Whilst there have been many other Aston Martin Racing powered team podium finishes this weekend, the greatest achievement of the year so far has to go to the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry in this weekend’s ADAC Ravenol N24 around the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife.
Giving early indications as to their speed and intentions, the #34 car of Nicki Thiim, Mattia Drudi and Christian Krognes not only took the race to the more dominant German brands but beat many of them in the process to eventually finish third overall at the end of the twenty-four earlier this afternoon. This result is the best overall race result on record for any AMR podium tea has achieved and has been something that has (and continues) to illude the British marque.
Starting from eleventh on the grid after Fridays top qualifying session, the #34 was quickly making its mark at the sharp end of the one hundred and sixty-one car entry – leading the race by right as the afternoon turned dark and as Drudi survived two laps around the sprawling circuit on slicks whilst others were coming off worse for the same.
With their success, there was also heartache to be felt within the AMR camp featuring four AMR Vantage GT3 powered crews and one Vantage GT4 powered crew as it was just the #34 crew who finished the race. The #35 Walkenhorst car failed to make it five times around the track before its stationary position on track was narrowly avoided by the chasing pack whilst the #39 Walkenhorst car didn’t go much further after being rear ended during the night.
The #37 Prosport Racing AMR did make it through the night only for a tyre failure along the Dottinger Hohe to spear the older Vantage headlong into the barrier and into immediate retirement. We unfortunately didn’t see much of the #169 Dorr Motorsport Vantage GT4, but they did also feature high within their SP10 class overnight before also failing somewhere soon after.
It’s been another great event – a great tribute to the sadness of the preceding Qualification race weekend but well done to all concerned.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / AMR / social media