Blackthorn AMR and the Good Speed Racing Team’s International GT Open debut this season proved somewhat success as both Aston Martin Racing powered crews earned themselves a podium finish in today’s second leg of the opening event from Portimao.
The #97 Blackthorn entry will be running Charles Bateman as a full season driver within the Pro-Am class but in the absence of Jonny Adam this weekend with his FIA World Endurance Championship commitments over in Italy, his place was taken by the equally talented AMR factory rostered driver and former series champion, Henrique Chaves.
The Polish based Good Speed Racing AMR team, meanwhile, were supposed to have been running a two-driver line up within their Am class entry with Piotr Wira sharing the #14 car with countryman Tomas Magdziarz although the timing and scoring pages for the weekend only show Wira a being behind the wheel.
Running their usual race format of qualifying before their seventy-minute feature race on Saturday before another qualifying ahead of a sixty-minute race on Sunday, both crews ended the opening race day of the year with a P4 in class finish between them. The #14 car of Wira then improved by one on Sunday to claim their first P3 podium finish of the year in Am whilst the #97 Blackthorn crew stood upon the top step of the Pro-Am podium after their P3 overall finish on Sunday.
Always good to open the season’s account on something of a high as the teams and series now looks ahead to round two from Spa Francorchamps in a month’s time.
Photo credits – Fotospeedy