The #24 JSB Competition AMR was one such car not in attendance with their car now listed for sale upon Racecarsdirect.com, but their slot was taken by a third GPA Racing crew as their FFSA GT4 Series racer Baudouin Detout partnered up with the teams driver coach (namely one Valentin Hasse-Clot) so a sampling experience of the European series ahead of a potential step-up next season.

The sister #48 GPA Racing car of Bailey Voisin also saw yet another driver change as former AGS Events Racing Louis Meric stepped aboard with the young Englishman for his fourth partner change this season for the final event.

Weather was this king kind to the series as all track time was spent under glorious sunshine although that didn’t always transfer into ultimate pace as the AMR Vantage GT4 again struggled for pace amongst its peers.

At this stage of the season, it was just the #72 GPA Racing car of Kevin Jimenez/Florent Grizaud and the #18 Team Racing Spirit car of Lorenz Stegmann and Marcus Lungstrass who had any possibility of class championship success (in Am and Pro-Am respectively) but both needed a high podium finish and poor results from those above in order to have any degree of success anyway.

Inevitably, that success did not come after Saturdays opener as the #72 eventually finished fifth in class and the #18 way down in P18. That and the fact that the #5 Mirage Racing AMR of Ruben Del Sarte and Jamie Day lost out on a P2 track position after their compulsory stop due to technical issues kind of summarised the AMR powered crews season.

Going into Sunday saw just the silver class still up for grabs but that didn’t deter any of the Aston Martin crews, especially those up ahead as they mixed it up with those carrying Champiosnhip hopes. An early safety car did help to calm matters but quickly, the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR of Mateo Villagomez and Victor Weyrich were again circulating at the top in P4 whilst the #5 Mirage car had been knocked down to P12.

After the stops, the #74 was still P3 but had picked up what became a post-race time penalty of eleven seconds for too short a pits stop whilst the #5 car had made up ground and was now close behind the #74 in fourth.

Bad to worse for the #72 GPA car as Jimenez was spun around from their then P3 podium slot in Am whilst the #18 Team Racing Spirit and #39 GPA Racing crews were on course for a last lap dice in Pro-Am.

Eventually crossing the line in third, the #74 crew lost their podium position to that time penalty that allowed the #5 Mirage Racing crew to stand upon the podium for the first time together and whilst the #39 and #18 did trade places – they both finished just off the podium for their efforts in P4 and P5 in class.

Whilst the racing itself was its usually fast and furious stuff, the performances of this year’s Aston Martin Racing stock has been hampered with incident and accident along the way, not to mention the turn down of the car’s performances under the SRO’s BoP criteria.

With the regular season now over, there lies just the six hour of Vallelunga in Italy at the end of October for any SRO sanctioned series GT4 contender who fancies it.

UPDATE

A post race 30 second penalty for the #83 car lifts the #39 GPA Racing car of Hasse-Clot and Detout up to P3 IN Pro-Am to make for a second podium finish to the years final race.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

The #5 car of Jamie Day and Ruben Del Sarte are again the sole Mirage Racing representative whilst both the Racing One and Racing Spirit of Leman teams again provide two crews each with Markus Lungstrass/Lorenz Stegman aboard the #18, Andreas and Jessica Backman aboard the #19 with Victor Weyrich/Mateo Villagomez aboard the #74 RSLM car and Akhil Rabindra/Rodrique Gillion aboard the #26 car.

The French based GPA Racing team buck the trend in fielding an additional car to their season long pairing of the #72 Am class car of Kevin Jimenez/Florent Grizaud and #48 car of Bailey Voisin and Emil Heyerdahl as FFSA GT4 racer Baudouin Detout pairs up with team driver coach Valentin Hasse-Clot to help him sample the European series for the first time.

Paid testing was undertaken earlier today ahead of this final double header which sees just the #18 Team Racing Spirit car of Stegman and Lungstrass in Pro-Am title contention (thanks to their recent string of results since Spa) and the #72 GPA Racing Am car of Jimenez/Grizaud in similar position within their Am Class.

As usual, Saturday will see both race Qualifying sessions held in advance of race one itself later in the day before race two taking place on Sunday morning.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

What is sadly obvious however from looking at the provisional entry list published by the series earlier this week, it the distinct decline again in Aston Martin Racing powered crews to a point where we expect to see just eight AMR Vantage GT4 crews this weekend compared to the fourteen that attended the opening round of the season at Monza in late April.

Omissions in the entry list since the Misano round see the #7 Mirage Racing entry of Romain Carton and Louis Meric not returning together with the final AGS Events Racing car of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy. We had already seen that team hit an AMR powered decrease in numbers over the rounds this season with the #98 car missing Misano as well, that together with the news of team securing new Ligier JS2 machinery having previously tried to sell all of their AMR stock leads you to your own conclusions!

That being said, eight cars is still very much a healthy entry with the remaining #5 Mirage Racing entry of Jamie Day/Ruben Del Sarte joining the two from the Racing One/Team Spirt Racing stable of #19 Andreas and Jessica Bachman and #18 Lorenz Stegmann/Markus Lungstrass respectively, with the two from each of the GPA Racing and Racing Spirit of Leman stables for Bailey Voisin/Emil Heyerdahl and Kevin Jimenez/Florent Grizaud and Akhil Rabindra/Rodrigue Gillion and Victor Weyrich/Matteo Villagomez. The #24 JSB competition crew of Julien and Florian Briche complete the AMR line up.

Whilst the heat of Misano was difficult to contend with for all involved, it did not come without reward for some of the AMR crews with both the Pro-Am classed #18 Team Racing Spirit crew claiming third in class with the #72 Am classed GPA Racing crew also claiming P2 after Saturdays opener. Sundays race wasn’t quite as fruitful however…….!!!

Championship wise, there isn’t too much to cheer for going into both this and the final round of the year at Barcelona at the end of September as the Vantage GT4 hasn’t exactly been too well blessed this season when it comes to BoP with the highest placed AMR crews per class sitting at least seventy points in arrears to their class rivals with just 100 points remaining on offer.

Tomorrow will see the first track sessions of the GT4 European weekend with both Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying ahead of Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday with the reverse driver second le on Sunday.

It should be fast – it will probably be eventful so who know!!!!!

Photo credits – Team / Series

With one AGS Events Racing AMR not making the journey, that left ten Vantage GT4 crews across the series three class to carry on from where they left off at Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago.

There, good performances in Qualifying did lead to podium success for those runners but this time around that was not the case as the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman crew of Victor Weyrich and a substituting Matteo Villagomez for Konstantin Lachenauer set the early Aston Martin pace in Qualifying with two P2 in class starting positions.

That being said, the class podiums that did come about at the end of race 1’s Safety Car littered opener came from both the #18 Team Spirit Racing car of Lorenz Stegmann and Markus Lungstrass in Pro-Am and the #72 GPA Racing AMR of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud in Am – both of whom claimed class podiums last time out at Spa.

With the pace of the Aston Martin clearly now an issue compared to other OEM machinery on track, that was as good as it would get going into Sundays second race as (for the first time this season) no AMR powered crew was represented in any of the three classes together with the highest placed Vantage back in P7 for the #18 crew.

The series now hits its summer break before reconvening at Hockenheim in just over six weeks’ time.

Photo credits - Series

There were unfortunately casualties within the group leading up to this stage of the weekend as the additional entry from the Racing One team on behalf of American GMG Racing team and their drivers Andy Lee and Todd Pariott had suffered an unseen incident on track during Free Practice 2 that consigned that #9 entry to the back of the team awning with irreparable damage.

That left the first Qualifying session, and it would be the #24 JSB Competition AMR Vantage GT4 of Julian Briche who would steal the honours with an overall front row start in P2 and on pole position for their silver class entry. The #7 Mirage AMR of Louis Meric/Romain Carton was not far behind in P5 overall with the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman entry of Victor Weyrich and Konstantin Lachenaur beside them in P6.

Holding the lead into turn one at the start, the #24 car would just hold onto the lead on the opening laps as the huge chasing bunch squabbled and slow themselves down behind and before two cars had contact at the bus stop leaving one stranded on car and another leaving fluid across the racing surface.

Fifteen minutes were lost behind the Safety Car during that clean-up process and at the restart, the race entered only its second racing lap. With such an expansive field, battles between cars in differing classes were everywhere as the #19 Racing One AMR of Andreas Bachman was paying very close attention to the rear of Jamie Day’s #5 Mirage.

By the time the pit window opened, the #24 JSB Aston had opened up a 1.2 second lead although preferred not to pit until the very end of the process. Those who pitted early hoped to make the jump off track as the masses delayed themselves battling for position both on track and through the pit lane.

With all cars having pitted, the #48 GPA Racing car of Bailey Voisin and a deputing Tom Verdier suffered rearward contact with a McLaren that would send the Frenchman hard into the tyre wall which (together with another incident elsewhere on track) would eventually bring out the Safety Car again.

Losing his then six second lead, Florian Briche now had the remaining grid directly behind all trying to pressurise him into a mistake at the restart. With just eight minutes remaining the race went back to green and Briche was very quickly being swamped for position but battle hard he did to keep himself within the top three overall ass the race entered its final lap.

With the #24 car now in P3, a charging Ruben Del Sarte had lifted the #5 Mirage Aston up to P6 whilst a once charging Lachenaur had sadly gone the wrong way in his #74 car to find himself battling hard in P15.

Eventually crossing the line in P4 (#24) and P5 (#5), post-race time penalties would quickly take effect on the finishing order as the #24 was given a ten second penalty for track limits that would cast them down to P11 overall (P4 in class) whilst the #5 Mirage crew would eventually step up on to the silver Class podium in third as a result. The #72 GPA Racing Am crew of Florent Grizaud and Kevin Jimenez would complement that achievement with another P3 finish in class for their efforts.

Race 2 takes place later this morning.

Photo credits - Series / social media

Working through the provisional entry list of a series record breaking six two entries, Spa will see the following full season entries.

#5 Mirage Racing – Ruben Del Sarte / Jamie Day

#7 Mirage Racing – Roman Carton / Louis Meric

#18 Team Racing Spirit – Lorenz Stegman / Markus Lungstrass

#19 Racing One – Andreas Bachman / Jessica Bachman

#25 JSB Competition – Florien Briche / Julien Briche

#26 Racing Spirit of Leman – Akhil Rabindra / Rodrique Gillion

#48 GPA Racing – Bailey Voisin / TBC

#72 GPA Racing – Kevin Jimenez / Florent Grizaud

#74 Racing Spirit of Leman – Victor Weyrich / Konstantin Lachenauer

#89 AGS Events Racing – Mike Parisy / Nicolas Gomar

#98 AGS Events Racing – Timothe Buret / Vincent Bouteiller

On top of these, we will also see the return of the #27 Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin, now fully repaired after its Monza accident with Alex Denning. The UK team has faced other strife as well as the car in the intervening period as having missed Paul Ricard, Matt Topham has realigned himself back to the British GT Championship – this time within a McLaren GT3. 

Since then, former GT4 European Series AMR racer Gus Bowers has confirmed his seat within the team (at least for Spa at least) but also that Denning has appeared to also fall be the wayside with Asian based racer Liu Lic Ka taking his seat too but still within the Pro-Am class.

The final AMR entry is another Racing One team prepared (and can only be assumed as a guesting one) and they provide a car for American drivers Andy Lee and Todd Parriott within their #9 car. Lee is obviously well known to most as he partners Elias Sabo within the #8 Flying Lizard AMR that they run within the parallel GT4 America Series.

Other issues sees Ruben Del Sarte take the place of Rory Van der Steur within the #5 Mirage car as well as Bailey Voisin was co-driverless again after his original GPA Racing driver parted company with the team but will this time be joined by FFSA GT4 racer Tom Verdier.

Private testing gets underway at the circuit tomorrow before the officially timed sessions of Free Practice on Thursday. As usual, the series will run a two one-hour race programme with race one on Friday and Race 2 on Saturday.

Also time out at Paul Ricard saw podium success from both the #72 GPA Racing crew as well as the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman crew so success after the challenges of Spa Francorchamps will be high upon the agenda of most this weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

That pace for the #74 crew turned into Pole Position for the #74 car going into Saturday evenings first hour long race but for many within the AMR camp, this was still something new for many as Josh Miller joined the #48 GPA Racing car with Bailey Voisin as a one off (at present) and Andreas and Jessica Bachmann partnered up with the Racing One team for the first time for their new full season series entry in their #19 car.

Tough things happened to some right from the off with race 1 as the #7 Mirage car of Carton ground to a halt on the opening lap before the #19 car of Jessica Bachmann got caught up in some unseen car or car action that would see her pit and retire from the race with damage after two collided Audi’s had brought out the Safety Car on the first lap too. The #19 car would not be seen again on track as a result of irreparable (at the circuit) damage.

Losing a quarter of the race to that clean up, there was impatience from the #74 car to recover the race lead having lost it on the opening lap with Jamie Day and Voisin equally prepared to get physical in the quest for track position ahead of the mandatory pit window. Sadly, heavy contact between the #48 GPA car and the #5 Mirage car saw the former retire with steering damage and the other faulter lose time with its own race affecting damage.

Having stayed out one lap longer than the leading Toyota, the #74 Racing Spirit of Leman car would recover its position at the front to bring home the third different race winner of the season so far (and their first race finish for the #74 crew) with further class accolades going to the #72 GPA Racing Am class drivers of Kevin Jimenez and Florent Grizaud who finished third in class.

Sunday mornings second race’ starting order had also already been determined the day before with the #74 car just missing out on pole again with a P2 starting position but with also decent performances from the #24 JSB Competition Aston Martin to start P1 in Pro-Am and again from the #72 GPA crew to start second in Am.

With a weather front looming in the distance, it was a simple case of racing to the conditions that they were in, and the dry and warm start saw nothing new in that. Again, the powerful Toyota again took charge at the front as three Aston Martins set about the chase from behind with the #74, #24 and the #5 Mirage of Ruben Del Sarte.

This race would see Miller actually start his first GT4 European Series and likewise with the #89 AGS Events Racing crew of Nicolas Gomar and Mike Parisy who also had to sit out after technical issues in Qualifying.

For as long as up to the closing of the pit window, the race ebbed and flowed like any comparable GT4 series would with Rodrique Gillion again showing good pace in his #26 Racing Spirit of Leman car that he shares with Akhil Rabindra. 

Darkening conditions soon took over the circuit as at first, light rain began falling across parts of the circuit before that became slightly heavier. That rain prompted many to pit for wets but the time taken to change was a heavy price to pay with track position so many opted not to.

That decision cost both the Mirage cars their chance at attacking for a podium position whilst the #74 car suffered technical problems on Weyrich’s outlap which kissed goodbye to their efforts. Soon the rain was torrential and whilst those who didn’t swap to wets were teetering around the circuit, the gap to those who did would turn out to be too great to recover from meaning that the silver class Aston Martin’s would fall short by the end.

Whilst they suffered, the #72 GPA Racing crew again stood upon the Am Class podium – second this time but so did the #89 AGS Events crew of Gomar and Parisy who scored their first P2 result of the season.

Next stop Spa at the end of June.

Photo credits – Series