal better as the #24 Prosport car of Sasse failed to finish even the opening lap as an early puncture saw the young German elect to call it a day rather than risk the pointless process of limping his car back to the pit lane.
Despite this early negative, the #80 AGS car of Verdier and the #5 Racing One car of Nabuurs at least looked racy as they put early challenges onto those in front before an early Safety Car was called as a McLaren impacted along the pit wall.
The #10 Racing Spirit of Lemans car would again suffer an untimely exit from the race as Lachenauer would this time be forced to retire his car with technical issues just after the pit window as again, the Mercedes AMG cars just ‘walked away’ at the front.
Despite the best of efforts from all those involved, the best AMR result in Race 2 would be the P10 overall and P6 in Silver finish from the #19 Rabindra/Canning car with the #5 Racing One Nabuurs/Koch effort at least being the more consistent of them down in P12 overall/P8 in silver.
These results have seen the #10 crew lose the lead of the Silver Class to a Mercedes powered crew after their double race win in Misano and the Aston Martin crews double DNF. The sister #19 crew and the #24 Prosport crew remain in P2 and P3 respectively with a similar fate with the #89 AGS crew of Cazalbon/Lambert losing their Am class lead thanks to their double DNF as well.
Next top for the Series will be at Spa Francorchamps later this month during the SRO’s annual Speed Week.
Photo credits – GT4 European Series
Monday, July 04, 2022 |
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Will the #24 PROspotrt continue their incredible race form as the GT4 European Series visits Misano
Having raced already at Imola and most recently at Le Castellet over the four races so far, the Aston Martin contingent shrinks back to a paltry ten car for the third round of their six-round series with the #6 Racing One AMR entry again absent along with driver Vincent Gisy but will Moritz Gisy again joining Father Christian aboard the teams #9 car in lieu of Ralf Kelleners.
That is the only expected change ahead of this weekend’s round of action as the Racing One team still field a further two cars for Kenton Koch/Thijmen Nabuurs in the #5 car as well as Henrick Lyngbye Pederson/Marcus Lungstrass in their #18 car.
With then have the two PROsport Racing entries for both Rodrique Gillion/Nico Verdonck and Hugo Sasse/Mike David-Ortmann, the AGS Events Racing team also field their three full season crews of Tom Verdier/Ruben Del Sarte, Hugo Conde/Noah Andy and Julien Lambert/Wilfried Cazalbon as well as the two Swiss based Racing Spirit of Lemans entries for both Tom Canning/Akhil Rabindra and Gus Bowers/Konstantin Lachenaur.
Results for these crews so far have been ‘pretty good’ with Bowers/Lachenaur, Sasse/Ortmann and Canning/Rabindra forming a 1-2-3 at the head of their Silver Cup class but with the front running crew demanding a 31-point lead over their Prosport rivals whilst in the Am class, we see the #89 AGS crew of Lambert/Cazalbon at the head with a twenty-eight-point lead over their closest rivals there. The latter will however be in another chassis for this weekend after their #89 car was rolled in Qualifying at last weekends FFSA GT4 event at Albi.
Looking back at the results last time out at Paul Ricard and for last weekend, the team to beat this time around will be the #24 crew of Sasse and Ortmann after they secured a double overall win in the GT4 European Series at Ricard at the beginning of June as well as two pole positions and lights to flag race wins last weekend in the ADAC GT4 Germany Series.
Photo credits – GT4 European / Teams
Wednesday, June 29, 2022 |
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Successful opening weekend in the GT4 European Series for three Aston Martin crews
The weekend proved to be more of a success for some Aston Martin Racing GT4 runners than the races and the ensuing accident and incident around the Imola circuit may have first portrayed.
Having taken the win in the opening race of the season on Saturday, the #10 Spirit of Lemans AMR Vantage GT4 of Gus Bowers and Konstantin Lachenauer would start from pole position in Sunday mornings race and would go onto to secure a lights to flag class and race win by the end of another multiple FCY and Safety Car affected race in what was still their debut AMR event for the team.
The performance of the team’s #10 would be supported in race two by a P4 overall/P2 in Silver Cup podium finish from the sister #19 car of Tom Canning and Akhil Rabindra, marking a welcomed return (despite some mistakes being well recovered) of the proficient young Indian racer after a year in the doldrums in the FFSA GT4 Series before. Further performances like these from the #19 crew should hopefully see them contest for overall race wins like their #10 crew peers.
Also repeating a double podium over the weekend was the #89 AGS Events Racing Am Class crew of Julien Lambert and Wilfried Cazalbon who improved upon their P3 class podium during race 1 with a dominating class win during race 2.
Other than the #89 crew, Imola presented itself as another steep learning curve opening round of the season for the French team as both their #80 and #7 crews suffered DNF’s in the opening race followed by mid to low table finishes in the second.
Also running three cars for the first time this weekend was the German based Racing One team with an AMR Vantage GT4 entry running in each of the Am, Pro-Am and Silver Cup classes. With a probable podium thrown away by the #5 car of Kenton Koch and Thijmen Nabuurs after late contact in race 1, a grid penalty and further technical issues saw them pit and retire from the race just before the opening of the pit stop window.
Christian Gisy was again racing with son Vincent aboard their #9 Pro-Am entered car and being the first mainstream GT4 event for Vincent, their possibilities within the highly contested class were somewhat limited for them to follow up their race 1 result P44 overall and P19 in class with an improved P34overall / P18 in class.
The team’s returning Am crew of Henrick Lyngbye Pederson and Marcus Lungstrass would put their pre-season racing mileage to good use with an improved (and just off the class podium) P4 finish in class by the end of the final hour of racing.
For Prosport Racing’s first full season two car entry into the series, it would sadly turn into something to forget after Hugo Sasses’ catastrophic exit from race 1 where the resulting damage would negate their ability to race on Sunday, with Rodrique Gillion and Nico Verdonck going backwards in race two to finish a lowly P38 overall after contact having finished P5 in Pro-Am in race 1.
Hopefully, all the contact and long periods of caution can be avoided next time out at the openness of the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France where round two of the 2022 season will be held in. just under two months’ time.
Photo credits – Teams / GT4 European Series
Monday, April 04, 2022 |
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Disappointing visit to Spa Francorchamps for the Aston Martins of the GT4 European Series
Whilst it was something of the opposite for the larger GT3 cars from the Aston Martin Racing family of teams from Spa Francorchamps at the weekend, the preceding two races of the GT4 European Series were something of a disappointment as none of the three AMR teams attending came away from the meeting with any results of note.
Already down by two cars as the both the Racing One and PROsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4’s elected to stay away for various reasons, it was again left to the three AGS Events Racing, Street Art Racing and Mirage Racing to fly the flag for Aston Martin during the supporting TotalEnergie Spa 24 meeting.
For Friday’s first hour long race, the track had gone back to being warm and dry but incidents during the earlier Qualifying sessions had already taken its toll but hopes were still high after the success of the Aston Martin car at the earlier FFSA GT4 meeting at the circuit the week before. The #55 Mirage Racing Aston Martin of Rubens del Sarte was the highest AMR qualifier in P9 overall, having made the most of his FFSA GT4 experience at the circuit with the #89 AGS Events Am class car of Nicolas Gomar down in P14 overall yet still P1 in class.
Last time winners at Zandvoort, the #27 AGS Events car of Cesar Gazeau was surprisingly low down the field in P19 with their final sister #45 car of Hugo Conde in P13. The final Aston, that of the #7 Street Art Racing car of Pascal Bachmann was farthest back in P33 out of the 39-car entry.
Fortunately for all, everyone was relatively well disciplined at the first corner and that allowed everyone to get at least a couple of laps in. The #27 AGS car was the first casualty with broken suspension after just 14 minutes and was lucky not to be hit again by his #45 AGS team mate as Gazeau limped through the ultra-fast Eau Rouge/Raidillon sequence.
Del Sarte continued to be the best driver from the AMR cars as he maintained his starting position as he handed over to Tom Canning and by the time both Eric Herr, Akhil Rabindra and Paul Theysgens had each got into their cars at the pit stop – all of those had lost position relative to their start.
A car being spun around at the final corner again nearly caught out the #89 and #45 AGS cars in terms of secondary contact but that incident called for a Full Course Yellow that mellowed the race until going back to green with little over ten minutes remaining but that mattered not at the chequered flag, as the #55 Mirage was still the best AMR finisher in P9.
Saturday’s second race was a different affair again as rain started to fall again as the cars assembled on the grid, but it was the decision of most to stick with the slick tyre at the start.
Canning had earlier made the most of his Qualifying session by placing his #55 Mirage car on pole position for the first time this season but that was about as good as it sadly got as the trio of AGS cars ran from P19 (#27 Konstantin Lachenauer), P21 (#45 Rabindra), P32 (#89 Herr) but with Theysgens in P24 and second in the Am class.
As the cars powered away from the rolling start, Canning put caution before any short-term heroics but paid the price as others with the opposite opinion went past him out of the first corner with immediate progress from the #27 also being made that did see them run immediately behind Canning before quickly dropping back again. Still on slicks, a spinning Mercedes hit the barrier at the top of Raidillon but was fortunately not hit by the trailing pack as they came over the blind crest – Safety Car!!
Back to green and at least the track was now drying, so anyone who pitted for wets was now again on the wrong tyre as the lap times steadily improved. Theysgens had now caught up with the #27 car for race position although in differing classes but like any race, a place made was a place made but at least he was then leading his Am class.
Coming in from P8, Canning handed over to Del Sarte who would return to the track in P9. The #27 car of Gazeau was the next best placed Aston but he was down in P18 again with Conde not much further back in P21.
Although Canning had earlier been able to gain pole position, the race pace of the Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 was never comparable to that of certainly the McLaren 570s and Mercedes AMG GT4’s but some of that may have been down to how the team trimmed out the car in terms of set up with arriving weather patterns that were impossible to predict.
With rain again falling at the end, the #55 Mirage car claimed a P5 overall position, the best of the AMR bunch with the French AGS Events Racing team having something of a disappointing race – query over using the cars with constant back-to-back race weekends in both GT4 European Series and the FFSA GT4 Series with not enough time to maintain them properly in-between?
The next stop for the series will be their penultimate round of the season from the Nurburgring in early September.
Photo credits – GT4 European / Teams
Monday, August 02, 2021 |
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Five become six (maybe more) AMR Vantage GT4's (so far) confirmed so far ahead of GT4 European Series opener (UPDATED)
Initially hoping to match or even out strip their sister FFSA GT4 Series, the European Series today confirms five Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 runners from two familiar teams, although the list did omit all the driver’s names.
The AGS Events Racing Team again take the bull by the horns with another four-car entry (to match their commitments to their national FFSA GT4 Series) with only two crews being so far identified by the team.
Cesar Gazeau and Konstantin Lachenauer were the first two young guns identified by the team as moving up to GT4 racing for the first time and they will be joined by the pairing of Akhil Rabindra and Hugo Conde. Rabindra stays with the team but swaps back to the European Series having battled hard in the FFSA Series last season without success. Conde steps up from the FFSA Sprint Cup where he finished fourth in his Rookie year last season.
That obviously leaves two AGS Events cars with unidentified driver crews and class.
Joining these guys and returning to the series after a year’s sabbatical due to COVID is the Belgium based Street Art Racing who come back with a single car for their 2019 GT4 Am Champion Pascal Bachmann and a GT4 debuting Belgium racer Paul Theysgens. An inexperienced driver with Bachmann is no problem for the team of course after he guided an equally inexperienced GT driver Clement Seyler to the title.
This list misses out a number of other cars expected to be entered – particularly from the Swiss based R-Motorsport team after two late season entries last year but news elsewhere suggests that the team will also be sitting out 2021 as well.
With two weeks still remaining before the season start, only time will tell if any further entries will be accepted on a race-by-race basis.
UPDATE
Today saw French team Mirage Racing also confirm that on top of their already stated racing commitments within their national FFSA GT4 Series that they have now also placed an entry into the larger GT4 European Series with their AMR Vantage GT4.
One half of their Pro-Am FFSA GT4 crew Ruben del Sarte will be joined in their GT4 European Series endeavours by 2019 British GT GT4 Champion and AMR Drivers Academy winner Tom Canning.
Not only this, but we also understand that todays announcement will not be the last from an Aston Martin Racing Customer/Partner team into the European Series pushing AMR car headcount to that of the FFSA GT4 Series.
Photo credits – GT4 European Series
Photo credits – GT4 European Series
Wednesday, March 31, 2021 |
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AGS Events Racing extend their Championship winning performance at FFS GT4 Finale
Having already secured both the Am, Silver Cup and Team’s titles in the sister SRO sanctioned GT4 European Series at the circuit the weekend before, last weekend’s FFSA GT4 finale was always going to be difficult task for the team to achieve anything more despite their #89 Pro-Am entry of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy laying in second place in the Championship such was the points deficit.
What seemed an almost impossible mountain for them to climb needed two class wins and then rely upon the then Championship leading duo not to score so very nearly came off in the end for the #89 car – finishing on the podium in both races, winning the second and final race of the year but sadly ‘only’ in second place in the weekends first race to miss out on the Pro-Am Championship by just four points to the #42 car of Fabien Michel and Gregory Guilvert who actually failed to score in both races!
Those results from the #89 car were enough though for them to secure the Team’s Championship title from the Santeloc Racing team by just four points.
The weekend also saw a strong finish from the teams #161 Am class car of Didier Dumaine and Christoph Carriere who earned a P3 class podium in race 1 and a P4 class finish in Sunday afternoon’s finale to see out their season together fourth overall in that Championship.
The team’s other full season entry of Gilles Vannelet and Akhil Rabindra finished P9 and P6 in class respectively to see other their obviously disappointing season in P9 overall for the year.
This final race weekend was also going to give their GT4 European Series Silver Cup winning duo of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Theo Nouet one final bow out this year aboard their AMR Vantage GT4 but contact for Nouet going into turn 1 in the dark of race 1 saw his car spin off and into the concrete wall in ball of steam. Thankfully, the young Frenchman was able to exit the car himself before being last seen exiting stage left with red mist presumably very much in his eyes.
This final race weekend was also going to give their GT4 European Series Silver Cup winning duo of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Theo Nouet one final bow out this year aboard their AMR Vantage GT4 but contact for Nouet going into turn 1 in the dark of race 1 saw his car spin off and into the concrete wall in ball of steam. Thankfully, the young Frenchman was able to exit the car himself before being last seen exiting stage left with red mist presumably very much in his eyes.
Unfortunately, the team was not able to repair the car in time for Sunday’s final race where Hasse-Clot was due to start from pole position.
Well done to the team anyway for even more Championship winning credentials in their first season with the AMR Vantage and we look forward to further confirmation of their ongoing race plans for next season.
Photo credits – FFSA GT4 / AGS Events
Monday, November 23, 2020 |
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Final dance for AGS Events Racing four Astons at FFSA GT Paul Ricard finale
Having already scooped the GT4 European Series Silver Cup, Am Class and Team Championship titles at this circuit last weekend in their first year of running the new 2019 Aston Martin Racing, the AGS Events Racing Team will again field all four of their AMR race cars at this weekend’s final round of the French National Series – again one that the team could (mathematically at least) secure should results go their way of the weekends two races.
Drivers Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy presently lie in second in the Pro-Am Drivers Championship table some 47 points back from the class leaders but with 50 points still available – anything is still possible.
Joining them again in that class is the Akhil Rabindra/Gilles Vannelet car who presently lie in P9 after what can only be described as a disappointing season. They are joined by their Am Class, full season entry of Christophe Carriere and Didier Dumaine who themselves just lacked a string of consistent finishes that would have otherwise had then in a Championship contending position.
Making up the foursome is the GT4 European Series Silver Cup Champions of Valentin Hasse-Clot and Theo Nouet who have spent the whole week at the circuit since the final round of that series last weekend, through a GT3 test with Garage 59 before being finally confirmed by the series as running today.
After Free Practice on Friday, Qualifying and an evening race awaits the team on Saturday before a daytime race on Sunday sees out their 2020 season. Both races will again be streamed live via the series website – but it is only with French commentary!!
This will be the Series second visit to the Circuit Paul Ricard after their original post of call at Ledenon was cancelled at the last moment due to the areas ongoing CV-19 situation.
Photo credits - FFSA / AGS
Thursday, November 19, 2020 |
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