It wasn’t all plain sailing for the two Aston Martin Racing powered entries within this weekend’s fourth round of the GT4 Winter Series although sailing was a more appropriate term for the track condition the gid faced for the opening round on Saturday at Motorland Aragon.
Again, we welcomed back the Araujo Competicao AMR Vantage GT4 but with just Frederico Peters running within the #007 Evo whilst within the #700 Mucke Motorsport, we would be seeing both Thilo Goos but also that of former AMR factory driver (and team owner) Stefan Mucke alongside.
With Thursday testing and Friday practice sessions blighted with passing rain showers, Saturdays opening thirty-minute sprint race started behind the Safety Car before finally being released a few laps in. Things were initially going well as the #007 Araujo car picked off the places to move into P3 overall just as the #700 car of Goos went into a gravel trap.
Firmly stuck, that would bring back the Safety Car again which effectively ended the race for all as the clean-up operation used all of the then eleven minutes remaining. None the less, Peters was still able to claim a P3 overall and P2 in class finish for his efforts.
Races two and three on Sunday were at least ran in dry conditions as Peters was again out within the #007 car whilst Mucke was still keeping something of a low profile from the cameras in his customers #700 car. Not too sure of when the German last raced, his best efforts within the older specification Vantage but all he could muster was a P10 position overall (being the sole Club class entered car this weekend) whilst Peters did manage to go one better in class with a P6 overall/P2 finish in race 2.
The racing luck did, however, run out for Peters at the start of the hour-long race three when contact with the championship leading BMW alongside saw the white Aston Martin plough through the gravel trap of turn 2 and into immediate retirement with front corner damage. For the Mucke #700 crew though, they were able to pull off their bets result of the weekend with a P8 overall finish.
The series now moves onto Barcelona next weekend for the final round of the winter season.
Photo credits – Series