After what became yet another good year of motorsport for Aston Martin Racing Partner and Customer racing teams that we finally leave 2021 with sad news as reports overnight from America informed us of the untimely passing of Vantage GT4 gentleman racer, Paul Terry.

Coming to our attention only last year when he ran a Rearden Racing prepared AMR Vantage GT4 for the first time in the GT4 America Series, his somewhat Nicki Thiim ‘esq racing mantra of “go hard or go home” certainly brought a smile to our faces as he won some and lost others along the way.

 

Having started way back at the beginning of March, the SRO GT4 America Series reaches its concluding round from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend after a gruelling five round season so far where the Series has played catch up with the global situation.

 

 

The SRO GT4 America arrive back at the Circuit of The Americas next weekend for their penultimate event of the season having started there way back in early March before the global pandemic decimated both race calendars and race programmes across the country.

Again featuring both the Sprint and Sprint X races across its three day race programme, the Aston Martin Racing contingent will continue to be 'a man down' as the Roberts Racing AMR Vantage GT4 will sadly remain absent from the Series having raced at CoTA at the opening round of the season.


CoTA will also feature a slight change in the programme as instead of both the Sprint and Sprint X classes featuring 'catch up' triple header races, it will just be the Sprint Class who will have a third race on the Sunday.

The biggest topic across the GT4 field will be can Michael Dinan continue with his so far near 100% podium domination of the Sprint and Sprint X classes in his Flying Lizard prepared AMR Vantage that he races alone in Sprint and with Robbie Foley in Sprint X?


Not too far behind Dinan in the Sprint Class is the #59 Rearden Racing entry of Paul Terry who has been the only driver so far to push Dinan in their fifty minute races with his five podium finishes to Dinan's seven.

In Sprint, these two will be again joined by Jeff Burton in his (hopefully now fully repaired) #91 Rearden AMR Vantage after his very damaging crash in the concluding stages of race 1 last time out at Road America.


In the Sprint X class that features hour long, pit stop and driver change punctuated races, the #210 Flying Lizards entry for Dinan/Foley again leads the way for the AMR runners featuring second in the Championship table with more than a double points tally to their stablemates at BSport Racing, Rennsport 1 and Rearden Racing.

With the exception of Burton who suffered from crash damage and technical issues with both of his Aston Martins at Road America, that event proved itself to be a worthy one for the AMR teams as all brought home at least one podium finish over the triple header race meeting including a season first for the Rennsport 1 Notlad Racing #33 car of Matt Dalton and Pat Gallagher. These two also announced last week of their entry into the Indianapolis round of the SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge event at that circuit next month where the GT4 America Series concludes its 2020 season in support of the GT3/GT4 event.


The #15 BSport Racing Aston of Bryan Putt and AMR Drivers Academy racer Kenton Koch conclude the AMR entry for CoTA.

Photo credits - GT4 America

Sundays third and final day of the fourth round and third triple header weekend of the GT4 America Series at Road America proved itself to be another display of driver domination from Flying Lizards Gentleman driver Michael Dinan over the events three races in both Sprint and Sprint X.

Having already secured three class podium finishes out the four races so far, Sunday would see Dinan extend his 2020 trophy haul with another two class wins over the day as Dinan literally raced with the class of driver above his own all weekend. Indeed, Road America proved itself to be another fine display from all the Aston Martin Racing teams over both series of racing as Rearden Racing, Bsport Racing and Rennsport One all enjoyed multiple visits to the socially distanced podium.


Road American even became the first event since the opening round of the Series at the Circuit of The Americas to enjoy the company of race fans over the weekend although not many probably enjoyed the torrential rain of Friday. Their patience was ultimately rewarded with clear skies and sunshine for the remainder of the race programme so hopefully all came away with smiles on their faces.

With Sprint X being the first race of Sunday, Dinan would again be the front AMR car on the grid starting from P4 on the grid with the #15 BSport AMR of Bryan Putt in P10 and the #33 Rennsport One of Matt Dalton in P17. This race also saw the return of the Rearden Racing #91 car of Jeff Burton and Vesko Kosarov after engine issues early on Friday saw that car not compete in either of the two opening races.


Despite an initial clean start the race soon came under the control of the Safety Car as car cars tangled  into the concrete wall with another car having its bonnet lift and obscure its windscreen. Fortunately that was just a quick FCY and soon the remaining twenty cars were on their way.

Having missed all racing since Race 1 of Sprint and his accident, Burton was the one making quick progress through the field as having started from last on the grid he was soon snapping at the heals of Putt and Dalton in P10 whilst Dinan was way out front in the Pro-Am class (P3 overall) and chasing after the Silver Cup race leader and the Pro-Am Porsche ahead.


With all four AMR cars electing to pit for their respective Pro drivers as soon as the pit window would allow, as Kozarov (#91), Gallagher (#33) and Koch (#15) exited pit lane almost line astern and that would lead up to a great battle between them to the flag.

Buoyed by there earlier two podium finishes, AMR Academy Driver Kenton Koch managed to pass both the Rearden and Rennsport One car for position and after one more overtake found himself upon what would be the final step of the Pro-Am podium early on into his 30 minute stint.


With little over ten minutes remaining, Dinan passed the #47 Nolan Porsche to take both P2 overall and the lead in Pro-Am as both Gallagher and Kozarov continued battle for P8 overall. By the chequered flag, Dinan and Foley continued to secure P2 overall and P1 in class with the #15 BSPort holding on to their third podium in P5 overall and another P3 finish in class.


The efforts of Rearden Racing to sort the engine issue of the #91 out was rewarded with the cars P6 finish in class whilst the red, white and black Rennsport car finished just ahead in P5.

The final race of the GT4 America programme was the third Sprint race - another event so far dominated by the #210 Flying Lizard Vantage with Dinan having secured two wins out of two so far.


With fastest laps per class again deciding the starting order for the final race it came as no surprise that the #210 car would again start as the lead Aston from P4 overall and P1 in the Am Class. Paul Terry's #59 Rearden car would be close behind in P5/P2 whilst his team mate Jeff Burton would also return to for this final race of the day aboard his #91 car. The #191 that he usually races in this class was obviously too badly damaged to repair at the circuit following his Race 1 accident but at least it was good to have him back on the grid.


As with all the races so far, Dinan again made his move right from the start temporally stepping up to P3 overall before leaving the door open for that car to repass him going through the opening sequence of corners and whilst Terry dropped two early places, his team mate Burton picked up tow early places as he again had to start from the rear of the grid.

With three Pro cars ahead, Dinan soon realised that he didn't need to pass any of the cars infront as long as he could keep up with them and they were faster than the chasing Am pack and soon that gap elongated itself to nearly ten seconds.


In their efforts to close that gap, both Terry and Burton started to make mistakes and errors of judgement as first Burton went wide and ragged through Turn 6 and Terry locked up heavily a few corners later.

With nobody able to close down the gaps to the cars ahead, Dinan would go onto secure another class win with his P4 overall finish as Terry would collect another podium finish for his weekend in P6 overall - P3 in class with team mate not too far behind in P7 overall - P4 in class. Hopefully that went to brighten up and otherwise expensive weekend for the lumber merchant!!


As the Series moves back to CoTA for the penultimate event of the season in little over three weeks time, the results from Road America still leave both Sprint and Sprint X as achievable targets for others should Dinan's excellent roll of race results come to a sudden end. Terry remains Dinan's nearest threat in Sprint bing just 40 points behind whilst in Sprint X Dinan/Foley remain 22 points behind Matt Travis and Jason Hart in Pro-Am.


So there is still all to play for at both CoTA and the season finale at Indianapolis in early October.

Photo credits - GT4 America / Flying Lizards / CSJ Motorsport

Having already scored on class win on the opening race day of the GT4 America's visit to Road America for another one of their race recovery triple headers, Michael Dinan and his Flying Lizard team went on to dominate proceedings with two more class and outright wins yesterday.

Starting with the second of three fifty minute Sprint races, the timings from race 1 are used to determined the grid order via their previous fastest laps. That placed the #59 Rearden Racing AMR Vantage of Paul Terry in P3 overall (P1 in Am Class) on the grid with the yellow accented AMR of Dinan next to him in P4 (P2 in class) with the #191 Rearden car of Jeff Burton again missing out as his team worked on to repair the damage of race 1's smash that took him and another car out in the wet on Friday.


As opposed to the wet of Friday afternoon, the now reduced starting grid of twelve cars were to enjoy a bright, sunny start to their second race of the weekend with Dinan being the more aware of the AMR runners to mug Terry at the start to take P3 from him as the pack went into turn 1. With the two Pro Class cars ahead, Dinan found himself being able to run with these guys as htheir collective pace gapped them from those in P4 and P5.

After twenty minutes of running Terry was eventually able to take the Ford Mustang of Staveley for position, lifting himself up to P4 overall and still P2 in class but minutes later Terry went into T1 too fast and spun himself around on the kerb (much like what his team mate Burton did in race 1 on Friday) to quickly loose out on his earlier hard work as he soon dropped down to P6 overall.


As the two leading Pro cars pushed on ahead, Dinan found himself being dropped into the no-mans land between them and the chasing pack but with the minutes counting down all he had to do was to keep it on the track to secure his 7th class win of the season.

So similar to race 1 of Friday, Race 2 produced another double AMR Am Class podium as Terry did enough to (a) keep his title challenge alive against Dinan and (b) secure his second podium of the weekend by claiming P6 overall and P3 in Class.


Then came after that perhaps Dinan's and Flying Lizards best performance of the season so with a P12 to overall race win in the second Sprint X race yesterday afternoon.

With the starting grid again being affected by the torrential rains of Friday, it wasn't possible for all the drivers to set a competitive lap time being Qualifying was red flagged due to the deteriorating track conditions. That again meant that many cars were out of their natural position at the start of the race and that certainly made for some very entertaining racing.


The #15 BSPort Racing AMR of AMR Academy Driver Kenton Koch was the highest placed AMR at the start and he certainly didn't waste anytime at the start as he both held onto his starting position and then pushed the Silver Cup drivers ahead. After Pat Gallagher's race of the season so far yesterday when he and his #33 Rennsport One car claimed their first podium of the year, he too was on a mission from his P12 start as he battled to keep ahead of Robbie Foleys #21 Flying Lizard AMR who started one place behind.

A slower BMW in P8 effectively served as an early chicane for the first five minutes of running that allowed the front runners to establish a large gap to the pack behind by the time that Gallagher finally got past. Foley meanwhile was having something of a slow or calculated start as his position in the field was steady as he had only climbed up to P11 by then.


With Koch enjoying himself at the front keeping the Silver #2 Porsche busy, Gallagher had moved up to P6 by the time that the pit window opened as Foley was carefully negotiating the teams fellow McLaren 570s for P8.

With the Pro's having done their work it was now down to their amateur drivers to capitalise upon any headway that had been made up till then. Bryan Putt emerged in overall second after his swap into the white #15 car with Dinan now up to P7 and Matt Dalton P10 in his #33 car.


The Flying Lizard team trimmed as much time off at their stop as they could and had to invoke their pit stop 'joker' by actually undercutting their minimum time by about a second. Having rode their luck there, Dinan 'rode his luck' on track with an outstanding demonstration of confidence and speed. Catching those in front by the rate of 2-3 seconds per lap it wasn't too long before the #21 car was upon to P4 overall but only had ten minutes or so remaining to make up the 10 seconds to the leading BMW.

Having dispatched Putt for P3 overall it only took Dinan another five minutes to get onto the tail of the leader and with a brave move into T1 on the final lap, Dinan had taken the overall lead - something that he would even extend to nearly 4 seconds at the chequered flag.



With Foley and Dinan claiming the top step, the #15 BSport Racing crew of Putt and Koch had also done enough to claim their second Sprint X podium of the weekend by finishing P5 overall and P3 in Pro-Am. The #33 Rennsport One AMR of Gallagher and Dalton would eventually finish P10 overall and P7 in class.

So that's yet another great result for the Aston Martin Racing runners in both Sprint and Sprint X with still one more race each on Sunday!!

Photo credits - GT$ America / Flying Lizards / CSJ Motorsport

The opening salvo's into this weekends fourth round of the GT4 America Series from Road America has already produced some incredible sights and sounds as the seven Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's from the Flying Lizard, Rearden Racing, BSport Racing And Rennsport One teams got back to business on Thursday with some private testing before the timed sessions of yesterday.

Going from the sunshine and the warmth of Thursday into the cooler and certainly wetter sessions of Friday even meant that some of the Qualifying had to be abandoned by the race organisers leaving the starting grid for the first Sprint race of yesterday being determined by the early Free Practice times.


Riding high on commitment and confidence after their near whitewashing with the race results at the last round at Sonoma a couple of weeks ago, the two Rearden cars of Paul Terry (#59), Jeff Burton (#191) and the highest placed AMR runner in the Championship, Michael Dinan in his now yellow accented #210 car looked 'racey' from the off at the start of Fridays first 50 minute Sprint race.

Terry found himself starting from P2 on the grid and amongst the Pro cars whilst Dinan was uncharacteristically down in P12 (Free Practice times remember) with Burton just behind him in P13.


With visibility being an obvious issue, the race started behind the Safety Car so that the drivers could pick out the standing water on track as the race then got off to a 'controlled' start by all after being waved off. During the opening two race laps, Dinan piled in the speed into the soaking wet circuit, full of confidence as he elevated himself from P12 to P4 - taking Terry for position in the process.

Just before the halfway mark, the Sin R1 car spun itself off on the exit of a corner and into (fortunately) an extensive tyre wall meaning that a Full Course Caution then Safety Car was needed for its extraction. With the Am class drivers now watching where each was going to catch and maintain their speed, Terry was learning from watching Dinan ahead whilst Burton was doing the same as he had risen up to P8 overall.


On the restart, Burton was a little too eager on the exit of turn 1 and spun off dropping himself down to P12 as Dinan initially let the top three Pro class cars go and race his own Class battle with Terry before circumstance and the errors of others had lifted the #210 car up to P2 overall.

With ten minutes remaining, Burton put in couple of fastest laps in the race as he looked to improve upon his then P8 position after taking confidence in passing two cars in two corners earlier but with just five minutes remaining, the #191 ran out of track (literally). Having passed one McLaren, he tried it with another but that driver appeared unsighted to Burton's position on track - the two cars touched and both became passengers into two very expensive looking race accidents.


As a result of that incident the race would ultimately finish under caution with Dinan eventually finishing P3 overall and P1 in Am Class with the #59 Paul Terry car finishing just behind in P4 overall and P2 in Class for another AMR 1-2 on the podium.


For the #191 car - the damage was apparently significant and the team will have their work cut out to repair it in time for any of the weekends remaining Sprint races.


Next out for the GT4's was the opening round of the longer, one hour race with driver change Sprint X Series with four AMR Vantage's destined to race within it - although that wasn't quite the case.

A 'technical issue' for Jeff Burtons second car meant that he and Vesko Kosarov were absent from the grid so that left Dinan/Michael Foley starting from P2, the #15 BSport Racing car of Bryan Putt/Kenton Koch P10 and a revitalised #33 Rennsport One car of Matt Dalton/Pat Gallagher in P17 - 22 cars from the original 29 cars that 'entered' the event!. One such car that would be missing from the event following an earlier incident would be the Panoz that Roman de Angelis (Heart of Racing Vantage GTD driver) although his team mate Ian James would still be running in his Panoz GT4.


At least the rain had stopped and the track dried ready for the start of the race as everyone strived to survive the opening corners of the tight and undulating circuit.

The race appeared to be settling down nicely into its own little battles as the #21 Flying Lizard car of Dinan suddenly tumbled down the timing screen from their then P3 position. Circuit cameras eventually picked them out on the grass going into the kink with what looked like no power to the wheel and that incident brought out the Safety Car as the corner workers looked to quickly retrieve it back to a place of safety. The team would later confirm that track debris had been lifted upon by the car infant of Dinan and that had hit the emergency kill switch for the engine, leaving Dinan with no power and no method of resetting it himself!!


Ten minutes later the track went back to green as the AMR Am starting driver looked to capitalise on any track position before they pitted and handed over to their respective Pro driver. The best that Putt and Dalton could do however was to retain their starting position relative to the field astray handed over to Kenton Koch and Pat Gallagher respectively.

By the time the available pit stop window was at an end, the decent in laps of their Am's and the out laps of their Pro's had lifted the #15 car up to P7 and the #33 up to P14 but the body language of each AMR car on track said that neither would be settling for these positions with still 20 minutes of racing ahead of them.


Making the most of their new V8 power plant at the front Gallagher was on a mission to avenge the nightmare that they had at Sonoma where an earlier accident in testing went on to affect the whole racing meeting with two DNF's as well as not even making the start of race 3 that weekend.

AMR Drivers Academy driver Kenton Koch also had the race carrot dangling in front of him as he had an overall race podium beaconing. Ath the chequered flag, the #15 BSport Racing car finished P3 overall and P2 in Pro-Am whilst the #33 Rennsport One car literally snatched P10 overall at the flag but more importantly for them - claiming P3 in Pro-Am as well.


Great opening race and we couldn't be happier for either of them - but tomorrow is always another day!

Photo credits - Flying Lizards / GT4 America