The 2019 China GT Championship season came to an end this weekend with Aston Martin Racing Partner Team BSEM again fielding two variants of the AMR Vantage GT4 at the final two races of the season.

Hoping to capitalise upon their race winning success at the second race last time out at Tianjin, drivers David Pun and AMR factory driver Ross Gunn left the Shanghai International Circuit with penalties adversely affecting their performances on track.

With Gunn having Qualified the new #618 car on pole for race one for his amateur co-driver, the 50kg success ballast from winning the last race really hurt the performance of the car as Pun battled out his thirty minute stint amongst Pro drivers in the other cars. The older, normally aspirated Vantage GT4 would also be raced again but in a solo driver format in both races for a returning Zhang Fangxuan.


Overtaken for the lead of the race going into turn one, Pun soon had his mirrors full of car after car as the #618 effectively lumbered out of the technical sections of the 5.4km circuit before a Safety Car period 'lost' the race ten minutes of time whilst a stricken car was recovered from the side of the circuit.

By the time of pit window opening Pun had dropped to P6 overall but by the time Gunn emerged, that gap had further elongated to P9. Slow, progressive race craft was all the new AMR WEC factory could do to lift the #618 car to P4 by the time of the chequered flag. The #619 would finish P12 and a lap down to the leaders.

"The circuit was not suiting the strengths of the AMR Vantage GT4" said Gunn when asked to comment about his races.


Race two on Sunday was a different story however as despite a lower Qualifying slot of P9 for Gunn, there was no success ballast aboard the car.

Some early brave moves and some 'poetically licensed' moves in the opening few laps saw Gunn move up to P4 overall and that would improve by two more positions as a Mercedes and Ginetta tangled a few hundred metres in front to take themselves both out of contention - that was now P2 with only ten minutes of the race gone!!

Losing another ten minutes of the race to the Safety Car, Gunn was struggling to get past the Mercedes of Alex Fontana despite the Swiss driver bearing the 50kg weight penalty from race 1 but would still pit from P2 just after the halfway mark.


With new front Michelins fitted, Pun would exit the pits in P2 but he would be very quickly passed by the extremely quick Mercedes of Will Bamber not long before a huge crash involving a BMW and another Mercedes would neutralise the race for most of the remaining nineteen minutes. With the front wheel of the BMW collapsing under braking, that driver was simple a passenger as his car at first slammed into the concrete wall head on before then spearing into (and thankfully) the non drivers side of the Mercedes as that was then going around the hairpin corner.

With some injuries apparent and a huge debris field, the race would only go green again with just three minutes remaining but as Bamber controlled the restart, an over ambitious move from Pun saw him overtake this Mercedes before the control line. Like their stable partners at Automatic Racing at the finale of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Road America on Friday, the #618 car would cross the line in P2 only to have a thirty second penalty applied post race for that late transgression.


The #618 would finally be listed just ahead of their other team car in P10 (#618) and P11 (#619) respectively.

Photo credits - China GT

After the massive disappointment of yesterday, Chinese Aston Martin Racing Partner Team BSEM Asia Sonic Racing finished off the China GT Championship's round 10 off today in the only way possible with an emphatic 'near' lights to flag win for drivers David Pun and Ross Gunn.

With the race weekend promising so much Friday evening with a pole position for local man Pun and a P2 front row start for his co-driver Gunn in todays second one hour race of the weekend, yesterdays race had hardly got started before it was brutally ended going into the hairpin for only the second time of the race.


Racing again around the very bespoke 3.7km track to the south east of Beijing, a track that had all the charactiertics of both a true race track and that of a street circuit, incident and accident was always inevitable for the ten Pro-Am and Am class GT4's that made up the field.

With Pun starting race 1, he was soon out-dragged along the start straight to drop (but hold) second going into turn 1 whilst the #22 Mercedes AMG and #868 McLaren argued behind. Contact between these two cars at the tight right handed hairpin spin the Mercedes and left the McLaren with from end damage but all were eventually able to continue.


Next lap around and appearing relatively comfortable going in the hairpin again, the #618 Aston Martin suddenly found the #868 McLaren speeding up the inside to collide heavily with the side (thankfully no divers) side of the car. Spewing out engine coolant, the #868 was out on the spot and whilst Pun managed to get the car back to pit lane the damage was too much to effect any quick repairs with the contact having broken both top and bottom wish bones, steering linkage, door hinges and body panels. That was them done for the day after just four minutes of racing.

Another day - another dollar as they say for the team as it was now the turn of AMR factory driver Gunn to take the start alongside his competitors cars Pro drivers.


Returning the favour in out-dragging the pole setting Mercedes at the start, Gunn swung the #618 car into turn one in the lead - a lead that he soon extended as the third and fourth placed cars argued between themselves. The other car to suffer from the #868 McLarens over exuberance yesterday (the #22 Mercedes of Will Bamber) was also have a better start as he slotted in behind Gunn.

Never able to challenge the AMR Bamber soon dropped to nearly 3 seconds with 3rd and 4th another 6 seconds behind him and left left for a 'leisurely' second phase of the race for Gunn before he handed over to Pun. Leaving pit lane, Pun was a little shaky to start but soon found his rhythm to reaffirm the gap between him and the #22 Mercedes.


By the end of the hour, Pun crossed the line to take the race win by over two seconds to claim his, Gunns and the AMR Vantage GT4's first win of the season in the China GT Championship and went some way in alleviating the pain of yesterdays events.

Next up for the team is a return to Shanghai in a months time for the final round of the season.

Photo credit - China GT / BSEM

Continuing his consecutive run of Aston Martin Racing customer racing duties this weekend, AMR factory driver Ross Gunn has already found the sweet spot within the #618 BSEM Asia Sonic Racing AMR Vantage GT4 that he shares with Am driver David Pun ahead of rounds 9 and 10 of the China GT Championship from the circuit at Tianjin near Beijing.

Unfortunate to miss out on any class accolade alongside Akhil Rabindra with their CSJ Motorsport/Automatic Racing V8 Vantage GT4 in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Virginia International Raceway two weeks ago, the young AMR driver did of course go some better last weekend where he and co-drivers Paul Dalla Lana and Darren Turner claimed a GTE Am class podium at the season opener and his first ever race within the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone.


Departing for China almost immediately after he WEC event, the time spent with the team this week has allowed the Prodrive supported team to get their V8 Vantage GT4 dialled into the tight urban circuit to a point where they have now dominated both Free Practice and Qualifying in the GT4 class.

Unfortunately not being in contention for the GT4 Championship this time around, the #618 will at least start both of this weekend's races from the front row of the grid after Gunn claimed class pole position for race 9 of the season and Pun P2 for race 10 so their results may well influence the Championship aspirations of others.


With a wide pit straight tapering into narrow, concrete walled sections with tight ninety degree corners - action and incident will not be far away.

Don't forget that the China GT Championship races are streamed live via their social media channels.

Photo credits - China GT