Having qualified in second, Hantke aimed for the wider line going into La Source compared to that of the pole setting Ferrari but contact from behind with the pole car spun them around and (unfortunately) directly into the path of the #35 car.

Avoiding the trouble, however, was the #34 Walkenhorst car of Mike David Ortmann and Denis Bulatov who assumed the race lead going down the hill into Eau Rouge for the first time and whilst Hantke did get going again, an apparent tyre/wheel/hub failure eventually sent their effort spinning off into the tyre wall for an immediate DNF and Safety Car.

The #34 car was then under investigation for a false start earlier (and awaited his fate with the penalty box) whilst the ten-minute clean-up process was underway whilst the two Prosport Racing AMR Vantage GT3 entries of Jamie Day and Hugo Sasse consolidated an improved starting position of P12 and P13 respectively.

Sure enough, that penalty was confirmed for Ortmann breaking ranks before the start line which would drop his car down to eighth was served just ahead of the opening on the compulsory ten-minute pit stop window.

Driver changes underway and Raphael Rennhofer quickly came to the attention of Race Control as his #27 swap from Sasse was deemed to be under the minimum delta time earning himself a visit to the penalty box which would eventually place them well behind their sister #37 Prosport Racing car of Hendrik Still.

A near miss for two cars tangling at the bottom of Eau Rouge saw them avoid both the barriers and other cars to help raise the #34 car up another couple of position going into the final ten minutes and after some furious fighting from Bulatov, they were soon up to P6 overall – P5 in class.

Despite taking a double podium finish after the earlier endurance race on Saturday, the full season Walkenhorst crews had to make do with a P6 finish on track – elevated to P5 once the race winning #1 Mercedes crew had been demoted down to sixth in lieu of a drive through penalty.

The two Prosport Racing entries would end up being consistent in form if nothing else as the near all GT3 rookie crews took a P11 finish for Day and Still whilst Rennhofer and Sasse would lament their earlier pit stop error to add a P13 finish to their P9 endurance round finish earlier. Either way, it was all great experience for them and the team as they made their way back into the series for the first time since 2019.

The series now moves onto its next round from the Red Bull Ring in late September.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Having suffered a delayed start to race one thanks to a clean-up operation from an earlier race, the #34 Walkenhorst car of Denis Bulatov and Mike David Ortmann would heading the AMR quartet with the #27 Prosport Racing AMR of Raphael Rennhofer/Hugo Sasse, the #35 Walkenhorst car of Chandler Hull/Nico Hantke and the #37 Prosport Racing car of Hendrik Still/ Jamie Day starting line astern from P13/P14 and P15 of the eighteen strong grid.

Almost a clean opening lap for the race but for a small mistake from Bulatov that would see car run wide and through the gravel before recovering on track albeit three places lower down the order whilst the other three Aston’s looked keen to compare the two differing performance iterations of the two versions of the Vantage GT3 on offer this weekend.

An early Safety Car to recover a stranded car on track broke the rhythm just fifteen minutes in and indeed delayed the opening of the first pit stop window within which the teams could choose either the shorter or the longer mandatory time this time around. Going back to green with just under an hour remaining, the #37 Prosport car of Still was the first AMR to bail for pit lane whilst the #34 car would become the last of the four to pit.

First stops all over and Sasse would find himself the highest AMR up the order having chosen the shorter mandatory stop time whilst the #34 selected the longer time as Sasse moved up to P5 (at best) whilst his former ADAC GT4 Germany teammate (Ortmann) dropped to P11 on track at this stage of the race but by the end of these guys stints, the positions on track had all be reversed.

The other two Astons was also busy squabbling it out on track as Day also drove his first GT3 racing laps against a more GT3 experienced driver (Hantke) in the #35 Walkenhorst car.

Due to the earlier delay of the first ten-minute pit stop window, the second was also delayed to take place just twenty minutes before the end with the original race starting drivers due to get back in having completed the required stop time not undertaken in their first.

Quickly, Race Control investigated the #34 car of infringing this time requirement and awarded Bulatov (now back in the car) a visit to the penalty box section of the track for their efforts. Their #35 stablemates Pro-Am entry had also moved up the order as Hull took back control of the car from P7 overall (P3 in class) for what appeared to be a possible double podium for the team again.

Whilst the #34 would hold on to fend off all the attention of the chasing #4 Porsche, a problem for that car on the final lap saw the Porsche stop and the #35 car move up to fifth overall and take another class win to join the #34 crew upon the podium after they finished P3 overall. The #27 Prosport car would finish P12 overall with the #37 P14 overall – both stellar performances from two mainly GT3 inexperienced crews running togther for the first time.

The crews and grid go again tomorrow with Q2 ahead of a shorter forty minute – pit stop punctuated spring race.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Within what is still a lowly eighteen strong entry list, the #34 Walkenhorst entry of Mike David Ortmann and Denis Bulatov will again be joined by their #35 stablemate entry of Nico Hantke and Chandler Hull whilst GT3 novices Jamie Day and Hendrik Still will drive the #37 Prosport entry alongside the slightly more GT3 experienced duo of Hugo Sasse and Raphael Rennhofer aboard the #27 Prosport entry.

First time back in Belgium after a nine-year sabbatical, this event again runs the 80-minute endurance race on Saturday (including its two mandatory stops) before a concluding 40-minute sprint race on Sunday like they did last time out at the Nurburgring in mid- July.

Results within the series have not been that great for the two full season Walkenhorst entries with the leading Aston driver (Ortmann/Bulatov) way down in seventh place within the overall table. Hull and Hantke are further back still but importantly for them, they enjoyed a double class podium weekend with two P2 Pro-Am class finishes at the Nurburgring.

For the Prosport Racing team, this weekend will all be about experience as all four of their drivers have little to no GT3 racing experience, certainly not within this series nor at this circuit so any results from them would be outstanding.

We were (for a time) if two more GT4 racers would be stepping up to the series within a Walkenhorst supported car as two tested with the team earlier this week before not exactly declaring what will become of that test other than a ‘wait and see!’

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

In the absence of any official confirmation by either the team or the series, the German based GT-Place.com website (who are extremely close to the team based near to the Nurburgring) have confirmed the team are preparing for the future with a two-car AMR Vantage GT3 entry into this weekend’s visit to Spa for most of their existing GT4 European Series driver line up.

Hugo Sasse and Raphael Rennhofer are due to pair up in one car whilst Hendrik Still will be joined the ever-busy Jamie Day.

These cars will presumably join those from the Walkenhorst Motorsport AMR stable as full season entries.

Interesting times!!

Photo credits – Team / series / social media

Having already had up to seven brand new AMR Vantage GT3’s taking part within the Endurance part of the GT World Challenge Europe Series next weekend, another fifty strong GT4 field from over ten manufactures will again do battle together over the course of their two one-hour races per event for their six round 2024 campaign.

Whilst some of the seven Aston Martin powered entries have already been confirmed to us over the winter months, two further entries still require the finer detail of a second driver to be confirmed as both Mateo Villagomez (aboard his #82 Racing Spirit of Leman) and Baudouin Detout (aboard his #39 GPA Racing) cars still have that ominous TBA against their entries.

When has been revealed is the number of new 2024 evolutionary models of the Vantage GT4 that are due to take part within the series from the off with four of the seven AMR’s being listed as ‘Evo’s’.

Ruben Del Sarte and Josh Miller head the AMR runners in today’s provisional entry list with their 2019 based #5 Mirage Racing silver entry but their sister #7 Pro-Am entry of Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub will be (apparently) running in the new 2024 version.

Both Racing Spirit of Leman entries – the #82 car of Mateo Villagomez (plus one) and the #74 silver entry for Alexandre Machado and Kevin Kullmann are also listed as being ‘evo’ versions. We know that the team did have one such car for their sponsor reveal evening last week and we see that another may have been dispatched to them only last night in time for their other commitments within the parallel FFSA GT4 Series this weekend.

Former FFSA GT4 Am Champions Florent Grizaud and Kevin Jimenez are both back with GPA Racing with their 2019 machine, again in the Am class aboard their #72 entry which they hope to swap out to a 2024 40A version later in the season. They also have Baudouin Detout waiting in the wings for a co-driver within his #39 GPA Racing entry – something which the entry lists also refers to as an Evo! We know that he and the team have been out testing over the previous weeks with various hopefuls alongside but nothing yet has been confirmed.

That leaves the two entries from the German based Prosport Racing team to finalise the AMR seven as Hugo Sasse pairs up this year with Raphael Rennhofer and Henrik Still competes alongside Fabio Rauer in their #99 and #100 silver entries respectively.

Photo credits – teams / social media / Daniel Buergen

Rennhofer we may remember, debuted with the team last year in the latter stages of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series whilst Still comes across to the Aston Martin GT4 platform with full experience of GT4 racing within a Porsche. Rauer meanwhile comes straight to GT4 from Karting.

They join the likes of Mirage Racing, GPA Racing and Racing Spirit of Leman who have already confirmed similar entries into the series that starts at Paul Ricard in early April.

Photo credits – Team / Series