That transgression by the team dropped their car into the midst of the GT4 field on only about the third full racing lap having been behind the Safety Car from the second lap due to an off for a GT4 car at Druids on the opening lap.

Slightly further back meanwhile, the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood had also gotten off to a great start from their aggregated P7 position that Wood had earned the crew on Saturday by topping the Pro drivers qualifying session. After the earlier Safety Car restart, Howard had progressed up to P6 and distanced their class rivalling #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda who were then down in nineth.

Thwarting the Blackthorn’s progression through the lower order of the GT3 class was an on-track fire for one of the Ginetta GT4’s but fortunately for them, the driver was able to vacate the vehicle quickly for the trackside staff to bring things to a swift and safe conclusion although that did lose nearly eighteen minutes on the race clock.

Later after that restart, Petrobelli found himself being baulked by the #86 Honda which, whilst it was bad for them, that delay only helped their Beechdean AMR counterparts further ahead in the pack. Only just before the opening of the GT3 pit stop window did the #7 Aston pass the Honda before all bar the race leading Mercedes pitted for service at the first availability.

Pit stops done and Adam had come out in fourth thanks to the success time penalties affecting three cars out front in class whilst Wood was now P6 overall, still with a healthy lead of his own from the Honda in the silver-am class as Adam even got a warning for track limits such was his degree of determination for a decent finish this time around.

Further track drama was soon to follow as contact between a McLaren and a Porsche GT3 cars saw debris left upon track and one of those cars stranded in a gravel track – all of which necessitated a further Full Course Yellow and later Safety Car restart to sort out the mess.

With ten minutes to go, Wood put a lap onto the Honda so all he had to do was to finish to secure another class win but Adam had more problems upon his hands as he soon had other, faster cars upon him looking for track position as he became the head of a five car train with Wood immediately behind the Scot doing what he could to defend the #7 cars position.

Eventually the chequered flag came with the #7 Blackthorn car taking P4 with the #97 Beechdean car just one place behind in P5 – also taking the class win. With 37.5 points on offer at the final round from Donington Park in early October, both crews still need to perform if they want to have a chance at the class titles. The #7 car is now 28.5 points behind the championship leading #42 Mercedes whilst the #97 crew are still just 14 points ahead of the Honda powered crew.

Still all to race for at Donington then!!

With each of the 2 Seas Mercedes AMG GT3 based crews securing a convincing race win apiece in each of the two one-hour sprint races from Snetterton last time out, the #7 Blackthorn crew could do no more than fourth in the first and fifth in the second of the two races to now lie in third position in the drivers championship, still just nine points behind the leaders.

Results from last time out also mean that the #7 AMR Vantage GT3 crew are devoid of pit stop time penalties come Sunday’s race so track position will remain as an imperative factor going into Qualifying on Saturday.

Being another endurance round means that the #97 Beechdean AMR silver-am crew of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood are the remaining AMR powered runners out of a grid of just thirteen GT3 and eight GT4 based entries.

For the #97 crew, this season has been a persistent battle with their sole class rivals within the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX with the Honda powered crew taking top honours in class with the points margin between crews (Howard and Wood still leading) to just 3.5 points going into this penultimate race weekend. For these two crews, the 2025 result will be formed upon who fails to finish first!

Track action will begin again on Saturday with Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying on Saturday ahead of a 13:00hrs local start for Sundays two hour race.

Despite that, Giacomo Petrobelli and his #7 Blackthorn still had a clear view into turn one of race one with his P2 Qualifying position whilst Andrew Howard had to crane his neck to see their silver-Am class rivalling #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX who had qualified two rows ahead of his #97 Beechdean car.

A clean opening lap for all cars saw the #7 car maintain position, as did the #97 until we soon saw them last in class and nearly three seconds behind the car in front for reasons that are unclear but despite that, Howard was soon able to close the gap. Up front meanwhile, the #42 Mercedes and #7 Blackthorn cars were gapping the chasing pack behind as both had success time penalties to serve from their successes in Belgium and for the Blackthorn car – that would be the full ten seconds.

Despite the Bridger Honda looking very fast at times, a spin for Jonny Ip saw their car relegated to last within the GT3 on track with also two or three cars between them and the Beechdean Aston Martin but by the time the pit window had opened, both cars were very close to one another again.

Despite pitting from a comfortable P2 overall, that ten second penalty saw Jonny Adam emerge down in P4 overall as the #7 Blackthorn car emerged from pit lane but there would be worse for Tom Wood in the #97 car as he would spin off at Riches and nudge (fortunately softly) into the tyre wall. Re-runs pf the incident showed that although marginally wide, there appeared to be no obvious reason for him to spin off like he did.

This time lacking the obvious power advantage, neither Aston Martin could recover or improve upon their track position as the race entered its final stages for the #7 Blackthorn car to eventually finish P4 overall and the #97 P13 overall – but more importantly second best in silver-am to the #86 Honda.

Race two had seen the circuit cloud over slightly but ambient and track temperatures remained constant as this time Adam had a third row start in his #7 Pro-Am entry whilst Wood would be starting in front of the #86 car of Jay Bridger.

In theory, that should have helped the #7 car as both Mercedes AMG had pit stop success penalties to serve this time around and Wood is certainly no slouch with the benefit of track position.

Despite some panel bashing, it was another clean opening lap with both Astons able to make up an early place before the race went static as the Pro drivers showed their worth to their paying bronze drivers. The tightness to the Snetterton 300 circuit layout and the parity of the pro driver again showed that the circuit was a difficult place to pace.

With both Adam and Wood handing over to Petrobelli and Howard respectively, the #7 Blackthorn car was maintaining its P6 position as were the #97 with their P1 position in class with little under thirty minutes of this final sprint race remaining. That stayed the case for much of the remaining time before an incident involving the Porsche allowed the #7 to step up to P5 overall whilst the #97 of Howard was also caught and passed by the #86 Honda.

A final lap incident for the #7 Amr saw the Italian enter a last lap battle with two other cars which culminated in the #77 McLaren spinning off after apparent contact from behind by the #7 car. Despite crossing the line in P4, it was a long wait before Race Control confirmed the result.

Despite all the above, the #7 Blackthorn crew remain second within both the overall and GT3 Pro-Am class battles as the Championship moves onto it penultimate round at Brands Hatch in late August – as does the #7 Beechdean crew in Silver-Am but with both teams, they are now in slightly worse position points wise than they were before.

The #97 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood also started the race from top spot within their own Silver-Am class but were soon passed by their rival #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX on the opening laps.

Only a Full Course Yellow and latter Safety Car thwarted the efforts of the Blackthorn crew as that bunched the pack back up togther again. With three mandatory pit stops required this time around and with no driver able to race for more than one hundred minutes, that gave the teams plenty of scope to juggle their strategy as and when needed or as they saw fit.

With both Am’s starting within their respective cars, both crews chopped and changed drivers back and forth to allow each of their faster drivers somewhere near their maximum drive time towards the end of the race. That was at about the hour remaining mark when Adam returned to the track (then down to third overall) as he soon caught and passed the Paddock Motorsport McLaren and the Spirit of Race Ferrari to retake the lead of the race again from which they would never look back.

For the Beechdean pair, it wasn’t a case of just winning their class but also of seeing just what could be achieved as silver graded driver Wood slowly but surely climbed the timing screen to eventually finish fifth overall.

These points not only place Adam as a clear best performer in the history of the championship with his now twenty race wins to date but also to lift the crew up to second in the Overall and Pro-Am Cup table with the Beechdean crew again stretching their lead over the Bridger crew in silver-am as the Championship now looks to the two sprint races around Snetterton in mid-July.

For the Beechdean crew, however, this will be an elongated stay in Belgium as they now prepare for the Spa 24 just next weekend.

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey

The day officially kicked off earlier with the usual Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying sessions where the #97 Beechdean car of Andrew Howard and Toim Wood stole the thunder from many of their GT3 opponents by finishing second quickest whilst the #7 Blackthorn Aston of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam had to make do with fourth quickest.

It was a similar vein within Pre-Qualifying with the #97 Beechdean again beating the #7 car going into Qualifying as the Blackthorn crew looked to change the balance of the car ahead of the two individual qualifying sessions.

Petrobelli and Howard respectively were out first with the Italian pushing straight from the off the maximise impact with the new tyres whilst others built up to the faster laps but this time, Petrobelli was by far the fastest with a time nearly three quarters of a second above their nearest rival whilst Howard (importantly) beat his fellow silver-am competitor within the #86 Honda.

Adam and Wood were next out and whilst the Scot had to build up to his quickest lap, the buffer that Petrobelli has established within his earlier run was enough for the pairing to gain their first pole position of the season. Whilst the #86 Honda NSX obviously struggled with balance around the circuit, that was enough for Wood to also finish P1 in class to gain the #97 car a further class pole position ahead of tomorrow’s race.

Then the racing will really start!

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey

Starting upon something of a damp but drying track, both Aston crews showed immediate intent with the first track session of the day in Free Practice with both cars running second quickest in each class before the #97 car went sixth quickest overall in Pre-Qualifying.

The event then moved onto individual Qualifying sessions where each driver would run the car to determine their cars starting position in each of Monday’s two, one hour races with both Petrobelli and Howard (P12 overall) earning themselves a P2 start in class for race one.

Next it was the turn of both Adam and Wood to do likewise as Adam earned himself a third row start in P5 but with Wood scooping another Silver-Am Pole Position P10 overall.

With a day of twiddling their thumbs tomorrow, the two races start at 10:45 and 15:45hrs local on Monday.

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey

For the Aston Martin Racing fraternity, that means that the #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall get another weekend off, with them returning for the ‘big one’ at Spa Francorchamps towards the end of June.

So that leaves just the two AMR Vantage GT3 crews from the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams with both Giacomo Petrobelli/Jonny Adam and Tom Wood/Andrew Howard aboard their #7 and #97 entries respectively.

After the opening rounds at both Donington Park and Silverstone, the #7 Pro-Am entry certainly picked up the need to return to the front of the pack after a poor start to the season after accident damage and the resulting penalties blighted their Donington opener to qualify third and finish fourth overall and in class at the end of the Silverstone 500.

The #97 Beechdean crew continue to lord it up within their silver-am class after a class pole position and P1 finish at Donington was followed up with a P2 start and P2 finish at Silverstone to lead that class into the two Oulton Park races.

For this weekend, that twenty-three cars will be made up of fifteen GT3 runners and just eight GT4 crews that will run along the usual Bank Holiday weekend format for Oulton Park of Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying on Saturday before the two, hour long races spread across either side of lunch on the MONDAY.

With crowds still queuing to get within the circuit at the lunch time pit walk, race organisers soon elected to run that within the paddock area to avoid the inevitable crush and frustrations that a twenty-minute exercise would create within pit lane – that all went down well with the crowd, especially with a carton of Beechdean mint choc chip ice cream!

With the cars getting to the grid, an unusual event took place within the #50 MKH Racing Vantage GT4 as a supporting Stuart Hall was surprised not to find Peter Montague within his car having took heed to a required call of nature.

Eventually getting down to racing it was a smooth start from all that surprisingly saw nobody take to the gravel on the opening laps and that quickly allowed all to find their rhythm in the opening laps.

Whilst the #7 car of Petrobelli was holding station in fifth overall, the #97 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard was getting baulked by the #86 Honda both on track and in class but biding his time, Howard soon got past.

Twenty minutes in, the GT3 leaders were soon passing the GT4 tail enders just as an error from the #66 Porsche out of the Old Hairpin saw the #1 Lamborghini spin out in avoidance – only to return to the track directly in front of a battling #97 and #86 that saw the Aston lose out and drop back behind their class rival again.

Just after the opening half hour, the race all went wrong for the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Petrobelli after a hopeful lunge down the inside saw contact with the #88 Lotus GT4, contact that left the Aston with heavy front-end damage and a GT4 stuck in the gravel – Safety Car!! Whilst the team kept the car out on track, the inevitable penalty was coming their way as well as a front end to the car that the factory had never intended!

Eventually getting back to green just before the opening of the pit window, the #7 car was indeed given a ten second stop/go penalty for the earlier contact plus having to revisit pit lane again for the mandatory driver change and necessary repairs to avoid that ‘meatball’ flag for the cars condition on track.

With GT4’s pitting first, the #50 MKH Racing Vantage was first in as Montague was swapped out for Stuart Hall with investigations of their own hanging over them for their Safety Car/FCY procedures. 

Beechdean however, made their decisive move within the pit lane after Howard’s swap out to local racer Tom Wood saw the #97 car take the Silver-Am lead by a considerable margin as knowledge and experience saw the AMR crew beat the Honda crew on turn around. Racing up to the top 10 overall with 45 minutes to go, Wood looked more than comfortable in class but was unable to move up any further overall.

With the race counting off their final laps, it would be a P8 overall and P1 in Silver-Am finish for the Howard/Wood/Beechdean crew whilst the #7 Blackthorn crew would have to settle for a disappointing P12 overall/P10 in Pro-Am finish for them. The MKH Racing team would see out their first Endurance Cup outing within the Championship with a P21 finish overall, P2 within their own class behind that of the #12 Team Parker Mercedes.

It’s been a great start to 2025, next stop will be from Silverstone in three weeks’ time.

For Aston Martin Racing, there will still be just the three full season entries – two cars within the GT3 class for the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Jonny Adam and Giacoma Petrobelli within Pro-am and the #97 Silver-Am entry from the Beechdean AMR team for Andrew Howard and Tom Wood. 

Within the slightly smaller GT4 entry for this season sees the Endurance Cup entered #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall as the former AMR factory driver aims to elevate his latest gentleman driver up to the highest level in UK GT racing.

Building up to Sunday’s two-hour race will see the grid undertake private testing on Thursday before moving to more formally timed sessions on Saturday morning with Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying with individual qualifying sessions later in the afternoon. Morning warm-up on Sunday morning will precede a 12:45hrs local start to the season.

Being the first round of the season, there will be no pitstop time penalties to cover off during the race but (as usual) both minimum and maximum drive times will be in operation which won’t let any crew go too far with their Pro drivers aboard.

Having been partnered by the likes of Jonny Adam and most recently last year with Ross Gunn, this new pairing places the latest 2024 generation of their #97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 within the Silver-Am class for their first full season effort outside that of their usual Pro-Am status.

The car that also features a revised livery for the new season.

“I’m so excited to have the opportunity to race in British GT this year with Beechdean AMR and Aston Martin,” said Hawkins. “British GT is a series I’ve seen close-up while racing in other series in this paddock and it’s made me want to get involved with GT racing on a regular basis.

“To be able to do it with a championship-winning team like Beechdean AMR and to be able to combine it with my Aston Martin F1 role means it’s going to be a very busy season.”

With Howard already having sampled the new 2024 version of the Vantage GT3 on several occasions within its development cycle last year, he confirmed that the new car (which the test and development car was his car anyway) “was is the newest GT3 car on the planet and in what we’ve seen of it so far is an upgrade on the old car in every area, so I’m confident we’ll have a very good piece of kit underneath us with which to challenge for Silver-Am success. It all begins here.”

Not knowing yet if the team will be at next week’s Media Day at Donington Park, the #97 Beechdean crew join that thankfully growing list of AMR powered entries (now up to five entries) within the Championship this season which kicks off as usual at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend.

Photo credits – Drew Gibson

All the teams were present at the circuit on Thursday for some private testing before the officially timed sessions started in earnest with the #42 Audi leading the charge within the three championship’s contending crews through this morning’s two Free Practice sessions.

Just as the first GT3 session was getting underway, this featuring the return of the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of course with Andrew Howard this time partnering Lewis Proctor within their Silver-Am Class entry this time around, a band of squally rain passed over the circuit making for some treacherous track conditions for cars that had departed on slicks. Needless to say, there were ‘casualties’ as car slid off track for the opening ten-minute session to be red flagged twice as a consequence.

Eventually getting just a sole lap time in, Howard passed the car over to former McLaren racer Proctor for his first Qualifying session only for the car to end up P14 overall and P6 in class ahead of tomorrow’s race.

Whilst the GT3 cars had the hardship, the GT4 cars benefitted from a rapidly drying track but still the Audi was quicker than the two Astons as they hammered in the lap times from the off. Topham again looked nervous within the car and sacrificed several minutes of his session as no doubt, he had already done what he knew he could achieve in P12. Day meanwhile had had more fortune and pace to end his final Qualifying session of the year fifth quickest.

Then it was all down to the cars second drivers to do their stuff as again, Fielding placed the #42 Audi towards the head of the pack as Day and Turner struggled for pace on their slicks despite the greasy outer limits of the track. Both Astons were again five to ten seconds off the pace as the minutes counted down.

Whereas Day would eventually have a decent end to his session in fourth overall, the #27 car and despite the knowledge and experience of Turner behind the wheel would only mirror Topham’s placement in twelfth.

With pit stop minimum times and success penalties still to factor in over and above anything that Mother Nature can offer on top, two hours around Donington Park will last like a lifetime for some and especially so after handing over the cars to their second drivers as the final race to the flag will ultimately decide the overall, Silver Cup and Pro-Am classes.

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey / D Gibson