Gaydon. 13 September 2011. In a successful weekend of Aston Martins racing around the globe, DBR9s competed in Beijing, China; LMP1 prototypes and Vantage GT2s at Silverstone, UK, while in Dijon, France, V8 Vantage GT4s also took to the circuit.
It was in China, where Aston Martin scored its biggest success with a dominant 1-2 win in the penultimate round of the FIA GT World Championship. Aston Martin customer teams reigned victorious throughout the weekend with a 1-2-3 finish in the points-eligible qualifying session, and Young Driver AMR remained ahead throughout the rain soaked race to take the magnificent 1-2 win.
The result means that the squad leads the teams’ championship standings with one round remaining in Argentina on November 5/6. In addition, drivers Mücke and Turner are just 11 points behind the leaders in the drivers’ championship race. The latest result is the third championship-race win for the Aston Martin DBR9 in the 2011 GT1 World series.
In the fifth round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup at Silverstone – The Autosport 6 Hours, Aston Martin’s factory team ran a close-to-drama free race with the V12-powered DBR1-2 prototype running faultlessly throughout. Driven by factory drivers Harold Primat (CH), Christian Klien (A) and Adrian Fernandez (MEX); only contact from a GT car during Primat’s stint caused a puncture which required an unscheduled pit stop. Christian Klien crossed the line in ninth position.
Official Partner teams, Jota Racing and Gulf AMR Middle East also ran faultlessly in their V8 Vantage GT2s in the six hour special. In the GTE-Pro battle, the Jota Sport V8 Vantage of British trio Chris Buncombe, Simon Dolan and Sam Hancock took 11th place in class in a trouble-free race.
It was a similar story in the GTE-Am class for the Gulf AMR Middle East V8 Vantage of Fabien Giroix (F), Roald Goethe (D) and Michael Wainwright (GB) which, apart from Goethe being briefly stuck on a kerb after a spin early in the race, completed the six-hour marathon in eighth place with no further dramas.
Meanwhile in France, the final round of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge took place at Dijon. The one make-race series featuring the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 concluded on the French circuit after having visited Silverstone (UK), Snetterton, (UK), Spa (Belgium), Donington (UK), Oulton Park (UK), and Brands Hatch (UK).The 80 minute race started with a dry track and as the 28 car field, made up of a mixture of prototype and GT cars, from the AvD series as well as the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge, approached the line it was Karsten Le Blanc in the Nicholas Mee Racing entry who led from the outset and crossed the line to take the top step of the podium. The Vantage Racing entry of Tom Black and Alan Bonner finished second with the Aston Martin Lagonda entry driven by Nürburgring Test Centre Director, Wolfgang Schuhbauer and guest journalist, Nicolas Gourdol taking third.