Again, double stinting both the FFSA GT4 Series and the GT4 European Series sees the #7 AMR Vantage GT4 of Stanislav Safronov and Alexandr Vaintrub return for another attempt at the Pro-Am crown having finished a disappointing sixth in class at the end of last season. Whilst they had six other Pro-Am classed crews to battle against last season, this year’s deduction to just the Am and Pro-Am classes sees the workload increase at least eight other crews with one crew's race status still to be determined.

The sister #5 Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Jodie Sloss has now been confirmed to include last seasons Am Champion David Levy. We know that Sloss entered the early rounds of the UK based GT Cup Championship last season with Forsetti Motorsport to with great results alongside Rianna O’Meara-Hunt, but we wait to see if this entry is much of the same as last season or that of a full season effort for the Scotswoman.

Like most SRO sanctioned series globally, this series will run individual qualifying ahead of race one on Saturday before the concluding race later on Sunday.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Hitting that championship at a more of a gallop and despite having swapped between the outgoing 17A variant to the new 2024 Vantage GT4 Evo, Day and Porter ended their season togther with the Silver Class title before Day then touched into the GT3 class with Prosport Racing at the Spa Francorchamps rounds of the ADAC GT Masters Series.

Presently racing with the Belgian Comtoyou Racing team at this weekend’s 24H Series Dubai 24 with one of their new Vantage GT3 Evo’s, part of Day’s reward was a fully supported factory test within the Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 at Snetterton at the end of last year under the watchful eye of Jonny Adam.

Day said of his AMR Driver Academy graduation: “I am truly honoured to have won the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy this year and to have won the support of the Aston Martin factory ahead of 2025. This award allows me to take another step towards my goal of becoming a works driver. I would like to thank the whole of the AMR family for their continued support and helping me progress to the next stage in my career.”

Day takes over from last year’s winner in Mike David Ortmann and follows an illustrious bunch of previous winners in Ross Gunn, Tom Canning, Romain Leroux, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Roman De Angelis.

Photo Credits – AMR / Teams / Social Media

One will be for their already declared GTH Class champions in Mikey Porter as he again pairs up with Sam Nesser within the #9 car having debuted together last time out at Donington Park, before which Porter was paired alongside Matthew Higgins.

Whilst their GTH class is already in the bag, there is still a remote chance that the crew could secure the Overall Drivers Championship as well if results go in the favour across the weekends pairs of sprint and pit stop races over Saturday and Sunday as they remain just fifty points behind the Topcats Racing Lamborghini GTC classed car.

The provisional entry list also details an as yet unidentified driver line up within their #10 car for this final round as well as you see today on social media of a possible return of a previous GT Cup stalwart team with something rather new – but that is rather their news to release than ours.

So we will have to wait and see!

Photo credit – Teams / series / social media

Taking the start from third overall (and in class) was Jamie Day whilst Marc Warren would be starting from slightly further back eighth overall in GT4 and third again in class.

The only problem for the #47 car was that their final race of the race wouldn’t extend to more than the opening lap as having already avoided a GT3 spinning off into the gravel outside Paddock Hill Bend, the clumping pack caught Warren off guard as he impacted into the rear of Mustang causing not just front wing damage but also terminal damage to the radiator.

It was their championship charge over in a flash unless the chasing #31 Mercedes and the #29 BMW crews failed to score – possible, but not really probable given there was still two hours fifty-eight minutes to run as the Safety Car came out for the first time.

Despite an overnight Balance of Performance adjustment with the title contending Aston Martin Vantage and the McLaren Altura GT4’s where the Aston lost 10kg of ballast and the McLaren gained it, it was still hard to tell that apart as the race finally went back to green with Day trying to fend off the #90 McLaren for the lead in GT4.

Race Control warning and penalties were already being issued as first Day got a warning about his driving standards in defending his race lead whilst the #29 BMW was given a Drive through penalty for contact which only helped the cause of the #47 Forsetti crew now consigned to watching the race from the pit lane.

Whilst it remained somewhat feisty at the head of GT4, Andrew Howard was quietly keeping out of trouble within his #97 AMR Vantage GT3 that he would be sharing with GT3 debutant Tom Wood later in the race. Having started P9 overall (and P2 in GT3 Silver-Am), the green AMR was holding off the silver-Am championship winning McLaren behind them OK.

Just after thirty minutes of race clock time, the #90 Optimum McLaren finally got passed the #7 Aston Martin of Day and immediately gapped them to the tune of a second or two. With little over ten minutes to go before the start of the staggered pit stop windows, a Full Course Yellow was called for another GT3 off into the tyre wall at Stirling’s. Initially looking not that bad, that caution period was then notified to all as being a lengthy period as the tyre wall and barriers would need attention and the race wouldn’t be released again until that and all the mandatory pit stops had been completed.

Losing nearly forty minutes to that damage, the race finally got back to green with just over forty minutes remaining but in between all of that, the leading #90 McLaren had managed to get out of pit land ahead of the overall GT3 leader meaning that with the Safety Car restart – they would get waved towards the rear of the GT4 pack and technically nearly a whole lap ahead of the #7 car.

Getting back to green and it was swiftly back under yellows again as three more (this time GT4 cars) exited the race together after contact at Stirling’s to bring out another length FCY and Safety Car restart. The best news from the AMR powered paddock was that Tom Wood was already making an impression aboard the #97 with both the fastest lap of the race so far and having elevated the #97 car up to seventh overall.

Getting back to green with just ten minutes remaining, there was absolutely nothing that Mikey Porter could do about his position within the race as the #90 was literally miles in front but at least he was defending their Silver Cup position at the head of the pile.

After another eventful race, the chequered flag finally dropped to give the Beechdean AMR crew of Howard and Wood a P6 overall finish and another visit to the GT3 Silver-Am podium in P2 whilst (more importantly) the #7 Forsetti Vantage GT4 of Day and Porter finished P2 overall within GT4 to claim the Silver Cup Drivers Championship but not the Overall GT Drivers Champiosnhip as that went to the #90 Optimum crew.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad season for the championship debuting Forsetti team as they added the Silver Cup Championship to their GT4 Teams title alongside P2 finishes within the GT4 Pro-Am class (for the #47), P2 and P4 finishes within the Overall GT4 Championship for both the #7 and #47 cars respectively.

It’s absolutely been another cracking British GT Championship season.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

Starting the season with two such cars with Mikey Porter racing the #9 car alongside Matthew Higgins whilst Rianna O’Meara-Hunt partnered Jodie Sloss with the sister #10 entry.

Since Oulton Park in June when the team elected not to take part due to other GT4 commitments abroad, the #10 entry has since dropped by the wayside as their drivers seek challenges new elsewhere, but the #9 car did return with Porter and Higgins with an all-new crew aboard the #10 car last time out at Silverstone.

This weekend’s entry list, however, lists just the solo #9 Forsetti with Porter being joined by an as yet undefined co-driver within the expected sixteen strong field for this weekend two sprint and two pit stop races.

Championship wise, Porter and Higgins have now dropped to third within the overall Championship table (now forty-six points behind) whilst they remain 118 points clear in their GTH class from their teammates in the #10 car.

Photo credit – GT Cup