Having already secured their championship win at the last round at Dijon-Prenois, there was no pressure upon the two individuals to succeed but succeed they did in this spectacular manner.

Indeed, not to be left out of the party atmosphere saw the stablemates within the team’s #39 AMR Vantage GT4 entry of Baudouin Detout and Oskar Kristensen (yes, a relative of that certain Tom Kristensen) also follow the #74 home after race one to also claim a P2 podium finish within the silver class before just missing out upon the double with a P4 finish to end their season’s worth of activity.

For the #7 Mirage Racing crew of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub, it was another case of what might have been for the Pro-Am pairing as their P7 and P5 finishes respectively in class were way off what was needed of them to have any championship opportunities within their class where they eventually finished the season sixth in class.

There was also the return of the team’s #5 car as Ruben Del Sarte returned with former AMR Vantage GT4 and GT4 America racer Fred Roberts in an interesting combination for future reference within the ultra-competitive silver class where the duo finished the weekend P10 and P8 respectively across the two races. There was also a good showing from the #1 Street Art Racing AMR Vantage GT4 pairing of Pascal Bachmann and Jahid Fazal Karim where they ended their European race calendar with P5 and P4 finishes within their Am class.

The series returns to action next year from Nogaro in mid-April.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Mateo Villagomez and Victor Weyrich of course need mentioning first as the crew overcome previous seasons shortcomings to secure their silver class championship win with races in hand after their P2 and P4 finishes were enough to see off their closest class competition.

They will be joined by one of their teams GT4 European entrants as Baudouin Detout comes out for one last race after his Monza event within the other SRO series ended heavily into the crash barriers for his then teammate during their first qualifying run with damage then ruling their #39 car out of any further involvement.

This time arriving with another co-driver in Oskar Kristensen (a fellow Porsche racer within the GT4 European Series this season), hopefully the pair will get to see a lot more track action this time around.

From the Mirage Racing team, we have the return of their #7 full season Pro-Am entry with Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub again behind the wheel of the 2024 Vantage GT4 Evo. Sadly for them both, their P4 and P7 finishes last time out at Dijon-Prenois was not sufficient to keep their class title hopes alive so this event is ‘just for fun’.

We then have a second entry from the Mirage Racing team again as Ruben Del Sarte returns to the series with another co-driver this time after he and Josh Miller opened their 2024 account togther within this series at Nogaro before moving onto their main GT4 European Series commitments. He will be joined within his new Vantage GT4 Evo with a one Fred Roberts from Canada within the Pro-Am class.

The only Fred Roberts I know was the one who purchased the former Beechdean AMR British GT GT4 Championship winning 17A Vantage GT4 within which he raced a number of rounds within the SRO America series before Covid put paid to that back in early 2020.

Finally, but certainly by no means least, we will also have the #1 Street Art Racing entry for both Pascal Bachmann and Jahid Fazal Karim again as they see out another varied season of racing together within one of their trusted AMR Vantage GT4’s within the Am class.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

Taking a P2 finish in class after race one, the #74 pairing went one better in Sunday’s concluding hour long race to secure maximum class points to extend their Championship lead going into the series penultimate round from Dijon in three weeks’ time.

The #07 Mirage Racing Pro-Am pairing of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub continued to struggle for pace compared to their peers again as they delivered a P6 and P7 finish in class for their efforts whilst the ad-hoc entry from the Belgian Street Art Racing team collected a pair of P4 finishes within the Am Class for their #1 car of Pascal Bachmann and Jahid Fazal Karim.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

The #007 Pro car of Mattia Drudi and Nicolas Baert leads the bunch with James Jakes and Sebastian Ogaard returning in the 311 Gold entry alongside the #12 Silver entry for drivers Lorens Lecertua and Dante Rappange. Matisse Lismont is again paired up alongside AMR factory driver David Pittard within the teams #21 Gold entry like they were at Hockenheim.

For the team though, that event was nothing short of a disaster as a fifth place in class was the best that anyone could muster within the opening race despite their cars newfound pace after a BoP adjustment, before three of the four cars were all out of contention in quick succession to one another during the second. The #007 car delivered its best result of the season so far, however, with a P5 finish.

With just five points to their names from the opening three rounds, the #007 hopes are already sadly at an end whereas in Gold, Lismont clings on to a fourth place overall (albeit it at half the points of the leaders with Jakes a further 7.5 points back to him.

With this weekend and the season finale from Barcelona in mid-October still to come, significant points from this round will be a most for all – even if that was to be in the name of pride only!!

These four cars will again be part of a thirty-three-car grid racing two one-hour races over both Saturday and Sunday.

This grid will then be joined (not literally of course) with that of the FFSA GT4 Series for what will be their fourth round of six from the former home of the French Grand Prix and this is where the slight adjustments are to be found.

Full season entries of the #7 Mirage Car Pro-Am AMR Vantage GT4 of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub and the #74 Silver entry of Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez both return but the #92 Am entry of Clement Dub and Ronald Basso will not be in attendance as confirmed by the team several days ago.

On the flip side of that, the Street Art Racing team will also be in action with the series this weekend as former GT4 European Champion Pascal Bachmann pairs up with team backer Jahid Fazal Karim within one of their older iteration Vantage GT4’s

Championship wise, Villagomez and Weyrich still lead the silver class thanks to them maintaining their podium winning streak last time out at Spa whilst in Am, their teammates non-appearance will effectively end any possibilities that might have existed for them within that class.

Photo credits – team / series / social media

Despite soldiering on with a wounded car, time was eventually called on their racing exploits just after half distance after their braking issues couldn’t be resolved.

Then within the Ultimate Cup Series visit to Hockenheim this weekend, it was a case a progressive improvements for the sole Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Baudouin Detout within his #39 Racing Spirit of Leman prepared car.

Four twenty-five-minute sprint races within the Ultimate GT Sprint Cup Series saw the young Frenchman improve from a DNF after race one on Friday night through to two P2 finishes in class at the end of the second and third races before finishing upon the top step at the end of race four.

He will be using that knowledge and experience to bolster his efforts when he revisits the circuit for the next round of the GT4 European Series in a couple of weeks’ time.

With all this AMR powered success, there is always somewhere someone not doing quite as well, and that mantel unfortunately goes to the Zakspeed team and the driver pairing of Phillip Gogollok and Jan Marschalkowski.

Already having endured something of a nightmare start to their ADAC GT4 Germany conquests togther with their #55 Vantage GT4, this weekend’s visit to the Norisring fared no better as contact with yesterday’s hour-long race forced a premature DNF before the end of the pit stop window only to be followed by another DNF in race two for puncture/contact related damage at the same stage of the race.

The only way is up for these guys!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Whilst early sessions in Italy were within the wet, today’s Qualifying session was better and both cars shone as the #407 Street Art Racing Vantage GT4 of Julien Darras, Pascal Bachmann and Jahid Fazal-Karim secured the top honours within the GT4/TCE classes by finishing first whilst the #42 Prime Speed Sport crew of Heremana Malmezac, Liam Talbot and Earl Bamber secured P7 overall and P3 within their GT3 Pro-Am class.

The race begins tomorrow at 10:00Hrs local.

Photo credits – Series / Team / social media

Joining them amongst the twenty seven strong entry list will be the New Zealand based Prime Speed Sport with their #42 Pro-Am entered Vantage GT3.

Last time these guys were out within an Aston Martin was at the 12Hrs of Sepang earlier in March when drivers Francois Beziac, Heremana Malmezac and Jono Lester competed with an earl Bamber Motorsport prepared car. In a slight change of detail, this #42 Pro-Am entry will now be driven by Malmezac again but alongside the likes of both Liam Talbot and Earl Bamber himself.

Now that's a car to keep an eye on this weekend!!

 

Photo credits - FFSA GT4

Within the British GT Championship, Qualifying had been a good day for the Blackthorn AMR team as both their #10 and #87 Vantage GT3 crews of Matt Topham/ Josh Rowledge and Jonny Adam/Giacomo Petrobelli secured their best results of the season so far with the #10 car securing a Silver-Am class pole with the #87 also starting from the front row of the grid in Pro-Am.

The GT4 pack were a little unfortunate as a red flag at the start of their first Qualifying run meant for their grid slots being determined by their times with the last Free Practice session and whilst that meant for an overall P2 start for the #47 Forsetti Motorsport AMR Pro-Am pairing of Marc Warren and Will Orton, their #7 Silver class car of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day would start from an uncharacteristic P14th.

Hopes of another fine two-hour sprint within the Champiosnhip season were quickly dashed at the first corner however, as multiple contact between cars lead to the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard (shared with Jessica Hawkins) being hit hard on the front quarter. Although missing the pit wall by inches, the damage was already done to the car with Howard stopping within the Endurance pit lane.

The resulting clear up lost the first fifteen minutes to the Safety Car before barrier repairs forced a red flag which lost a further forty-five minutes in time only for the race clock to be reset to seventy-five minutes – just enough to claim a 75% race distance and thus, full championship points on offer.

Eventually getting back to green saw the #87 Blackthorn AMR of Petrobelli continue a solid run in second overall as the faster Aston Martin was still no match for the even quicker Mercedes up ahead. In GT4 meanwhile, Day was making steady progress through the pack from his lowly starting position to be soon on the tail of his P2 team mate just ahead of the planned pits stop window.

Topham had been busy holding his position on track with four clearly faster crews chomping at his heals behind, a situation that inadvertently helped their #87 team mates ahead from those in the McLaren 720’s.

Pitting with forty-five minutes to go, Orton took over from Warren from third in the #47 whilst the additional stop time for #7 car of Day/Porter appeared to last forever in pit lane. Coming out ahead of the #56 Ginetta soon lead to a silver class ping pong match between the two for the lead in class.

Going into the final quarter of an hour, all was looking good as Adam was holding a comfortable second overall, teammates within the #10 car were still in for both a top ten finish overall as well as being P2 in class with the two Forsetti cars in podium finishing positions as well. That however changed when something ‘broke’ within the #10 Blackthorn car that would see Adam lucky to catch the snap oversteer mid corner to bring his car to a safe halt at the side of the track – albeit into immediate retirement.

Their pain was somewhat muted by their #10 car of Rowledge and Topham coming home for a gallant P6 finish overall with a P2 finish in Silver-Am to boot. This result would be boosted by another double for the Forsetti team and the #47 came home in second – both overall and in class whilst their #7 car would claim another class win together win another P3 overall in GT4.

Each running the new 2024 40A version of the Vantage GT4 platform sees the Racing Spirit of Leman move up from their Le Mans Cup duties at Le Mans last weekend to field both the #74 Silver classed car of Victor Weyrich and Mateo Villagomez alongside their #92 Am classed car of Clement Dub and Ronald Basso.

They join the solo Mirage AMR entry of #7 car for Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub as well as the ad-hoc entry for the locally based team of Street Art Racing and their car for drivers Jahid Fazal Karim and Pascal Bachmann.

Just twenty-three GT4 cars are listed for this weekend’s two-hour long races but results are already important for some as the #74 crew lead the championship in Silver/ Silver Teams as well as remaining in contention within the Am class with the #92 crew. The Pro-Am #7 Mirage crew need to break their habit of finishing no higher than P4 in class if they are to scale their respective championship table.

Photo credits – team / series / social media

That meant that the class battle was lost even before the series reached their home circuit at Fuji Speedway so in a twist of plan, the team have this week confirmed that just Orido and fresh driver Nobutera Taniguchi will race the final round at Fuji in mid-November.

Having lost out again within the series internal Japan Cup sub championship at the previous round, this weekend was all about preparatory work for drivers Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii as both have already been confirmed for the ALMS series that runs across December 2023 and into February 2024 at now three ports of call.

For the record, the #47 AMR Vantage GT3 finished P13 after the Saturday opener before concluding their GTWCA series with a P17 result overall.

Italy then saw the penultimate round of the GT Open Series take place around the Temple of Speed at Monza with the #007 Street Art Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Pascal Bachman and Jahid Fazal Karim again in attendance.

Persistent rain at the circuit again affected the earlier stages of the weekend with Saturdays race still declared wet by they did get to race in the dry for Sundays shorter race. Obviously nursing from nose damage from earlier contact in race 1, the #007 car eventually finished P26 overall/P10 within their Am Class having been given a post-race 10 second penalty for an incident within the pit lane.

Race two went a little better for the duo, eventually finishing P22 overall and P7 in class after Sunday’s race. The series will conclude its 2023 season from Barcelona in late October.

Unfortunately, the bad news continues just a little further before a final ray of good news to round this post off as the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie ran its eighth round of the season around the notorious Nurburgring Nordschliefe on Saturday.

A three car AMR entry saw both the Prosport Racing and Doer Motorsport teams enter an AMR Vantage GT3 apiece within the SP9 Pro-Am and SP9 Pro classes respectively alongside a Vantage GT4 (SP10) for the Prosport team.

Whilst both Prosport cars failed within the early stages of the four-hour race (reasons unknown), the #24 Doer car of Phil and Ben Dorr, with a little help from AMR factory driver Darren Turner converted their P4 overall Qualifying position into a P4 finish to help maintain the momentum for the German brothers in their GT3 infancy ahead of something else next season.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media