Gaydon, Warwickshire August 10th, 2011: On 6th August Aston Martin entered a factory prepared GT4 car into the 7th round of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge of Great Britain – a one make race series for the Vantage GT4. Driven by Aston Martin’s Director of Design Marek Reichman and Italian journalist Lorenzo Facchinetti car number 77, otherwise known as ‘Alec’, completed a steady stint in practise and qualified 4th.
Marek took the helm at the rolling start holding 4th place under heavy pressure from the rest of the field. Contact on the right rear quarter caused him to lose traction, and spin. Quickly regaining control Marek pitted to allow Lorenzo to take the wheel who then fought on to climb up the rankings to 5th before a red flag halted the race after another car entered the gravel trap and needed to be recovered.
After a brief delay the race was restarted , Alec started in 2nd but some excellent driving from Stuart Hall of the Stratton Motors Company pushed Lorenzo into 3rd with Olivier Bouche, also of the Stratton Motor Company, was valiant in his attempts to claim 3rd but some impressive defensive driving from Lorenzo made this impossible.
The final standings as follows: 1st place: Vantage Racing, 2nd place: Stratton Motor Company, 3rd place: Aston Martin Lagonda, 4th place: Stratton Motor Company, 5th place: Alan Hudd Racing, 6th place: Stratton Motor Company, 7th place: Ultimate Speed, 8th place: Mardigras Motorsport, 9th place: Nick Mee Racing.
The next round of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge of Great Britain will be taking place at Brands Hatch on the 27th of August.
About the car:
Alec is Aston Martin’s factory-run press car, which is competing in the 2011 Aston Martin GT4 Challenge one make series.
Upgraded from the original 4.3 litre N24 to the newer, Vantage S inspired 4.7 litre GT4 specification, the car is nicknamed ‘Alec’ owing to its 006 chassis number.
Guest drivers including journalists Owen Mildenhall, Jethro Bovingdon and Anja Wassertheurer have all scored podium finishes including two 3rd place finishes, at Silverstone and Oulton Park, and 2nd place at Spa Francorchamps.
So far six journalists have driven ‘Alec’ in the series and most recently Lorenzo Facchinetti, writing for Italian magazine Auto, achieved 3rd place in his debut.
Alec’s livery has been updated following its original ‘X-ray’ motif to the ‘Mask’, which was chosen by the readers of Auto Express.