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

A bizarre set of circumstances befell the BSEM Asia Sonic Racing team at the Shanghai International Circuit as they competed in the third round of the China GT Championship this weekend.

Again entering a pair of Aston Marin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's - old and new specification -
Qualifying on Friday didn't exactly go to plan as the newer #618 car of David Pun and Yves Volte only just finished ahead of the normally aspirated 2016 #619 car of Zhang Fangxuan and Stanley Yang with P7/P8 and P9/P10 starting slots respectively for the two - one hour races over both Saturday and Sunday.


Featuring a lower car count than previous years, just 17 cars started race 1 under light drizzle as the cars formed on the grid. Starting and running on slick tyres, all appeared well at first until just after the pit stop window had closed when the heavens suddenly opened, drenching the circuit and leaving the struggling competitors to aquaplane all around the circuit. Indeed, such was the 'devastation' on track that the race was red flagged with still over 15 minutes left on the clock - the race wouldn't be restarted.

For the older #619 car, the early termination of the race would see them finish a very credible P4 whilst the newer #619 car has struggled throughout the race with transmission problems - forcing the crew to pit multiple times before a wild spin in the rain saw them ultimately classified as the final finisher in Race 1, down in P12.


For Sundays second race of the meeting, the rain at least arrived and fell before the scheduled start but then gave all the dilemma of tyre selection with half the track remaining wet for the start. That however, didn't effect the way Aston Martin Racing Academy driver Yves Volte ran his race as he would ultimately hand the #618 car over to gentleman driver David Pun from P3 although that would drop to P5 by the close of the race.

Importantly though, this P5 finish would firstly be their highest finish of the season so far but also marked another milestone for the new AMR Vantage GT4 in claiming its first Asian theatre podium with a P3 Pro-Am finish for the pairing.


The sister #619 car didn't appear to run in race 2 and at first we didn't know why until video footage was released of a nasty incident involving the car at the point immediately before the race was red flagged. Approaching a sharp left hand corner, the clip shows the #619 aquaplaning into the corner, spinning around before slamming into the front of another car that had already spun - sadly for the driver (Yang) that impact resulted in sizeable damage to the car and a (?) broken leg for himself.


The Championship now has six weeks off before round 4 from Shougang GT Circuit, Ginhuangdao in mid August.

Hopefully, the tide of misfortune has now turned for these guys and we wish Stanley Yang a speedy recovery.

Photo credit - China GT 

The second round of the 2019 China GT Championship from the Ningbo International Speedpark in Zhejiang was something of a frustrating one for the sole Aston Martin Racing customer team in the race, BSEM Asia Sonic Racing.

Having finally taken delivery and tested with their new 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT4 earlier in the week, things were looking good for Gentleman driver David Pun and his German Aston Martin Driver Academy Pro, Yves Volte whom he would be sharing driving duties aboard the #618 car. Joining them were two regional drivers in Zhang Fangxuan and Wu Pei who would drive one of the teams older 2016 Vantage GT4's.


Starting P5 in Race 1, it was the responsibility of Volte to go chasing after some of the other teams Pro drivers with the new Vantage looking good and quick behind the Mercedes GT4's of Alex Fontana and Will Bamber. That was the position the #618 held when Volte had to come in at the end of the permitted pits stop period window to hand the car over to Pun.

Just after the stops, the #619 car ground to a halt on track forcing the deployment of the Safety Car. On the restart Pun was caught napping a bit and went very wide in the sequence of corners that allowed at least two cars to pass him effectively unchallenged.


With just six minutes remaining of the hour long race,  an errant Mercedes GT4 forced a BMW wide at the final corner which in turn spun and collided heavily with the pit wall. Fortunately the driver was OK but the race would end at the controlled pace of the Safety Car.

For the #618 car however, a too shorter pit stop time cost them a 60 second time penalty which effectively dropped them down to P10 and the last points paying position after what had been a good start to the race.

Race 2 on Saturday faired no better for the team despite Pun being able to maintain his track position relative to the other cars around him who were at the time running their Pro drivers as he held P6 and the #619 car held their P11 starting position for the first fifteen minutes of racing.


Again running wide, the #618 car showed possible damage to the underside of the car although Pun's pace at the time didn't seem to suggest anything performance reducing. Just after that the #619 again seemed to switch off in the middle of the track and force another Safety Car.

By the time of the pit window, the remaining #618 car was back in P7 as Pun handed over to Volte but his race wouldn't last too much longer either as the car was seen running slowly on track before making back to pit lane and retirement with an unknown technical issue.


Not the best of starts for the newest AMR Vantage GT4 in Asia, we know from other series that the car has pace and maybe just a bit more track time for both drivers and team will put them back into a competitive position fo rah next round of the Championship in Shanghai in June.

Photo credits - China GT

It was back to podium winning ways for the China Equity AMR team as both of their entries at last weekend's third round of the China GT Championship collected silverware in both the Am and Pro-Am classes.

Having experienced technical issues last time out, drivers of the teams lead #618 car, Jack Mitchell and Ryan Liu were looking to make amends and recover the GT4 Championship lead that they had lost in Zhejiang. Joining them on the grid for the teams 'local' round were Am-Am entry of Zhang Fangxuan and David Pun in the golden #619 car.


With Liu qualifying P3 in class and behind the championship leading McLaren, he soon found himself down another place as the AAI BMW climbed two positions in one corner to split the McLaren and AMR. By the time of the compulsory pit stop the race leading KTM X-Bow suffered technical gremlins that saw their decisive lead cut and then overtaken by Mitchell as he put the 'pedal to the metal' to switly take the lead before ultimately securing another race win by nearly twenty seconds.


For the #619 crew, and despite a spin midway through the race saw the new driver combo secure a P3 in class podium for themselves.


Overnight rain left the grid with a quandary on Sunday with standing water left of track but no rain actually falling come the start of the second race. Pole sitting Ryan Liu opted to continue with slick Michelin tyres as those around him opted for wets, decisions that proved immediately beneficial for the others!


Slippery track conditions would claim the #619 China Equity car after a clash with the #28 Lotus at turn 8 that would require the services of the Safety Car in a race that would see three DNF's.

Liu lived to regret their earlier tyre decision as his tip-toeing around lost them significant track time compared to those of wets. Indeed such was the deficit that by the time Mitchell had completed the final stint at the midway point, the best even he could achieve was P3 but a lap down to the winners.


The results of the weekend have allowed the #618 crew to reduce the Championship deficit to the #570 McLaren to just two points at the half way stage of the Championship.

A quick turn around in the series this month will see Mitchell and the Prodrive supplied technicians make the long haul flight out to the Ningbo International Circuit (a new circuit for the Championship this year) to the north east of Hong Kong at the end of the month.

Photo credits - China Equity AMR