Last night we saw the individual Qualifying rounds for each of Garage 59’s Pro-Am and Silver Cup entries as well as the three legs for their AMR factory supported Pro effort specific for this event.

Under the watchful eyes of many from the AMR factory team Alex West (#188) and Tuomas Tujula (#159) were out in the first session with just twenty-seven runners followed later by Chris Goodwin (#159) and Alex MacDowall (#159) and Nicki Thiim (#95) with the full fifty-eight cars on track. Incidents on track during this session lead to two red flags leaving those unfortunate not to have set a time with little time within which to make sure. Whilst Goodwin claimed the fastest time in Pro-Am, MacDowall was caught in heavy traffic leaving their Silver Cup entry lower down the order than perhaps they deserved to by Thiim had already set a time good enough for P2, so he was done early.

Now in complete darkness from the delays of Q2, Charlie Eastwood (#188), Valentin Hasse-Clot (#159) and Ross Gunn (#95) were out next, and it was a battle royale between the AMR factory and AMR factory junior drivers which left the young Irishman ahead of the young Brit on track with the #188 car again claiming top honours. Finally, it was the turn of Marvin Kirchhofer (#188) who had been one the fastest drivers out there in Pre-Qualifying who rounded off a successful Qualifying session for their Pro-Am car to finish his session in P3 – good enough for them to claim the overall class pole for Saturday’s race. Nicolai Kjaergaard was out in the #159 where he too suffered with the effects of traffic (eventually Qualifying in P13 in class) as well did Marco Sorensen now in the #95 Pro class entered car but at least the times were good enough to claim a P2 slot in this evenings Superpole.

Then there was more drama this evening when Nicki Thiim ran the #95 cars Superpole laps – two fast laps on new rubber within a defined time band during the allotted thirty-minute session.

Reported late on pit lane exit to Race Control (outside of the permitted two-minute window), Thiim’s first lap was only good enough for P10 but his second flying lap elevated them to P3 for tomorrows race – or so they thought!!

Confirmation later came through that the #95 car had indeed been penalised from its original P3 finishing position with a 0.254 of a second added to its best lap time (the time they were late leaving pit lane at the start of their session) and that dropped the car down to P8 overall on grid. We wait to hear if the team can or indeed will appeal against that decision.

Either way, that decision will not affect the outcome of the 24-hour race as consistency, team work and a whole lot of luck (especially through the long night) will determine who finishes the race first!!

Good luck to them all.

Photo credits – GTWCE / Garage 59

With starting positions again taken from each car’s performances in Fridays double Qualifying sessions, that meant that the #88 Garage 59 AMR Vantage GT3 of Maxime Martin would start highest of the five AMR runners in P4, John Hartshorne in P7 after Charlie Eastwood’s faster Qualifying efforts were scrubbed for track limits, the #97 of Ahmad Al Harty close behind in P7, Marvin Kirchhofer this time starting the #89 Garage 59 car from P10 and Satoshi Hoshino again starting the #77 D’Station car form P14.

Having had no chance of catching those ‘flying’ Porsche 911 GT3 R’s in yesterday’s race, efforts had been made to redress the balance in performance with the addition of an extra 20kg of weight for the three Porsches entered in the Series but only time would tell if that was enough to level the ‘playing field’.

Another dry, warm but this time windy day saw the grid take to a somewhat slippery track in the opening stages as sand on track, low tyre temperatures and pressures added for some exciting opening laps. Early passes from the Pro drivers aboard the two Garage 59 cars saw them lift up to P2 for Martin and P7 for Kirchhofer after just one lap but again the #88 car would be baulked behind the still faster GPX Porsche.

Team Owner Satoshi Hoshino again started for the Japanese team and he was destined for a much better race stint today than yesterday as changes in car set-up worked to his strengths as he progressed from his P14 starting position to as high as P9 before most cars in class pitted for their first scheduled stop.

Two early FCY’s were called for stranded LMP cars on track and as usual, that saw cars from across all classes split their race strategies all in search of that edge to outwit their opponents and whilst the two Garage 59 cars remained out for the first caution, both pitted during the second as Martin and Kirchhofer handed over to Valentin Hasse-Clot and Yuki Nemoto respectively. The three other Aston’s couldn’t yet make that call as their Am drivers aboard need just a little more track time to see out their minimum requirements.

During the early laps of the race, the #97 Oman Racing car of Al Harthy had tagged the rear of yesterday’s race winning #99 Porsche, leaving him with a rear puncture but also an inevitable Drive through Penalty for the Omani right at the end of his stint almost an hour later. Having served his penalty for that, the #97 would pit to allow Tom Canning to have his next chance within the Series.

In the #95 TF Sport entered car, Hartshorne kept plugging away at his steep learning curve as he combatted the perils of the race start again before finding improvements and rhythm before he eventually handed over to his No.2 Ollie Hancock. Hoshino would follow them in having ran as high as P3 during the pit stop cycle.

2020 AMR Drivers Academy winner Hasse-Clot was on another charge having come out on track in P5 to get back to where Martin had left off behind the still leading Porsche in P2. Great middle stints from Canning, Hasse-Clot and Tom Gamble (now in the #77 D’Station) would see track position first consolidated before then improved upon. The later inter-marque battles between the Oman Racing, D’Station and TF Sport cars was great to watch although there may have been a few worries from those on pit wall – but all proved good!

The pace of the GPX Porsche continued to be superior to that of those chasing them, their own driver line up was mightily strong and there continued to be little that either Garage 59 car could do about it despite running first in class for much of the first half of the race after the Porsche pitted early under the first yellow.

Alex West was next out in the #88 car and he had the ability to manage his cars P5 running position for much of his hour stint having only relinquished P4 to Kirchhofer who was obviously quicker in his #89 car. Unfortunately for the #89 car, their closing in on the #40 GPX Porsche would be in vain as Mike Benham (Am) was still due in the Aston for his 55 minutes whereas the Porsche had their Pro still to come – an imbalance in ability that no ballast could ever equalise!!

Coming into the final hour of the race and with many cars were now getting the black/white flag final warning for track limits, the #77 car with Fujii again behind the wheel also got called back into pit lane (similar to yesterday) for a 1 second stop/hold for a mis-timed stop earlier.

Jonny Adam in the #97, Eastwood in the #95 and Tomonobu Fujii in the #77 were all running in the top six for a time but all owed a final stop to get them to the end so for them, the final hour became a battle for a respectable finishing position for them to take into next week’s two rounds at Yas Marina if they were to have any chance of title winning success there.

Martin was back in the #88 car to the end and the AMR factory driver had got himself back up to P3 overall in class whilst Benham would find himself getting ‘mugged’ of all his single digit running order positions to the end to see his second race end finish in P10 but that was still an improvement from yesterday.

Adam would again bring home the #97 car for their second P7 finish of the weekend whilst Fujii would eventually lose out on the D’Station/TF Sport battle to finish P13 again for the Japanese squad and P11 respectably. 

All in all and whilst the Porsche retained it’s overall performance over the rest of the GT field, todays second race of the weekend proved itself to be a much stronger one for the AMR runners. A change in strategy for some as well as learning from mistakes of yesterday saw improved results for both Garage 59 cars, stable performances for the Oman Racing and D’Station Racing crews although the #95 TF Sport car did have a nett loss of one place over yesterday’s performances.

The teams now pack up and move onto the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi for next weekend’s double header that will see the winners of the automatic Le Mans 24hr Invitation winners crowned. 

Photo credits - ALMS / AMR / Teams

In the first Garage 59 Aston Martin, the rapid Mike Benham returns to Garage 59 to take up the bronze seat, with Ricard 1000kms sensation Marvin Kirchhöfer joining the team on loan again from R-Motorsport.

Benham said: “I’m looking forward to racing again with Garage 59 and I think we have a good opportunity to take a top result in the Asian Le Mans Series. I’m excited about the prospect of racing with Marvin as I have seen how fast he is so February can’t come soon enough for me.”

Alexander West is one of the fastest bronze-rated drivers in GT3 racing and has previous experience of racing in the Asian Le Mans Series. He will be joined in the sister Garage 59 Vantage by Aston Martin works driver, the platinum-rated Maxime Martin.

Each of the two Aston Martins will also have a third, silver-rated driver, the identities of whom will be announced in the New Year.

The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series takes place in February, with the first two races running during a February 4-6 event and the second pair of races at a February 18-20 event. In order to manage the Covid travel restrictions, the organisers of the series chose to host every race at the world-class Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. At each event there will be two, four-hour races, using two different circuit configurations and a combination of day, night and twilight racing.

A top result in the Asian Le Mans Series secures a coveted entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Garage 59 team would love to have a shot at the greatest endurance race of them all.

Garage 59 Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy said: “The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series is very well-timed for us. It gives the drivers a lot of competitive running before the summer GT3 season starts and from a logistical point of view is it fairly straightforward. The added bonus is that if you do well you can gain a Le Mans entry, which is something that every team would love to have.”

Source Material - Garage 59

In the first Garage 59 Aston Martin, the rapid Mike Benham returns to Garage 59 to take up the bronze seat, with Ricard 1000kms sensation Marvin Kirchhöfer joining the team on loan again from R-Motorsport.

Benham said: “I’m looking forward to racing again with Garage 59 and I think we have a good opportunity to take a top result in the Asian Le Mans Series. I’m excited about the prospect of racing with Marvin as I have seen how fast he is so February can’t come soon enough for me.”

Alexander West is one of the fastest bronze-rated drivers in GT3 racing and has previous experience of racing in the Asian Le Mans Series. He will be joined in the sister Garage 59 Vantage by Aston Martin works driver, the platinum-rated Maxime Martin.

Each of the two Aston Martins will also have a third, silver-rated driver, the identities of whom will be announced in the New Year.

The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series takes place in February, with the first two races running during a February 4-6 event and the second pair of races at a February 18-20 event. In order to manage the Covid travel restrictions, the organisers of the series chose to host every race at the world-class Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. At each event there will be two, four-hour races, using two different circuit configurations and a combination of day, night and twilight racing.

A top result in the Asian Le Mans Series secures a coveted entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Garage 59 team would love to have a shot at the greatest endurance race of them all.

Garage 59 Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy said: “The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series is very well-timed for us. It gives the drivers a lot of competitive running before the summer GT3 season starts and from a logistical point of view is it fairly straightforward. The added bonus is that if you do well you can gain a Le Mans entry, which is something that every team would love to have.”

In the first Garage 59 Aston Martin, the rapid Mike Benham returns to Garage 59 to take up the bronze seat, with Ricard 1000kms sensation Marvin Kirchhöfer joining the team on loan again from R-Motorsport.

Benham said: “I’m looking forward to racing again with Garage 59 and I think we have a good opportunity to take a top result in the Asian Le Mans Series. I’m excited about the prospect of racing with Marvin as I have seen how fast he is so February can’t come soon enough for me.”

Alexander West is one of the fastest bronze-rated drivers in GT3 racing and has previous experience of racing in the Asian Le Mans Series. He will be joined in the sister Garage 59 Vantage by Aston Martin works driver, the platinum-rated Maxime Martin.

Each of the two Aston Martins will also have a third, silver-rated driver, the identities of whom will be announced in the New Year.

The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series takes place in February, with the first two races running during a February 4-6 event and the second pair of races at a February 18-20 event. In order to manage the Covid travel restrictions, the organisers of the series chose to host every race at the world-class Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. At each event there will be two, four-hour races, using two different circuit configurations and a combination of day, night and twilight racing.

A top result in the Asian Le Mans Series secures a coveted entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Garage 59 team would love to have a shot at the greatest endurance race of them all.

Garage 59 Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy said: “The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series is very well-timed for us. It gives the drivers a lot of competitive running before the summer GT3 season starts and from a logistical point of view is it fairly straightforward. The added bonus is that if you do well you can gain a Le Mans entry, which is something that every team would love to have.”

In the first Garage 59 Aston Martin, the rapid Mike Benham returns to Garage 59 to take up the bronze seat, with Ricard 1000kms sensation Marvin Kirchhöfer joining the team on loan again from R-Motorsport.

Benham said: “I’m looking forward to racing again with Garage 59 and I think we have a good opportunity to take a top result in the Asian Le Mans Series. I’m excited about the prospect of racing with Marvin as I have seen how fast he is so February can’t come soon enough for me.”

Alexander West is one of the fastest bronze-rated drivers in GT3 racing and has previous experience of racing in the Asian Le Mans Series. He will be joined in the sister Garage 59 Vantage by Aston Martin works driver, the platinum-rated Maxime Martin.

Each of the two Aston Martins will also have a third, silver-rated driver, the identities of whom will be announced in the New Year.

The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series takes place in February, with the first two races running during a February 4-6 event and the second pair of races at a February 18-20 event. In order to manage the Covid travel restrictions, the organisers of the series chose to host every race at the world-class Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. At each event there will be two, four-hour races, using two different circuit configurations and a combination of day, night and twilight racing.

A top result in the Asian Le Mans Series secures a coveted entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Garage 59 team would love to have a shot at the greatest endurance race of them all.

Garage 59 Team Principal, Andrew Kirkaldy said: “The 2021 Asian Le Mans Series is very well-timed for us. It gives the drivers a lot of competitive running before the summer GT3 season starts and from a logistical point of view is it fairly straightforward. The added bonus is that if you do well you can gain a Le Mans entry, which is something that every team would love to have.”

SSource material - Garage 59