The end of the road for one - the beginning of a journey for another!
It started so well for the Deranged Motorsport team in the GT Cup Championship with a class pole position followed up with a class win on the opening day of the new season, but this listing confirms the end of the road for this endeavour.
Acquiring one of Academy Motorsports Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s over the winter, the GT Cup was to be the Deranged Team’s target arena for 2021 as drivers Oli Brown and Matt Lewis were ‘ticking’ all the right boxes on the opening day with their first class win, missing out on another class podium in another due to a Safety Car procedure transgression before retiring from the next race with (?) suspension related issues.
That was sadly that for the #52 car as it didn’t venture out into any further rounds in the Championship and this sale listing is the first of anything heard from the team since.
Full listing details can be found at https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/125476/2019-aston-martin-vantage-gt4
Photo credits – Racecarsdirect.com
More Aston Martins at this weekends GT Cup from Brands Hatch
The second round of the GT Cup Championship comes from the Grand Prix circuit of Brands Hatch this weekend with an increased Aston Martin Racing contingent to that who featured so well at the opening round at Donington Park two weeks ago.
The #52 Deranged Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of Oli Brown and Matt Lewis make a return after suffering terminal issues that scuppered their earlier pace and podium success at Donington park as well does Chris Murphy (again running solo) aboard his older generation #72 Whitebridge Motorsport ran car who enjoyed equal class success last time out.
Also running the new turbo charged version of the Vantage GT4 like Deranged, sees both the #82 Feathers Motorsport Aston of James Guess and Darren Turner as well as the #15 Century Motorsport Aston of David Holloway and Adam Hatfield return to the tracks having secured four class podium positions between them.
Joining them on track this time around is the #47 Ultimate Speed AMR Vantage GT3 of Mike Brown and Matt Anderson as they get their latest race car out for the first time for a mixed bunch of GT Cup and British GT action. This weekend features just two pit stop punctuated races as it was due to run in support of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Series that moved its race date in Kent back to the summer.
Unfortunately running again behind closed doors, the Championship has already proven that its live stream is very effective.
Photo credits – GT Cup / Teams
A successful start to their GT Cup Championship campaigns for AMR Vantage GT4 teams
Where we first thought that we would have three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s competing within that grid, we in fact ended up with four AMR’s after the Deranged Motorsport Team switched to the AMR GT4 platform having been first linked to a Bentley GT3 entry over the winter. Their 2019 Vantage GT4 joined those from Feathers Motorsport and Century Motorsport as well as the 2016 iteration run by the Whitebridge team.
The #52 Deranged squad of Matt Lewis and Oli Brown were certainly the fastest of the new AMR GT4 on Saturday taking a Class Pole to flag win in the Sprint race before missing out on a potential class win in the later endurance race by getting a 5 second penalty for passing under an earlier Safety Car.
The Feathers AMR of James Guess was equally racy over the weekend as they followed the Deranged car home in P2 in Saturday’s Sprint race as well as claiming a Class win in Sunday’s Sprint race after the retirement of the #52 Deranged car after mechanical issues in Sunday mornings Sprint and subsequent withdrawal from the weekends final race.
The Century Motorsport prepared AMR for David Holloway reacted well to the loss of Adam Hatfield even before the start of the race weekend as he was called away from the circuit, but his slot was soon taken by the team’s ‘resident’ driver coach Bradley Ellis. Holloway and Ellis would come close to securing their first AMR derived podium in GT Cup by finishing just off the podium in P4 in Saturdays endurance race.
Whilst the three new AMR Vantages were racing in the GTH Class, the #72 Whitebridge Motorsport car of Chris Murphy would be competing in the GTB class for older production-based car’s and he would have a good weekend with a podium finish in class both on Saturday and Sunday.
Moving in Sunday’s finale, another Safety Car interrupted race saw the #82 Feathers car of Guess and Darren Turner take another podium for their efforts this weekend by taking a class win with Holloway and Ellis rounding off the podium in P3. Leaving Donington, the #82 Feather car leads the GTH Class Championship by nine points.
The collective seven podium finishes was just icing on the cake after another entertaining weekend of racing that now moves on to Brands Hatch at the start of May.
Photo credits – GT Cup / Feathers / Century
