It was certainly 'in for a penny - in for pound' as they say for Spanish based Virage Group as they entered their second race ever with one of their new Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's, this time making it a twenty four hour affair with an AMR factory supported driver to help them on their way.

Joining these guys in Portimao, Portugal were the 24H Series GT4 Class leaders PROsport Performance with their #1 car AMR Vantage having crossed the width of Europe straight off the back of their last racing exploits in Misano, Italy in the GT4 European Series.


Virage were certainly there for experience for their new drivers with the cars whilst PROsport were there to maintain their class lead having had a near faultless track record in the series so far despite some technical issues of their own along the way with a chassis that was being raced in two other series. Two other cars from the BMW and Mercedes stables would join them in the GT4 Class ready for the start of the twenty four hour race that started on Saturday morning.

Qualifying P2 (#1) and P4 (#417), it would be a very long and winding road for the crews of each car as technical issues would soon come home to roost - firstly with the #417 but then across the shared garage bay to the #1 car that would keep their mechanics and AMR support teams busy.

PROsport were competing with their now established endurance driver line up of Rodrique Gillion, his driver coach Nico Verdonck, Akhil Rabindra and Mike David-Ortmann. The #417 car would be piloted by two of its GT4 Southern Series drivers CO Jones and Peter Peters who would be joined by Thomas Padovani and AMR World Endurance Championship racer Pedro Lamy.


The first hour of the race passed with incident for the two AMR runners as they and the Mercedes established a 2 lap lead over the Hofer BMW but that was to change inversely after hour 2 as the Hofer BMW took the lead of the class, the Prosport car P2 but with the #417 suffering from its first technical issue - brakes.


Losing number of laps, the team worked hard to get the car back out on track and by 25% distance the car was still running, albeit last in class and eleven laps down to the class leader. Trouble was soon also to lay claim within the #1 car and the race progressed towards nightfall - first it was broken rear suspension but then a brakes issue of their own.


By the half way mark, both cars were still running - just - although due to their ongoing issues had each lost over 20 laps now to the leaders. That would go from bad to worse during the night when further issues to the #1 car (exhaust) left the team with no means of repair and had to retire the car after just 332 laps.

Fortunately for the Virage car, their troubles were behind them and with the retirement of the #1 car left them in a podium claiming position should they finish the race which they did - recovering their race position to just a six lap deficit to the winning Hofer BMW after they had their own technical issues during the night.


For each team concerned, their attentions (PROsport Performance) now turn to the next round of the GT4 European Series from Zandvoort this weekend coming (so both cars will need rebuilding ready for that as they cannibalised the spare car to service the race car at Portimao). They are also listed for the next round of the 24H Series from Barcelona at the end of August.

For Virage - they are also due to race at Barcelona at the end of August but this time in the SRO GT4 Southern Series.

Photo credits - 24H Series

The fifth round of the 24H Series from Portimao next weekend sees two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's being entered into the second 24 hour race of the season so far, one with a surprise name amongst them.

Full season entrant, PROsport Performance are again back with their #1 car featuring the same driver line up that competed at the Spa 12 hour round back in April with regular drivers Nico Verdonck and Rodrique Gillion again being joined by Akhil Rabindra and Mike David Ortmann.

Hopefully the German based team has now got rid of all the gremlins that they suffered at the ADAC Total 24H event from the Nordschlife two weeks ago, issues that saw both of their cars retire from that event during the night and which also went on to blight their single car affort at last weekends GT4 Euroipean Series round from Misano, Italy when Rabindra lost out on a drive in race one due to ongoing technical issues.


Joining them in Portugal will be one of the latest AMR Customer teams with the Spanish based Virage Group entering one of their new AMR Vantage GT4's that they raced with only for the first time in the second round of the GT4 South Europe at Jarama two weeks ago.


Joining names of CO Jones and Peter Peters who are already established with the team from Jarama will be Thomas Padovani and a certain Pedro Lamy!

Track activity for the event begins with Private testing on Thursday before Free Practice and Qualifying on Friday. The start of the actual 24 hour race begins at noon (local) on Saturday.

Photo credits - Virage Group / P Lamy

Latest Aston Martin Racing recruits, the Virage Group had their two brand new AMR Vantage GT4's out racing for the first time last weekend at the second round of the SRO GT4 Southern Series from the Jarama Circuit to the north of Madrid.

Only having received their two cars from the Prodrive factory just a couple of weeks ago, it appears that after juts two shakedown tests both at Donington and Valencia the team felt ready to make that step in and join the GT4 Southern Series at their first available opportunity.

Meanwhile, the German touring car series DMV GTC were at the Nurburgring for their fourth round of the season so far with its normal three race format over the weekend with a mix of two sprints and an hour long endurance race for their older iteration GT3 runners.



Again running in the series as a solo driver aboard his Schaler Motorsport prepared #12 Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 was Timo Scheibner.

Qualifying P8 overall and P2 in Class, the German went on to claim a P5 overall finish and yet another class win in the first of the two GTC races before starting the second race from P7 overall and first in class. That race he went on to finish P6 overall and another class win.


In the longer Dunlop 60 race, Scheibner again Qualified P9 overall / P1 in class to finish just one place higher to expand his trophy cabinet still further with another class win.

The series returns to Hockenheim for the fifth round in early August.

Photo credits - DMV GTC

Spanish squad Team Virage has this week been shaking down one of their latest racing acquisitions ready for their late season entry into the SRO GT4 Southern Europe Series (as previously announced) with an expected brace of 2019 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's.

Already well versed with the complexities of modern motor racing both in single seaters and more latterly with a pair of Ligier LMP3 cars, the team are hoping to enter a pair of these cars into the GT4 Southern Europe Series - a series who's six round season this year is based predominantly in Spain and Portugal.


Joining them at this shakedown test this week at Donington was Freddie Hunt, son of the 1976 Formula One World Champion James Hunt. From the looks of the photos made available from the test included a driver line up of Nicholas Silva (a driver who has already raced with the team last season) as well as team boss Julien Gerbi.


The next round of the Series is just next week at Jarama in Spain although there is no indication from the team that they will be there.

Photo credits - Team Virage