Going into this final race of the season around the very long but very narrow circuit had already seen one Vantage GT3 eliminated from the proceedings from each of the Comtoyou racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport teams with another Walkenhorst entry only rescued from the ashes of a pit lane fire and an overnight rebuild by the team for that car to even make the grid.

The biggest talking point as far the Aston Martins were concerned was sadly again around the platforms balance of performance parameters with none of the cars even close at threatening those championship challenges in front of them. In hindsight, even a mid-event change in BoP (as in weight reduction and an increase in boost) wasn’t enough to give either Pro entry the ‘ponies’ that they needed to put up anything like a representative fight.

With many suffering from the effects of mid and post-race penalties (mainly for track limits), the #007 car eventually finished P10 overall with the #34 Walkenhorst car of Ross Gunn, Henrique Chaves and David Pittard finishing just behind in P11 having completed a miraculous recovery drive having started from last thanks to their Qualifying issues.

The one race success was from the #12 Comtoyou Racing entry of Nicolas Baert, Sebastian Ogaard and Matisse Lismont who grabbed P3 within the silver class.

Having lead the overall championship position since that overall win at the Spa 24, the #007 crew would eventually finish the year down in fourth with their sister #12 car the next best AMR finisher in class, P8 in silver.

What comes next for both the Walkenhorst Motorsport and Comtoyou Racing teams is yet to be seen but with the 2025 Prologue test already set for early March, that won’t be a too longer wait before the first signs of pre-season testing gets underway.

The new 2024 Vantage GT3 car did well within its opening year of racing service again and with the ongoing developmental work that AMR are already undertaking, 2025 looks more than positive.

Well done to all involved this season and here’s looking forward to next.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Preparing themselves for another of the events usual into the night races on Saturday, the writing was again already upon the wall for the team after the #007 car of Nicolas Baert and Mattia Drudi qualified a distant P20 overall whilst their #11 Gold class entry of Sebastian Ogaard and James Jakes was not too far behind them in P24 and the #21 Silver entry of Matisse Lismont and David Pittard the next row back again. The teams fourth entry, that of the #12 silver class of Lorens Lecertua and Dante Rappange would start P30 of a thirty-two strong entry.

Reminiscent of the early round from Misano to say the least.

The competitive nature of the grid, the complexities of the circuit with a car that was not necessarily performing who it was first designed saw the #11 car fall by the wayside during the race, the #007 move up the order slightly to achieve a P15 overall and P9 finish in class result but with the #12 and #21 cars finishing towards the back in P25 and P27 places overall and P7 in silver and P4 in gold respectively.

Then ahead of race two, it really did all wrong!

During the opening laps of Q2, both the #12 and #21 cars collided with each other at the final corner to bring out the red flag but with no real information or evidence into just what happened. None the less, both cars suffered opposing corner damage to one another (suggesting side to side contact) that unfortunately left both cars irreparable at the circuit in time for the race start.

That was then compounded by the #007 not getting away from the grid on the formation that resulted in three of their four cars being noted as non-starters on the timing screen. The only saving grace was that their #11 gold entry of OGaard and Jakes were this time able to complete the concluding hour-long race to claim a mid-table P15 overall and P4 finish in class.

The final race of the Sprint Cup will be from Barcelona in mid-October.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

Confirming an entry list of fifty-five cars spread across its four available classes, both new AMR Partner teams will be fielding entries across the Pro, Bronze and Silver graded class with driver line ups more than capable of bring home the silverware.

The Belgium based Comtoyou squad still have their #11 Bronze graded squad to confirm ahead of next weekend’s opener, but they have already confirmed a full Pro line up of Nicki Thiim, Mattia Drudi and Marco Sorensen aboard their #7 car, together with Nicolas Baert, Sebastian øGaard and Finlay Hutchinson in their #12 Silver entry and Sam Dejonghe, Matisse Lismont and Charles Clark in their #21 silver entry.

Not to be outdone (but one entry less) comes the German based Walkenhorst Motorsport entry who will field drivers David Pittard, Henrique Chaves and Ross Gunn as their full Pro line up alongside Romain Leroux, Lorcan Hanafin and Maxime Robin in their #35 silver line up and Tim Creswick, Max Jensen and Ben Green aboard the sole bronze class line up.

We have now seen most of the above drivers testing their new 2024 chariots at some point already this pre-season, but what we haven’t seen yet are their new ‘in the flesh’ livery designs so next weekend’s build up will stay have a large element of new within it.

Friday will start will the bronze driver test, before Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying on Saturday, individual Qualifying on Sunday morning before the race start at 15:00hrs local.

Photo credits – teams / social media