Some more gruelling and sometimes painful and expensive races at the penultimate round of the GT4 European Series from Zandvoort were the outcome of their endeavours as just Academy Motorsport and Street Art Racing represented the Aston Martin Racing brand this weekend.

With PROsport Performance deciding to sit out the round in order to bring their AMR Vantage GT4 machinery back up to its expected tip-top condition and Generation AMR SuperRacing already looking ahead to challenges new for 2020, things fell to the two Silver Cup, one Pro-Am and one Am class runners from the British and Belgium teams to hold the flag.


Track and weather conditions at the Dutch coastal circuit were in stark contrast to the heat of Misano with both Free Practice sessions and Qualifying being ran on a cold/wet surface made slipperier with sand and gravel being taken onto the track surface by cars leaving/rejoining the track.

On Saturday, air temperature was struggling to break the 20deg C mark for the start of Race 1 where the #07 Street Art Racing car of Julian Darras was the highest of the four AMR's in P12, the #61 Academy of Tom Wood not far behind in P15 followed by its sister #62 car of Will Moore P19 and Clement Seyler bring up the rear in an uncharacteristic P28.

The first lap around the extremely tight and twisty was with its expected amount of rubbing as the pack slowly established it sequence of order around the racing line with no car really improving or losing out on the their starting position.


Things very quickly however, went wrong for the #61 Walero sponsored car of Wood as some side to side contact with a Mercedes snapped the steering linkage on that side of his Vantage GT4 causing him to become beached in the following gravel trap sending him into early retirement. The performances of the other three AMR's seemed 'sluggish' compared to that of the leading X-Bows, BMW's and Audi leaving little for any of the remaining AMR cars to improve with what they had available to them at the time.

After the pitstop window had cycled through, a change of driver did appear to rejuvenate the trio of AMR's as Julian Darras and Matt Cowley both improved their positions from P14 and P22 to P11 and P12 respectively before an unfortunate spin for Darras towards the end would sent his white car tumbling to P18 at the chequered flag though. Despite all of this, that result would still be a top 10 finish in the Silver Cup for both Moore and Cowley and another P3 podium for Seyler/Bachmann in the Am class.


Race two on Sunday followed must the same route as the first meteorologically - periods of rain followed by sunshine with at least a blustery on shore breeze to help the drying process.

Again the Qualifying process had been sorted amongst the wet/dry track conditions of Saturday with the #07 Street Art Racing car again taking the lead AMR role with Darras starting from P3. Cowley's #62 Academy was P11 whilst Fiona James would see her first racing action of the weekend from P24 in her Pro-Am entry whilst Pascal Bachmann brought up the rear for the AMR runners in P26.


Even before many of the cars had even crossed the start line to take the start of the race, disaster struck the mid pack of the grid as an over excited Mercedes driver violently changed the course of his GT4 from one side of the grid to the other. The trouble was that his lack of 'vision' meant for an obvious collision with the car to his right which in turn collected four other cars as carnage was sent spewing across the track.

With the race immediately red flagged, a total of six former pristine GT4 cars lay battered and bruised with structural components of their cars having been ripped off in the multiple contacts with each other and the barrier. Fortunately, nobody was injured although (when interviewed just after) Fiona James looked obviously shaken by the experience.


Once the debris had been cleared, the grid would be reformed to start (this time) behind the Safety Car for a two lap formation before again being let loose with 59 minutes still remaining on the clock.

Cowley made the most of the restart picking off a couple of quick places to move himself up to P8 whilst Vandenbalck in the #07 car was also looking racey as he hassled for P2. The trouble for Cowley was that he was adjudged to have been in contravention of the Safety Car procedure and that earned him a drive through all but destroying his early promises.

Just before the pit stop window, Darras had found his second wind and was again attacking those in front to recover himself back to his original starting position of P3 before he and the sister #17 car both pitted just two laps after Bachmann had already had to pit for a puncture. Cowley would elect to stay out as long as possible hoping the emptier track would allow him to make up for some time lost.


Then to round things off, the now released #07 car with Jamie Vandenbalck now aboard would be penalised for an unsafe release in the pits and would get a drive through of his own.

At the chequered flag, all three Vantages would finish not too far apart from each other in P15 (#07), P18 (#62) and P19 (#17) but those positions did at least equate to another set of top 10 positions within the Silver Cup for both Street Art Racing and Academy and for the Am #17 entry, this time they actually failed to make it to the podium!


The series now moves onto the Nurburgring in Germany for the final round of the 2019 season. The damage has already been down to those AMR runners in both Silver Cup and Pro-Am but at least Street Art Racing still lead in the Am class and that championship is theirs to lose.

Hopefully we will also see the return of Prosport Performance at their home event at the end of August.

Photo credits - GT4 European Series

The fourth round of the GT4 European Series from Misano, Italy at the weekend was very much a bizarre affair for the usual Aston Martin Racing customer teams even before the cars got unloaded from the transporters.

We had already heard how Generation AMR SuperRacing had elected not to attend (due to the prior business commitments from their paying Gentleman driver James Holder), how one quarter of the Academy Motorsport quartet was unable to attend through illness (although Fiona James would be replaced with the team's British GT racer Micah Stanley) and how half of the usual PROsport Performance entry couldn't attend due to insufficient time to make repairs caused to the car last time out at the ADAC Total 24H from the Nordschliefe.

There were also internal driver changes within the German based team as they took stock of their existing racing commitments in GT4 European Series, ADAC GT Masters, ADAC GT4 Germany and the 24H Series - even the the car that did attend was hobbled with transmission issues at the start of the meeting.


Then, even before the racing had started in earnest, we lost yet another AMR Vantage GT4 when the #62 Academy car of Will Moore and Matt Cowley couldn't be fixed from its ongoing engine/transmission issues despite the best of overnight attention from Matt Nichol-Jones' crew. That car would be sadly parked and retired even before Qualifying had started on Saturday morning.

That left the princely total of just four AMR cars remaining for the event - both cars from Street Art Racing competing in both Silver Cup and Am Class as well as one each from both PROsport Performance and Academy Motorsport in Silver Cup. The #61 car would have to step up from its usual Pro-Am Class to the Silver Cup due to the driver status of Stanley and co-driver Tom Wood.


Under the steering heat of race 1 things also didn't get off to a good start for Stanley in the #61 car as whilst defending the advances made from his P15 start position, the rear end of his silver and Yellow AMR was tapped into a spin by the #12 BMW with only Lady Luck stopping the car from being collected by the twenty or so cars that rushed around the corner after him. Stanley did get back going again but sadly not for too much longer.

The two Street Art Racing cars were doing well with the #7 car of Jamie Vandenbalck heading the AMR charge in P12 whilst team mate Pascal Bachmann harried to improve upon his P3 class position further back. David Griessner would have to start his #19 car from the pit lane due to their ongoing transmission issues but despite some small progress the white and red car would soon be back into pit lane and retirement from the race - soon to be joined by the #61 car before either co-driver had had a turn at the wheel.


With the two Street Art Racing cars now the sole AMR representatives after the pit stop, Julien Darras (now aboard the #7) and Clement Seyler (#17 Am class car) did what they could. That saw the young and still very inexperienced Seyler climb up the timing board to soon lay claim to another class podium with another P2 finish at the chequered flag - the #7 car finished just ahead of them on track but down in P16 position overall.

Better was hoped for race 2 on Sunday.

With Sunday morning can the continuation of the high temperatures being experienced right across Europe with an indicated 40deg C track temperature. Again tyre management would be critical!


With the change in drivers from Saturday Qualifying gave the first chance for Academy's Tom Wood and PROsport's Akhil Rabindra to shine with Wood leading the AMR Buch from P10 and Rabindra bringing up the rear from P32 after their problems Friday and Saturday.

At the start, Wood showed off his early intentions advancing his car up from P10 to P7 in all the first sequence of corners whilst Rabindra had gone many better, improving his track position by ten cars on the opening lap alone. The battles Wood would find himself embroiled in for P6 would keep him entertained until the pit stop whilst Selyer's #17 car would soon find themselves with another foot on the Am Class podium P2 in class just ahead of that stop.


With the introduction of a Full Course Yellow immediately prior to the start of the Pit Stop Window (and it would last until the end of the Pit Stop Window), that added to the normal congestion in pit lane but all four AMR cars (inadvertently to one another) decided to stagger their stops - reducing the risk of a delay changing over to the second drivers.

Stanley would exit the pits from P6 but within close proximity to four of the cars ahead ahead of him, giving him a clear target to aim for. Julian Darras' #7 SAR car was P8 and Griessner P18 in the #19 car. It also wouldn't take long for Bachmann to finally secure the class lead in his #17 car with just twenty minutes remaining.


This time it would be Stanley's turn to have the 'fun' in the #61 car as he battled with first the #2 and then the #777 Mercedes for that coveted P6 position until the flag. Unfortunately for him, that was a battle he would eventually loose to the more experienced J Rehnig in the Mercedes but P7 overall was still a great finish - especially considering the circumstances that they had found themselves in just prior to the meeting. Darras/Vandenbalck would finish just behind them I'm P8, Griessner/Rabindra P13 and the #17 car of Bachmann/Seyler taking their umpteenth Am Class podium so far.

Renowned for their distinctly bright liveried cars, Belgium team Street Art Racing today confirmed their second driver line up who shall compete in this years GT4 European Series.

Staying with the team for a second year is young Frenchman Julien Darras who will this year be driving with Belgium racer Jamie Vandenbalck who crosses over from rival team 3Y Technology and their BMW M4 GT4.

This line up is in addition to the teams earlier announcements last month where team regular Pascal Bachmann will race the teams other 2019 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4 with Luxembourg based racer Clement Seyler.


Last year Darras shared his Pro-Am Class car with the more experienced team regular Bachmann but steps up this to compete in the Series Silver Cup Class with Vandenbalck whilst Bachmann will guide the younger and less experienced race Seyler in the Am Cup.

Not only sporting two glorious examples of AMR's latest specification Vantage GT4, the team will also utilise the knowledge and experience of AMR's World Endurance Championship driver Maxime Martin.

"Having Maxime Martin as a coach will also be a plus for us. I am convinced that I can learn a lot from him, not only for my driving but also for the development of the car and all the preparation outside races," said Vandenbalck.